TORONTO, Sept. 1 /CNW/ - CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER, the two-time Tony and two-time Emmy Award winning actor and a 2009 Academy Award® nominee ("The Last Station"), will reprise his Tony Award-winning portrayal of the legendary actor, John Barrymore, in William Luce's acclaimed Broadway play, BARRYMORE, for a strictly limited engagement of thirty performances at Toronto's historic Elgin Theatre from January 27 - March 9, 2011. 

Having premiered at Canada's Stratford Festival in September 1996, BARRYMORE subsequently toured several US cities, and opened at Broadway's Music Box Theatre in March 1997.  For his indelible portrayal, Plummer won the 1997 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.  He also won the Drama Desk Award, the Edwin Booth Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actor in a Play.

One of the world's most distinguished classical stage and film stars, Christopher Plummer has also been hailed as the finest Shakespearean actor to emerge from North America in the 20th Century. He is currently starring to critical acclaim  as Prospero in Des
McAnuff's production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" at Canada's Stratford Festival with performances through September 13th, and his newest motion picture, "Beginners," co-starring Ewan McGregor, has been selected as a special presentation at this year's Toronto
International Film Festival, with the premiere scheduled for September 11th.

The entire original creative team of BARRYMORE will be reunited for the Toronto presentation including three-time Tony Award-winning director, GENE SAKS, scenic and costume designer SANTO LOQUASTO, and lighting designer NATASHA KATZ.  BARRYMORE will be presented by TD and is being produced by KEVIN ALBRECHT, STEVE KALAFER and PETER LEDONNE. 


"TD is proud to present Christopher Plummer's return to the Toronto stage in this historic engagement," said TD's Vice President-Global
Brand & Corporate Marketing, DIANNE SMITH-SANDERSON. "We're thrilled to be part of such a unique sponsorship opportunity with the potential to expand more broadly across the border and reflect our presence in North America." 

BARRYMORE offers an unforgettable portrayal of legendary actor, John Barrymore, a man of colossal talent and contradictions, also
considered one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of all time.  Set in 1942, the final year of John Barrymore's life, BARRYMORE takes place on the stage of a Broadway theatre, where the actor is struggling to recreate his performance in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III.   Playwright William Luce ("The Belle of Amherst") shows us the many facets of this complicated man and
dazzling actor:  the wives and the women... the drink and the profanity... the notoriety and the glory...in a portrait that's "fiendishly entertaining and blistering sad," and made all the more indelible with Christopher Plummer's "achingly funny, memorably strong
and debonair performance (_The New York Times_)."

Actor, JOHN PLUMPIS, is featured in BARRYMORE in the role of "Frank," the unseen, off-stage prompter/stage manager who assists John Barrymore with running his lines and coaxing out a performance. 

BARRYMORE will be performed on Monday-Wednesday and Friday-Saturday evenings at 8:00pm. Tickets will go on public sale on October 2nd.

For additional information about BARRYMORE, please visit www.BarrymoreThePlay.com.

Theatre Review

Production: One Touch of Venus

Author: Kurt Weill (music), Ogden Nash (lyrics), Ogden Nash and S.J. Perelman (book)

Company: Shaw Festival

Director: Eda Holmes

Principal Actors: Robin Evan Willis, Kyle Blair, Deborah Hay, Mark Ure

Venue: Royal George Theatre

Location; Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Run: May 16 to October 10, 2010



Reviewed by: James Karas

The production of a musical is de rigueur at the Shaw but great credit is due to Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell for choosing works of substantial quality that have been almost forgotten. This year’s selection is One Touch of Venus by Kurt Weill, Ogden Nash and S.J. Perelman. It was a big hit when it opened on Broadway in 1943 but it has been revived only sporadically ever since.

Weill, Nash, and Perelman make an all-star team for writing a musical. The result may not have been stellar but it is a work with wit, humour and some superb music. If some of the wit is out of the reach of today’s audience it is not the fault of the writers as times and context change.

One Touch of Venus is a fairy tale about a statue of the goddess of love coming to life in New York and falling in love with a hapless barber named Rodney Hatch (Kyle Blair).

Venus (Robin Evan Willis) disposes of Rodney’s screeching fiancée Gloria (Julie Martell) - sic transit Gloria – and the two lovers survive some scrapes including a stint in jail. But the two finally come through and are finally free to live happily ever after in a suburb of New York!

The production, in the small but elegantly cozy Royal George Theatre, has the equivalent feel of watching the race scene from Ben-Hur on a 19” TV after seeing it on the big screen. You get the benefit of being close to the stage but that does not make up for the lack of a large stage for a large Broadway musical.

You get a lot of music from a 10-piece orchestra but it is a compromise. How much better would it sound with 28 instruments in a large theatre?

As for the performers, Robin Evan Willis has a gorgeous body that even Venus would have approved of – the Venus de Milo and the slim-hipped, all-too-angelic rendition of Botticelli. If Willis’ face does not quite satisfy one’s image of Venus, it is probably because no woman can. Unfortunately, her vocal ability does not match the curves of her body. She needs to soar at times but, alas, she cannot and all you get is volume instead of high notes.

Kyle Blair does a good comic job as the henpecked barber who has landed a goddess but his voice falls short of expectations. When he attempts to ascend the musical scale, he comes perilously close to releasing a flat screech.

The idea of an incarnated Venus is so delicious it energizes the imagination like a fairy tale remembered from childhood. If the production does not satisfy all our theatrical appetites the way nectar and ambrosia sated the gods, we do not leave the theatre hungry.

No doubt one can visualize a better production of One Touch of Venus just as one can imagine a better Venus but the one is more difficult to achieve than the other. In the meantime, imagination in full throttle, you can start your search in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Give it a triple.

Theatre Review

Production: King Of Thieves

Company: Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada

Playwright: George F. Walker

Director: Jennifer Tarver

Principal Cast: Sean Cullen, Evan Buliung, Laura Condlln, Nora McLellan, Jay Brazeau

Venue: Studio Theatre

Location: Stratford, Ontario, Canada

Run: August 12 to September 18, 2010

Reviewed By: Kindah Mardam Bey

A charming gangsta rhapsody, King Of Thieves is a newly commissioned production by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival from playwright George F. Walker. Last year, audiences were treated to the likes of Walker’s Zastrozzi, also performed in the Studio Theatre and quite possibly one of the best aspects of last years’ roster. So, it was easy to anticipate King of Thieves, as Walker’s plays are very layered and can have very sophisticated themes. Although King of Thieves may not have been as well orchestrated as some of his other works, it was still a delightful production with some great moments in it.

King of Thieves is a gangster musical comedy right out of the Guys and Dolls line of storytelling. Vinnie, the owner of a speakeasy is a narrator to the stories goings on. Mac is self-proclaimed “King of Thieves” and has a run-in with Brown from the FBI who gives Mac a deal that will erase his record in exchange for organizing a sting that would bring down the mighty bank owners during the depression era. The production is playful, light-hearted and tends to spring from one comedic situation with another with trails of musical numbers along the way. At the deeper level of this Threepenny Opera is a focused look at the balance of power, the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’, the black and white lines of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’, and mostly how the lines of all these boundaries seem to become duplicitously smudged into gray areas.

The Expendables

Director: Sylvester Stallone

Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke

Genre: Action

Studio: Maple Pictures

Audience Suitability: 14A

Running time: 103 minutes

Release Date: August 13, 2010

The Expendables, the latest action epic from Maple Pictures, boasts an impressive cast. Fresh starts don't happen often in the film business or in that many other industries for that matter. Dream casting pits a group of questionable free enterprisers four square against an evil military powerhouse. In charge of the good brigade, if you can call it that,is one buff guy called Barney. Sylvester Stallone (Rocky) plays the organizer of this platoon of cutthroats. First we meet up with this gang that could shoot straight on the high seas. Along for the daring water logged rescue are Lee Christmas and Ying Yang. British import Jason Statham (The Transporter) and Asian fighting ace Jet Li (Lethal Weapon 4) perfectly fit the mould of these hired guns who give their all to defend free entrprise and the American way.

Good guys need enemies and the body count heads skyward in a hurry once The Expendables change course. Inside South America a mission comes their way which allows the team to crack an even bigger group of thugs. Showdowns like this were made for Sylvester Stallone who not only stars but also directs and co-wrote this bit of macho nonsense perfectly designed to click with guys. It delivers bigtime. Boys with toys takes on bigger momentum as a who's who of action superstars signs up and clocks in to do battle with the power players of the region.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed

Director: J Blakeson

Stars: Gemma Arterton

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Directors: Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg

Stars: Joan Rivers

Eat Pray Love

Director: Ryan Murphy

Stars: Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, James Franco

Nanny McPhee Returns

Director: Susanna White

Stars: Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Rhys Ifans, Maggie Smith, Ewan McGregor