encoreNOW is a bi-weekly column by Paul Rellinger where he features upcoming music, theatre, film, and performing arts events and news from across the Kawarthas.
This week, Paul highlights the Traveling Milburys at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, a season-ending homage by the Peterborough Singers to Mozart’s Requiem, traditional country music in Bancroft courtesy of The Plowboys, the sound-and-sight explosion that is The Lowest of the Low, the Lindsay staging of a near 90-year-old Broadway hit and two-time Oscar-winning film, and Bad Hat’s reimagining of Alice in Wonderland at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre.
Traveling Milburys at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre pay tribute to a one-off that exploded
VIDEO: The Traveling Milburys
The pop music universe is replete with examples of great things that evolved from intended one-off collaborations.
Take, for example, what transpired when Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan came together to record a bonus track for intended European release by Harrison. The record company loved what they heard and instead inked the quintet to record a full album, with that song, “Handle With Care,” among its tracks.
Released in October 1988, Traveling Wilburys’ debut album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 was a critical and commercial success, earning a 1990 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Group or Duo on the strength of the additional singles “End of the Line” and “Heading for the Light.”
That was followed in 1990 by the intentionally misnumbered Traveling Wilburys No. 3, which was dedicated to Orbison who died suddenly in December 1988.
It was inevitable that the Traveling Wilburys’ short but impactful tenure would be paid homage to. Following Petty’s passing in 2017, Toronto musician John Cassano thought putting together a tribute to the supergroup would work. He did just that, and the Traveling Milburys have been a thing since, consistently playing to sold-out houses.
On Friday (May 9) at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, the Lynne-portraying Cassano will be joined by Jerry Boyer as Harrison, Gerry Parsons as Petty, Gavan Rousseau at Orbison, and Virgil Kinsley as Dylan (backed by a rhythm section featuring Mike Berardelli on bass, Danny Sandwell on drums, and Rick Hyatt on keyboards) when the Traveling Milburys perform not only the music of the Traveling Wilburys but also select hit songs recorded by each as individual artists.
Back in 2019, I caught the Traveling Milburys at Market Hall and came away wholly entertained. Their vocals were spot-on and their musicianship was top rate. We can expect this go-round will be no different. Tickets to the 7:30 pm concert cost $62 at flatoacademytheatre.com.
Mozart’s Requiem gets the full Peterborough Singers treatment
VIDEO: Mozart/Durham Cathedral Music Concert featuring conductor Syd Birrell
When Mozart died in December 1791, a Requiem mass he was commissioned to compose by Count Franz von Walsegg to commemorate the first anniversary of his wife’s passing was left unfinished.
The following year saw Austrian composer Franz Xaver Sussmayr complete the work started by Mozart and it was performed at a benefit for Mozart’s widow. All these years later, the piece is still considered the hallmark of Mozart’s genius. Now, to close out its 2024-25 season, the Peterborough Singers’ will provide evidence of that.
On Saturday (May 10) at Emmanuel United Church in downtown Peterborough, the choral group will headline Mozart Requiem, featuring Ian Sadler (organ), and soloists Lesley Bouza (soprano), Lillian Brooks (mezzo soprano), David Walsh (tenor), and Christopher Dunham (bass).
Not only will the audience be treated to Mozart’s mastery, it will also hear selections from the Singers’ upcoming summer cathedral tour to Durham, England in the form of classic anthems by Parry, Stanford, Mendelssohn, Faure, and Wood.
General admission tickets to the 7 p.m. concert are $40 ($10 for students) and are available at www.peterboroughsingers.com as well as at Pammett’s Flower Shop, Ashburnham Foot and Ankle Centre, and Happenstance Books and Yarns in Lakefield.
Traditional country music fans rejoice — The Plowboys are coming to Bancroft
VIDEO: The Plowboys promo compilation
During the 1990s, country music saw a huge revival when too-many-artists-to-count introduced a more mainstream pop feel to their country-influenced lyrics. Think Shania Twain, Garth Brooks, and Alan Jackson.
But through those years, the country music purists never went away and, in fact, dug in their heels and did their damnedest to ensure that more traditional offerings of the genre got their due in the face of the “new country” movement.
In the end, the ways of the steel guitar prevailed, with millions still pledging allegiance to the Nashville sound as it was first intended to be presented and heard.
On Saturday (May 10) at the Bancroft Village Playhouse, The Plowboys — rhinestone-studded suits and all — will perform country music as many still remember and regale it.
Formed in 2016, the quintet — Scott Haggerty (lead vocals/guitar), Al Torrance (lead guitar), Jim Haggerty (bass), Brad Baldwin (drums), and Andy Schick (steel guitar) — has gained quite a loyal following with its stellar performance of traditional country songs by the likes of Buck Owens, Ray Price Haggard and Jim Reeves, to name but a few.
The band’s self-titled debut album, released in 2024, saw the song “Out of Luck Out Of Time Out Of My Mind” reach #10 on the Canadian Indie Top 150 Country Countdown Chart.
Tickets to the 7 p.m. concert are $33.50 plus tax and are available at www.villageplayhouse.ca.
The Lowest of the Low bringing its high energy to Peterborough’s Market Hall
VIDEO: “On A Bad Day” – The Lowest of the Low
When The Lowest of the Low formed in 1991, little did its members know the lasting influence their music would have on the Canadian alternative music scene.
Not hurting matters in terms of the band’s legacy was the success of its debut album, Shakespeare My Butt. Selling just short of gold status, the album became one of the best-selling independent releases in Canadian music history.
The band was originally formed by Ron Hawkins (vocals, guitar), Stephen Stanley (guitar, vocals), and David Alexander (drums) — all members of the band Popular Front — as a side project at a time when their other band was going through internal tensions that eventually led to its breakup. While performing as a trio in folk clubs, they met John Arnott (bass), who became the band’s fourth member.
After breaking up in 1993, the band reunited in 2000 for a five-show tour, and subsequently released the live album Nothing Short of a Bullet. Dylan Parker replaced John Arnott in 2002, and the band released Sordid Fiction. After touring that record, the band went on an extended hiatus before announcing they were breaking up for good in 2007. They reunited again in 2010, with Stanley leaving the band three years later, and subsequently released 2017’s Do the Right Now, 2019’s Agitpop, and 2021’s Taverns and Palaces , with the band’s latest release 2023’s Welcome to the Plunderdome.
Along with founding members Hawkins and Alexander, the band’s current lineup includes Lawrence Nichols (keyboards, harmonica, vocals), Greg Smith of The Weakerthans (bass), and Michael McKenzie (lead guitar).
Known for socially conscious lyrics and raw folk-punk performance energy, The Lowest of the Low remains a tour de force, drawing fans of its earliest work to new converts — a combination of which will no doubt be at Peterborough’s Market Hall on Thursday, May 15 as the band takes to the stage, with Montreal power poppers Danny Laj and The Looks opening.
Tickets to the 8 p.m. concert cost $36 and are available at www.markethall.org.
A good story has its place, and that place is the Academy Theatre in Lindsay
VIDEO: “You Can’t Take It With You” film trailer (1938)
In the live theatre realm, there’s something to be said for a good story.
Close to 90 years after it premiered at Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street Opera House, the comedy You Can’t Take It With You has well withstood the test of time as a good story.
Written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, the play subsequently enjoyed 838-performance run on Broadway, won a 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and was adapted for the silver screen in 1938 directed by Frank Capra and starring Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, and Edward Arnold, with the film adaptation ultimately winning two Academy Awards, including the Best Picture Oscar.
The story introduces us to the eccentric and free-spirited Sycamore family, whose unconventional lifestyle clashes with that of the more rigid upper-class Kirby family when their children fall in love.
Featuring themes of individualism, happiness and the pursuit of passions over material wealth, it ultimately delivers the still relevant message that life is best enjoyed when lived on one’s own terms as opposed to conforming to societal expectations.
Directed by Andrew Archibald and Alli Merritt and featuring local actors, You Can’t Take It With You will be staged Friday and Saturday May 16 and 17 at 7 p.m. at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, with an added 2 p.m. Saturday matinee. Tickets cost $32 at flatoacademytheatre.com.
Alice like you’ve never experienced her, before Port Hope-bound
VIDEO: “Alice in Wonderland” trailer (2023 Soulpepper Theatre production)
Since its founding in 2015, Toronto-based theatre company Bad Hats Theatre has enthralled audiences far and wide with its new and fun spins on popular theatre productions. Among them is its reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, which earned the troupe six Dora Mavor Moore Awards presented annually to the best in Toronto theatre.
Now Bad Hats is bringing its music-laced spin on Lewis Carroll’s children’s novel to Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre from May 16 to June 1.
Featuring music by Landon Doak and Victor Pokinko, the family musical was staged to terrific reviews and sold-out audiences at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre. Now Alice In Wonderland is on the road, with the first performances being this run in Port Hope, followed by a July 9 to 20 run at the Bancroft Village Playhouse.
Directed by Sue Miner, the touring cast features Colleen Furlan in the title role with the remaining cast of eight playing multiple roles: Dave Ball as Mr C. and the White Rabbit, Rosie Callaghan as Nicola and the Unicorn, Eden Chiam as Ruby and the Red Queen, Chris Fulton as Tod, Tweedle Dee, and the March Hare, Ben Kopp as Douggie and the Dodo, Chelsea Preston as Todd, Tweedle Dum, and the Mad Hatter, Emry Tupper as Buddy and the Caterpillar, and Anika Venkatesh as the Cheshire Cat.
Bad Hats co-founder and artistic director Fiona Sauder, who penned the adaptation, told kawarthaNOW that what’s “especially cool” about this production is the cast also performs the music, not only taking on multiple roles but playing multiple instruments.
When all is said and done, this is an opportunity for local audiences to enjoy the work of one of Toronto’s most lauded theatre companies. That’s an opportunity too good to pass up.
Curtain is 7:30 p.m. on May 16 and 17, May 23 and 24, and May 29 to 31, with matinee performances at 10:30 a.m. from May 20 to 22 and May 27 to 29 and at 2 p.m. on May 18, 24, 25 and 31, and June 1. Other than the pay-what-you-can preview on May 16, tickets are $48 for adults, $40 for ages 13 to 30, and $22 for ages 12 and under, and are available at the Capitol Theatre’s box office at 20 Queen Street (10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday), by phone at 905-885-1071, or online at capitoltheatre.com.
Encore
- Like many of you, I was sad to hear Peterborough’s klusterfork entertainment is calling it a day as of the end of May. In a world in dire need of a good laugh, the work of the Peterborough-based producers and presenters of improv comedy shows will be sorely missed. It was back in November 2019 that Linda Kash, Pat Maitland and Ian Burns launched klusterfork via a sold-out Christmas-themed improv comedy show at Market Hall. A number of performances followed, along with the training of wanna-be improv performers via a number of offered workshops. On a more personal level, I can’t recall ever coming away from an interview with Linda et al without a huge smile on my face. klusterfork did it up right.
- It’s not enough that the local Irish community has a day all its own to celebrate its heritage — now it has a whole week courtesy of Peterborough Musicfest. As we await word of the free summer concert festival’s full lineup, we continue to be teased, the latest announcement being the staging of three Irish-themed concerts staged in conjunction with the bicentennial of the 1825 Peter Robinson emigration of Irish settlers to the Peterborough region. On August 2, the Toronto-based U2 tribute band Acrobat will take to the stage in Del Crary Park, followed on August 6 by Celtic rockers Mudmen with local fiddler Irish Millie opening. Then, on August 9, The Celtic Tenors arrive from Ireland to perform. Should be quite a week. Stay with kawarthaNOW for details of more 2025 concerts as they become known.
