At the 2023 Toronto Fringe Festival, when I reviewed the world premiere of librettist-lyricist Jim Betts and composer Marek Norman’s one-act musical Dancer, the story of Canadian horse racing legend Northern Dancer, I wrote, “It’s likely that we haven’t seen the last of this thoroughbred of a show.” Well, my bet paid off. In development since 2010, the winner of the Fringe’s 2023 Adams Prize for Musical Theatre is currently back on the track for another lap.
Presented by Oh What A Ride! Productions Inc. in association with Crow’s Theatre and the Toronto Stage Company at Harbourfront’s 433-seat Terminal Theatre, Dancer is relatively enormous for a new Canadian musical, featuring a cast of 25, which seemed positively decadent at the Fringe. Half of that cast is a dance company that silently portrays racehorses purely through the suggestion of movement, rather than costuming, masks, or makeup.
Despite its size, the show maintains an aura of charming scrappiness mirroring the story of its main figure, a small, temperamental yearling that with pure grit and stubbornness went on to win the 1964 Kentucky Derby. Somewhat hampered by the facts of its own story, Dancer is worth attending for its inventive balletic choreography and plucky spirit.
Appropriately, a race announcer’s narration frames the story: folksy Daryl (Sam Rosenthal) bridges now and Northern Dancer’s heyday, even transcending reality to give sage advice in another character’s mind. We quickly learn that brewery magnate E.P. Taylor (Tyler Murree) and his empathetic wife Winnie (Barbara Barsky) dream of discovering the next great horse. Their hopes rest with imperious Argentinian trainer Horatio Luro; Kent Sheridan gleefully hams it up as a preening narcissist who calls himself the “Grand Señor” and has a penchant for the whip.
Salvation comes in the unlikely form of an undersized equine who fails to sell at auction. Gentle groom Bill Brevard (an emotive Sterling Jarvis), a Black man who’s no stranger to societal judgment, believes Northern Dancer can be a success. Mrs. Taylor agrees, and the entire nation follows.
Keanu Ushida plays Northern Dancer with the scrappy affect of a boxer, shoulders rounding forward as he twitches, feints, and shudders. This pugnacious Sylvester Stallion is a lovable jerk; refreshingly, there’s no attempt to give him anthropomorphic intelligence or empathy. The Taylors and Brevard feel grounded and dimensional: Barsky delivers her numbers with passion and exhibits a surprising (and mildly unsettling) amount of chemistry with her beloved horse.
Minor characters sometimes dip into the cartoonish, like a shady hoof surgeon (Daniel Williston) who oozes so much malevolent malpractice that you might not notice the scene’s dramatically inert ending. While the show’s choice to cast a short Filipina woman as Lester B. Pearson (Lara Angela Roda) is an intriguing one that implies the production wants us to focus on the former prime minister’s words instead of the accuracy of the impersonation, the character’s entertainingly manic giggle could pair with smoother text delivery to make him feel more real. JJ Gerber’s strutting jockey Willie Shoemaker, however, brings an energetic, personable cockiness to the show’s second half.
Dancer’s main selling point is, naturally, its dancing. Director-choreographer Stacey Tookey is responsible for staging numerous races, most of which end in our hero’s victory, and yet each feels different and fresh. The company, clad by costume designer Alessia Urbani in simple brown dance gear, undulates in beautiful, fluid action sequences that are genuinely pulse-raising. Northern Dancer’s main competition, Hill Rise (Jude Richardson), has an especially imposing, long-legged presence.
The musical definitely has one lane for these dancers and one for singers, called “hoofbeats.” The songs work best in the large group numbers set predominantly in the human sphere, which move the plot along. Solo songs that project the characters’ hopes and fears onto the horses, who react with movement, function more as soliloquies. While most of the dance numbers represent the competitions, some, like an enigmatic horse pas de trois with Northern Dancer in the middle, could have used the clarity of lyrics.
A nonspeaking and nonsinging horse can only carry so much drama, and the creative team also seems aware that their human protagonists live lives antithetical to their underdog story. Horse racing is a rarified world, and as tycoon E.P. Taylor sings in one of the show’s catchier tunes, “Six Hundred Horses,” he owns that many steeds on the off chance he can breed one future winner. Betts’ libretto attempts to counterbalance its characters’ privilege by including social commentary about animal rights, racism, and misogyny.
These range from the subtle, like when Mrs. Taylor apologizes to Bill about the troubles he’s had staying in hotels down South, to blunt force, like when Mrs. Taylor monologues about how her lack of agency helps her feel connected to Northern Dancer and Bill’s plights. While that monologue brings up many salient points, such as a woman’s inability to apply for her own credit card, it still feels like a celebrity singing “Imagine” during COVID-19 to remind us we’re all in the same boat.
At the same time, its world seems insulated; for example, because of the prominent projections of exact dates (by set and projection designer Julia Kim), we know we’re watching one horse race set in the United States days before Kennedy’s assassination and the next mere days after — but there’s no indication of a change in atmosphere. The racism Bill faces mostly comes from the States or from the Grand Señor, rather than Canadians, in what seems like an attempt to make our nation seem more sympathetic in comparison. It’s not the musical’s job to grapple with geopolitics, but in both bringing up and shying away from these larger issues, it tries to have its sugar cube and eat it, too.
Production values are higher since Fringe, but the designers generally keep things minimal, crisp, and clean. Kim’s set features a curved ramp along the back to host race spectators, and movable fences to create the impression of a paddock. Her opening projection, featuring human feet alternating with horse hooves, helps to more quickly meld the human dancers to their horse personas. On the other hand, Northern Dancer didn’t like his blinders, and you might agree after the lights (designer Chris Malkowski) sweep out into the audience several times. Sound levels (designer Aaron Hanna) also could still use some balancing, with the eager, peppy orchestra encouraging some singers to belt past comfort.
But it’s easy to smile when Northern Dancer defies the odds. Tap your hooves to the music’s beat, and focus on the dancing — truly, the mane attraction in this more-than-one-trick pony.
Dancer runs at the Terminal Theatre until November 1. More information is available here.
Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
WRITTEN BY
Ilana Lucas
Ilana Lucas is a professor of English in Centennial College’s School of Advancement. She is the President of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association. She holds a BA in English and Theatre from Princeton University, an MFA in Dramaturgy and Script Development from Columbia University, and serves as Princeton’s Alumni Schools Committee Chair for Western Ontario. She has written for Brit+Co, Mooney on Theatre, and BroadwayWorld Toronto. Her most recent play, Let’s Talk, won the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival’s 24-Hour Playwriting Contest. She has a deep and abiding love of musical theatre, and considers her year working for the estate of Tony winners Phyllis Newman and Adolph Green one of her most treasured memories.
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