On Friday, September 20th, the Peterborough Theatre Guild opens its 2019-2020 season with Richard Alfireri’s Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.

Directed by Bea Quarrie and produced by Ina Stenner, with assistance by Sharon McLeod and Lyn Braun, the Guild’s production of the international hit play stars Jennifer Gruer as Lily Harrison and J.P. Baldwin as Michael Minetti in what has been described as a touching and warm comedy.

Originally staged in 2001 at Los Angeles’ Giffen Playhouse, starring Uta Hagen as Lily and David Hyde Pierce as Michael, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks made its Broadway debut in 2003 with Polly Bergen and Mark Hamill in the lead roles. Although the show had a relatively short run on Broadway (it closed prematurely due to Bergen’s health problems), the play has become a critical and audience favourite on stages throughout the world. It was also adapted into a 2014 film starring Gena Rowlands and Cheyenne Jackson.

“It’s really funny and at the same time touching,” director Bea Quarrie says of the play. “A lot of comedies that have boxed sets and multiple black outs really turn me off, so I choose to avoid them like the plague. But this one has something special about it — the writing is really strong, and it also has something to say. A lot of comedies are good for a good yuk, and you walk away without caring of what it’s about; I don’t enjoy them anymore. I wanted to do a comedy that says something.”

“It speaks politically as well as emotionally,” agrees J.P. Baldwin, who is also the show’s choreographer. “On the political stage, what it says still resonates — unfortunately.”

“Maybe more so now than when it was written, ” Bea adds. “Especially in the United States, but in Canada we’re not that far behind. It speaks on a human level about who we are, as human beings trying to reach out and be inclusive, while still being able to laugh. J.P. and Jennifer take my breath away because they are making those connections.”

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks is about Lily, a widow who has relocated to Florida, who hires former Broadway dance instructor Michael for a series of dance lessons in her home — one lesson per week for six weeks. Michael, having been forced out of his life as a Broadway chorus boy, is bitter about his new career as a private dance instructor and the first lesson does not go well.

However, over the six weeks, Michael and Lily develop a powerful connection based around their strong personalities and by working through their own recent life changes and losses.

“Lily is a delightful character,” says Jennifer Gruer. “She’s complex in that she’s had a previous life that was conservative and stifled. Now she is on her own and has an opportunity to expand and explore who she is, and Michael gives her that opportunity. He challenges her in every way, but she’s open enough to be challenged.”

VIDEO: Jennifer Gruer and J.P. Baldwin rehearsing for “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks”

“She’s feisty and quick witted for an old gal,” Jennifer adds. “I think she loves life but is feeling more and more that her life is running out, so she has to make the most of it.”

The Guild production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks is the fourth time that J.P. Baldwin has played the role of Michael. He first performed the role in Bobcaygeon’s Globus Theatre production in 2010, and reprised the role at the Orillia Opera House in 2012, and later in Gravenhurst in 2014.

“For most shows, the day after it closes, I mostly can’t tell you what my lines are because I need to learn the next show,” J.P. says. “But for this show — I think because of its exceptional writing, its message, and the fact that out of all the roles I’ve played I really connect with Michael — it resonates very deeply with me. It stays with me.”

Having performed the role so many times, J.P. provides some insight into his character.

“Michael grew up in Florida but made his way to New York because he wanted to be somebody and wanted to perform,” J.P. explains. “He was a born performer, so he had a fairly long career on Broadway as a dancer. He probably was good, but he couldn’t sing or act very well so he got pigeon-holed as a dancer and became a staple in the chorus, which frustrates him.”

“He’s honest. He believes that manners are affectations left over from the aristocracy, and we are not the aristocracy, so he doesn’t understand why he shouldn’t be able to say or do the things he wants. The lines blur sometimes between him and me, so hopefully I bring some truth to this role.”

“That’s critical for both roles,” adds Bea. “I don’t think you have a play if the actors are not speaking their characters’ truth to each other — the sparks won’t fly. The truth won’t be there if we manufacture it, trying to manipulate the audience instead of giving them a slice of reality they can handle.”

Of course, with the play being about six dance lessons, it involves a fair amount of dancing including swing, the cha cha, the fox trot, and the tango. But, with life imitating art, J.P. — who has worked as a ballroom dance instructor — choreographed the show, which meant he was teaching Jennifer all of the dances.

“The dancing is delightful and fun,” says Jennifer. “I’m not a trained dancer, but I love to move and dance. J.P. is a great instructor, both in life and in character.”

“Jennifer picks up choreography very quickly,” J.P. adds. “As a dance instructor, it’s delightful to be able to work with that.”

A show about two unlikely people at turning points in their lives who find friendship, loyalty, and compassion via dance, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks is the perfect beginning to Peterborough Theatre Guild’s new season.

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks opens at 8 p.m. on Friday, September 20th and Saturday, September 21st, and runs Thursdays to Saturdays until October 5th, with 2 p.m. matinees on Sunday, September 22nd and Sunday, September 29th. Tickets are $25 ($22 for seniors, $15 for students) and are available by calling the box office at 705-745-4211 (if not open leave a message) or online at theatreguild.org.

The ultimate Canadian rock music success story would have never been written had Paul Hoffert and Skip Prokop hopped aboard different flights in 1968 for their return home to Toronto from New York City.

Hoffert was in The Big Apple for an off-Broadway show he had composed music for. Prokop, meanwhile, was playing a gig with his band The Paupers.

“I was in the audience and, at intermission, he (Prokop) actually recognized me and said hello,” recalls Hoffert, noting Prokop made the connection from seeing Hoffert perform in Toronto jazz clubs.

“The next morning he happened to be sitting next to me on an Air Canada flight back to Toronto. He was leaving The Paupers.”

“He was going to be putting together Janis Joplin’s new band, but was having some problems with the personnel. He wasn’t sure if it was going to work out. So he told me about this idea he had for a band with horns and strings.”

On Thursday, October 10th at Showplace Performance Centre, Lighthouse will take to the stage for its 50th anniversary tour — an astounding half-century after the ‘fusion’ band made its performance debut.

Prokop’s idea was clearly a sound one.

“We chatted about the fact that The Beatles had to stop touring because all the records they were making had piccolo trumpets and symphony orchestras and everything, and they could not replicate what they had on their albums when they toured,” says Hoffert who, 50 years on, is still with the band as its keyboardist.

“We thought wouldn’t it be great if you had a band that had all the musical assets, all the musical resources, to do those fun kind of arrangements in the studio, and then go out and play that music just the way you recorded it?”

The course set, Hoffert and Prokop brought together top-flight musician friends, recorded a demo, and took it to New York City where the band was signed by MGM Records — the combination of a rock rhythm section combined with jazz horns and classical strings clearly worth exploring.

“We had a big American record deal before we actually had a band,” laughs Hoffert, adding, “We just had an idea and a bunch of guys who were in the studio and recorded some tunes.”

With manager Vinnie Fusco in the mix — he overturned the MGM deal and signed Lighthouse to RCA Victor — the 13-member band featuring Hoffert on the keyboard and Prokop on drums and lead vocals took to the stage at The Rockpile in Toronto on May 14, 1969.

“Duke Ellington was performing with his orchestra in Toronto,” recounts Hoffert. “His promo guy offered him a limo to take him to airport after his show. Along the way he said ‘We have to make a stop. There’s this really great band. You’ll really like them.'”

“Skip and I were in the dressing room and in walks Duke Ellington. He said ‘I don’t have much time. Can I introduce you guys?’ and we said ‘Uh, ya.'”

To promote the band, manager Fusco went hard at it, singing the praises of Lighthouse’s unique orchestral rock sound. He secured the band big-time gigs, including appearances at Carnegie Hall, and the Monterey and Newport jazz festivals. A free concert at Toronto City Hall drew an estimated 25,000 people. Word was spreading and fast.

“Rock ‘n’ roll music was transitioning from the early Elvis Presley kind of rock-a-billy stuff to what we now called classic rock ‘n’ roll with a heavier rhythm section,” says Hoffert. “Young people all over North America were loving that kind of music and getting into it.”

“But in high school, which is where a lot of people develop their musical tastes, you have band instruments. You weren’t given electric guitars and basses and stuff to make rock ‘n’ roll music. Everybody was playing in the school band … wind instruments, brass instruments. They couldn’t participate in the rock ‘n’ roll thing because the music that was coming out didn’t have those instruments.”

“There seemed to be a real opportunity to make music that was rock ‘n’ roll but could include those people. That would give us a bigger audience.”

VIDEO: “One Fine Morning” – Lighthouse (Massey Hall, 1972)

Lighthouse did just that and that audience indeed grew. The band’s first three albums — Lighthouse, Suite Feeling, and Peacing It All Together — sold well enough, but 1971’s One Fine Morning and Thoughts Of Movin’ On took Lighthouse into a different stratosphere. Both albums were certified platinum and, in One Fine Morning, the band had its highest internationally charting single to date to go along with the top 10 placing of “Hats Off To The Stranger” from the same album.

A year later, Sunny Days, with its title track single, kept the momentum going. A string of subsequent singles, such as “Pretty Lady”, cemented the band’s place in Canadian rock music history.

“Our first three albums were not very successful commercially because they featured more of jazz solos and stuff … the songs were like four to six minutes long,” says Hoffert.

“Top 40 radio played songs that were two and a half minutes long. Our shortest song was four to five minutes long. We couldn’t get airplay. The one thing we changed, that all of those hit songs had in common, was that was they fit the AM radio stations’ format and had a lot more featured vocals than long instrumentals. Of those four, there was one rogue, One Fine Morning, which was four and a half minutes long. It didn’t hit number one but it got into the top ten.”

Industry accolades in those early years were many and significant, including Best Canadian Group of Year honours at the 1972, 1973, and 1974 Juno Awards.

VIDEO: “Take It Slow” – Lighthouse (circa 1972)

Citing a “friendly rivalry” between Lighthouse and equally horn-heavy bands Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago, Hoffert says Lighthouse stood apart due to its infusion of strings as an integral part of its sound.

According to Hoffert, Lighthouse’s current members, with just two exceptions, have been with the band at least 28 years. Prokop died in August 2017 — his son Jamie is the current drummer. Former lead vocalist Bob McBride, who won a Juno Award in 1973 for Outstanding Male Performance, passed in 1998.

Other band members have come and gone, others have also passed, but the band’s trademark sound remains as fresh as the day it first sprang forth.

As for Lighthouse’s longevity, Hoffert says the band’s culture has proven to be the tie that binds. And then there’s this thing called respect.

“A band is kind of like a family … you’re going to have fall-outs or disagreements,” he points out. “The only way to stop that is to have musical respect for each other. We’ve never lost that.”

“We’ve never had a disagreement on the musical direction because those discussions are never about ‘Why can’t I have the solo?’ It’s ‘What’s going to work best for the band?’ We’ve always been able to have a good consensus. That’s been key to keeping the band together and keeping the really great musicians that we have.”

On a personal level, Hoffert, at age 75, hasn’t lost his passion for playing live and, in particular, playing with his “family”. A bestselling author, accomplished media music composer, and university professor, the 2004 Order of Canada recipient has had but one focus the last 10 years: playing music, be it with Lighthouse or his jazz group.

“The first time I thought I would retire was when Lighthouse split up many years ago. I thought ‘Okay, I have a little bit of money. I have a hobby … ten tropical fish tanks.’ After two weeks, I was totally bored and I started doing other things.”

“It’s not who I am to not be inquisitive and curious. Through all the various seemingly unrelated things that I’ve done, the thread that has run through it all is I have a very inquisitive mind. I like to do new things. I like innovation. I like to break new ground.”

“I think of my life as I’m riding on a train that has a lot of stops,” Hoffert adds. “Sometimes you get off at a station to see what might be there. Very frequently you’ll open some doors and behind those doors are things you think you can be passionate about. Find those things you have passion for, and spend as much time as you can doing them.”

Fifty years after breaking new ground with his friend and longtime bandmate Brokop, Hoffert’s passion for stepping on stage and taking up his oh-so-familiar perch behind his keyboard hasn’t lessened in the least.

VIDEO: “Sunny Days” – Lighthouse (2012)

“We take pride in the quality of the music. We like it when people come back stage and say ‘Oh my goodness, you guys are so tight. You sound like you’ve been playing together a long time.’ Well, we have.”

Lighthouse performs at Showplace Performance Centre (290 George St. N., Peterborough) at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 10th. Tickets are $43 and are available in person at the Showplace box office, by phone at 705-742-7469, and online.

For more information on Lighthouse, visit www.lighthouserockson.com.

VIDEO: “Pretty Lady” – Lighthouse

Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, September 12 to Wednesday, September 18.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.

On Wednesday (September 11), The Theatre on King (TTOK) opens its 2019-2020 season by hosting the Peterborough debut of Park Street Productions’ Bernie and Nick.

Written and directed by Ken Bolton with assistance from Eryn Lidster, Bernie and Nick is a Faustian comedy — the play’s tagline is “The eternal struggle between evil and stupid” — starring TTOK regulars Brad Brackenridge and Lindsay Unterlander.

It’s a story about a final game of chance played between an ambitious loser and a devilish woman. Featuring big stakes and bigger chances, the one-act play is a clever comedy for winner and losers alike.

Bernie and Nick represents a return to directing for Ken, a semi-retired journalist and columnist, after a 50-year hiatus.

“Bernie is a loveable kind of guy, but he’s a bit of a loser,” Ken says, describing the story. “He’s a gambler and he’s facing mountains of debt. In fact, he is going to be at the Gulfstream racetrack in Florida with his last ten bucks. The sharks are circling. He owes over a hundred thousand bucks.”

“Then Bernie meets a woman named Nick. Nick is bright, articulate, and is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College — she’s no slouch. She’s in the collection business and she offers him a way out of his dilemma.”

What follows is a lively game of wits and revealing conversation by a couple of wily characters played by two of Peterborough’s great performers. In an unusual and difficult bit of staging, Lindsay and Brad never look each other in the face once, yet are able to maintain the energy and chemistry between one another and the connection to the audience through comical patter and by giving their characters a sense of true depth.

“Brad and Lindsay may be dealing with characters that seem a little stock, in a way, but actually Bernie and Nick have a lot of depth and emotion and very interesting back stories,” Ken explains. “It’s so exciting to work with people who get it and are bringing everything to the table.”

This is the first time that Ken, who moved to Peterborough in July 2017, has had one of his plays produced here. He made his TTOK debut in Ryan Kerr’s production of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Mr. Icky in September 2017, which led to the production of Bernie and Nick almost exactly two years later.

“I was a bit reclusive as a writer, and my wife saw an ad for auditions at TTOK but I was at first uninterested,” Ken recalls. “I said ‘I don’t do community theatre anymore.’ She said ‘Go, they do very innovative interesting stuff and you need to get out of the house.’ I think that was more for her sake and not mine.”

“So I went and got cast in this absurd F. Scott Fitzgerald show and thoroughly enjoyed it. I said to (director) Ryan Kerr that I had a few plays ready to be produced. I sent him two of them and he said yes to both. I’m not ready to produce the other one yet, but we decided to produce Bernie and Nick.”

For the staging of Bernie and Nick, Ken received funding from Theatre Trent, the Trent University student levy group that assists with production costs of locally produced theatre, such as space and costume rentals.

“I’m very grateful to receive some financial support from Theatre Trent,” says Ken. “It’s not something that I’m used to and I hope to god that what’s happening at the provincial level doesn’t destroy that. I don’t know if it’s unique, but it’s very important for student fees to be used to support the arts, and I know that it’s helped a lot of people in Peterborough.”

Although this is the Peterborough debut of Bernie and Nick, it’s actually the second time the play has been staged. However, as Ken bluntly admits, the first time it was produced didn’t go as well as he hoped, and this is the chance for the show to find its own sort of redemption.

“Bernie and Nick was produced before in 2015 in Saint John and it was appallingly bad,” Ken says. “It was so bad that my wife and I were almost in tears. The director did not understand comedy, and he had two actors who had never been on stage before. I wanted to sneak out.”

“This time, thank god, the play is in the hands of two very good actors,” Ken notes. “I’ve never worked with Brad and Lindsay before, but I’ve watched them many times. They both have really good instincts and their comic timing is superb. But they also have a kind of depth to them as well.”

It is that combination of comedic delivery and ability to create characters that have multiple dimensions that makes Bernie and Nick work. Without giving away too many surprises, the staging of the show is very unique, and for less-experienced actors would prove to be very challenging.

Both being excellent performers who have plenty of experience qith experimental and unorthodox stage situations, Lindsay and Brad manage to play off each other with just the sound of their voices. With little else to support each other’s performances, they somehow manage to make the magic work, creating an imaginative and fun performance.

“It’s been a gas … I’ve enjoyed doing it,” says Ken about the production. “I still laugh when I read this play and when I hear Brad and Lindsay find things that I might not realize are in there.”

Bernie and Nick is a strong start to TTOK’s upcoming season of exciting events and highly original productions. The play opens on Wednesday, September 11th and runs until Saturday, September 14th. Tickets are $15 or pay what you can and are available at the door, or by contacting TTOK at contact@ttok.ca. Shows start at 8 p.m.