Frontmezzjunkies reports: Shaw Festival launches its 64th season with mystery, music, and comic mayhem
By Ross
Some theatre trips begin long before the lights go down. Mine usually begin with a season announcement, a calendar, a press ticket request, and the dangerous realization that there simply aren’t enough weekends in the summer theatre season to see everything I want to see. The Shaw Festival has always been one of those places that inspires that panic. Every visit to Niagara-on-the-Lake, via the very efficient Shaw Bus, feels like a stepping stone into a quaint community built around storytelling. As the Shaw Festival dives into its 64th season, I find myself feeling particularly grateful for the opportunity to experience three recently opened productions that could not be more different from one another.
My first Shaw Festival review lineup offers suspense, spectacle, and outright silliness through Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth, the beloved musical Funny Girl, and the Canadian premiere of Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense. Together, they offer three very different ways into the festival season ahead.
The production I may be most curious about is Sleuth, opening at the newly reconfigured Court House Theatre. Anthony Shaffer’s celebrated thriller remains one of theatre’s great games of psychological manipulation, pitting mystery writer Andrew Wyke against his rival Milo Tindle in an increasingly dangerous battle of wit, ego, and control. Directed by Peter Fernandes and featuring Patrick Galligan alongside Sepehr Reybod, the production promises an intimate encounter with a play that thrives on tension, surprise, and the pleasure of watching two sharp minds collide. The Court House Theatre‘s small space is perfect for creating a sense of closeness between performers and audience, which feels especially well-suited to a thriller built on secrets and shifting power.
At the Festival Theatre, Funny Girl brings a very different kind of theatrical electricity. Directed by Eda Holmes, with music direction by Paul Sportelli and choreography by Parker Esse, the production stars Sara Farb as the legendary Fanny Brice. For generations, audiences have fallen in love with songs such as “People,” “I’m the Greatest Star,” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” but what has always drawn me most to Funny Girl is the humanity beneath the show-business glamour. Fanny Brice’s story is not simply about stardom. It is about determination, vulnerability, and the complicated relationship between personal happiness and professional success. With Farb leading the production, I am eager to see how Shaw approaches a character whose confidence and uncertainty often occupy the same breath.
Then there is Jeeves & Wooster in Perfect Nonsense, which arrives at the Court House Theatre carrying the promise of pure comic delight. Adapted by Robert and David Goodale from P.G. Wodehouse’s “The Code of the Woosters“, the Olivier Award-winning play makes its Canadian premiere under the direction of Brendan McMurtry-Howlett. Featuring Jeff Irving, Damien Atkins, and Travis Seetoo, the production centres on one of literature’s most beloved comic partnerships: the endlessly bewildered Bertie Wooster and his unflappably brilliant valet Jeeves. The play has earned a reputation for theatrical inventiveness and gleeful absurdity, and it feels like exactly the sort of production that can transform an audience into a room full of delighted co-conspirators.
These three productions also mark the official opening of the Shaw Festival‘s 64th season and my first opportunity to see a Shaw production in the Court House Theatre. For years, my Shaw visits were anchored by the beloved Royal George Theatre just across the street, a venue I always adored. With the Royal George now a cherished memory, and a new theatre waiting to rise in its place, I find myself excited to experience the Court House while looking forward to the day the new theatre opens its doors.
For me, though, this reentry is only the beginning. While these three productions have already raised the curtain on the season, July will bring three more official openings with The Wind in the Willows, Heartbreak House, and One for the Pot. Those are productions I will have the opportunity to experience in the months ahead, continuing a theatrical journey that is only just getting underway. As I make my way between theatres this season, I find myself looking forward not only to the performances themselves, but to the discoveries that come with them. The best festival seasons unfold one story at a time, and this one is only just beginning. Watch out for the reviews that are on their way.