For all the success she has achieved as a country music recording artist, Lisa Brokop remains fully cognizant of the fact that she owes much to those women who blazed a trail long before her.

In conversation with the Surrey, BC native, Brokop frequently refers to country music legends such as Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell, and Patsy Cline with clear reverence. In particular, Brokop speaks to “the stories” that country music, via its early luminaries, shared with the masses.

“I’m drawn to that just like everyone else … that’s what brought me to country music to begin with,” says Brokop.

“They didn’t have the technology we have now. It was just plain and simple. You had to be good, and you had to have heart and soul. And they did.”

On Monday, April 1st at Showplace Performance Centre, Brokop’s admiration for country music’s early pioneers will be clearly evident as she brings her Legendary Ladies of Country show to Peterborough, joined by fellow country music artists Amanda Wilkinson and Patricia Conroy.

Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. performance cost $35 at the box office, available by calling 705-742-7469 or online at www.showplace.org.

“I can’t wait,” says Brokop from Nashville, her home for more than 25 years now.

“I’ve done the show before but I’ve never done it with the two gals (Wilkinson and Conroy). We’re pretty excited about it. We all love traditional classic country music and we love all those legendary ladies. We’re going to be singing some of our favourites and will tell some stories and have some laughs. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

VIDEO: “Sweet Dreams” by Don Gibson performed by Lisa Brokop

In paying tribute to country music’s early crooners — she has also toured a show titled The Patsy Cline Project — Brokop is relying on country music fans’ loyalty to the genre, which she says is clearly evident. Combined with the nostalgia factor, a show such as this is a no-brainer.

“It’s fun to do my own songs but I love watching the audience and hearing their reaction to the classic songs,” says Brokop.

“Sometimes you’ll see someone look over to the person beside them and you know they’re remembering a moment. Maybe they danced to it or it was a special time or whatever. It really brings a neat energy to the room and takes people back.”

“With country music, I think it’s the simplicity of it; the raw realness of the music, the lyrical content. People are like ‘Oh, I was at so-and-so’s house that night I heard that song’ or ‘I was going through a break-up’…those kinds of things that really make people connect. Or maybe it’s the tone of the voice, like Tammy Wynette’s voice. That tone she had that was so deep and raw and real. You could just tell that she lived what she was singing about.”

VIDEO: “Walkin’ after Midnight” by Alan Block and Donn Hecht performed by Lisa Brokop

For the Peterborough show, Brokop will also sing a selection of her own hit songs — an impressive catalogue in the making since 1990 when, at age 17, she recorded her Canadian top 10 debut single “Daddy, Sing To Me”.

What followed were eight studio albums, more than a dozen top 40 radio hits, and certified gold record sales. As one would expect with such a pedigree, critical acclaim brought her numerous industry accolades and nominations while high-charting subsequent singles — including such as “Give Me A Ring Sometime”, “How Do I Let Go?”, “What’s Not To Love”, “Better Off Broken”, and “Something Undeniable” — cemented her position as one of Canada’s top country music exports.

“I’ve heard a lot of artists say they didn’t choose the music, it chose them,” says Brokop, whose earliest stage experience saw her perform as a child alongside her accordion-playing mother.

“I loved singing from the time I was just a tiny little kid, like while I was in the bathtub. I wouldn’t sing for anybody when I was really young, but my mom would put a recorder outside the bathroom door and record me. I just loved it. That was my happy place … on my swing set, swinging and singing. That was my thing.

“I was about seven and I sang O Canada! for a group of people at a campsite. I was scared to death. I wasn’t going to do it and someone talked me into it. I did it and then my voice cracked at the very end. I was devastated. I started to cry but then the people applauded.

“I think from that moment I was like ‘It’s okay .. you can make a little mistake.’ It could have gone either way but they loved it. That was sort of my open door. Then I found out Nashville is the place where country music singers went and from then on it was like ‘That’s where I’m going to go.’ I was going to be a singer. I was driven.”

VIDEO: “How Do I Let Go” – Lisa Brokop

Not hurting matters was her musical emergence in the early to mid 1990s — a time when female country singers again dominated the radio charts and album sales tracking lists, their huge popularity buoyed by near-constant video play. Brokop says she was “lucky enough” to be part of that renaissance.

“I had success on radio at an early age. Back when I first started recording, there wasn’t a lot of Canadian content on the radio so they were kind of desperate. They had to play a certain amount. That helped boost some of my spins. I also had great support from my parents.

“A lot of blessings came to me and I’m grateful I can still go out and play. Sometimes people are lucky to get a few years and that’s it. I’m still able to do it, which is a good thing because I don’t really have any other education. This is it. I’m a singer and musician.”

VIDEO: “Break It” – Lisa Brokop

At age 45, it’s now all about balance for Brokop.

“I love performing. I love songwriting. I love being at home with my daughter. I don’t want to be on the road 365 days a year. My daughter needs me to be here to pick her up from school and those kinds of regular things. And then having time to write songs. The older you get you start to realize what you want in life and what you don’t need. You prioritize things a little bit differently.”

Brokop notes the current state of country music is shifting.

“We’ve had several years of a lot of guys out there doing the real country thing. In some ways, that’s been really great but it seems that people want to go back a little more of the classic-sounding music. I think people are missing the realness of that.

“People want to feel things. We need real stuff. We have beating hearts that need to be filled. They want to laugh; they want to cry. I think people long for something deeper and honest. Life is hard. Everybody is going through something. Music is a great thing for that.”

Brokop acknowledges that her being comfortable paying tribute to the music of others is a sign of her evolution as a singer.

“It could be maturity … let’s go with that,” she laughs.

“When I was first starting out, I wanted to do my own music and try to find my place but I think, with time, I’ve felt it’s okay to honour others that came first and were part of the reason why I got into the music business and were so influential to me.”

VIDEO: “November Trees” – Lisa Brokop

Hoping to issue a country Christmas classics album later this year, and perhaps put together a Christmas tour, Brokop is clearly in a very good place — a place she remains humble to occupy.

“Sometimes, right before I go on stage and it’s a sold-out show, I just stand there and think ‘Is this for me?’ I just feel like regular little old Lisa Brokop. It’s a kind of a pinch-me moment. I hope I always feel that. Some people view me as a superstar. I’m not. I’m just a regular person. I love to sing. I’ve been given some gifts and I like to use them.”

“Things are different for me now. I’m not looking to have the number one slot on the radio. I’m just doing what I do, which is really fun.”

Meanwhile, for any aspiring singers Brokop offers advice culled from personal experience.

“Know who you are and know what you stand for and what you believe in,” she says.

“The world will get in there and take over and all of a sudden you’ll be doing all these things you didn’t realize you said ‘Yes’ to and things can get out of control very fast. I think, in a lot of ways, the universe works it out for you. I’m a big believer in prayer and lifting it up and I think, with faith, that really does guide things.”

Amanda Wilkinson and Patricia Conroy

By Bruce Head

For her Legendary Ladies of Country show, Brokop will be sharing the stage with country musicians Amanda Wilkinson and Patricia Conroy.

Amanda Wilkinson was born in Belleville in 1982 and raised in Trenton. After her father Steve lost his job at a nuclear power plant, he decided to pursue his passion for music and formed The Wilkinsons with daughter Amanda and her brother Tyler. The family moved to Nashville and released their first album, Nothing But Love, on Giant Records in 1998.

It reached No. 16 on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts and the first single, “26 Cents”, was certified gold in both the United States and Canada. In 2007, The Wilkinsons won Independent Group of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards. In all, The Wilkinsons received nine Canadian Country Music Awards, one Juno Award, and two Grammy nominations before disbanding in 2009.

VIDEO: “Livin On The Outside” – Small Town Pistols with Amanda Wilkinson

In 2004, Amanda began performing on her own, and released her self-titled debut in 2005, leading to nominations for Single of the Year, CMT Video of the Year, Female Artist of the Year, and Album of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards in 2006. After The Wilkinsons disbanded, she and her brother Tyler formed a new country group called Small Town Pistols in 2012, releasing a self-titled album in 2013 that was nominated for a Juno Award in 2014.

Patricia Conroy was born in Montreal in 1964 and raised in a strong musical environment, influenced by her mother’s Maritime country background and her father’s Irish roots. Surrounded by Celtic and country music, she began piano and voice lessons and performed in the family band.

Influenced by the sounds of Emmylou Harris, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, and Jackson Browne, she moved to Vancouver in British Columbia where her band won $10,000 contest in the late 1980s, which allowed her to record demos of some of her original material.

This led to a record deal with Warner Music Canada. Her debut album, Blue Angel, was released in 1990, with two singles, “This Time” and “Take Me With You”, both reaching the top 10 in Canada.

Between 1992 and 2007, Conroy released four more studio records, earning her seven Canadian Country Music Awards and nine British Columbia Country Music Awards. As well as performing, Conroy has been focused on songwriting, with her songs recorded by many Canadian artists including The Rankin Family, Jimmy Rankin, Michelle Wright, Emerson Drive, Small Town Pistols, Tebey, Chad Brownlee, as well as American artists such as Steel Magnolia and Reba McEntire.

VIDEO: “Ain’t Nobody Like You” – Patricia Conroy

On Friday, March 15th, the Anne Shirley Theatre Company (ASTC) transforms Peterborough’s Market Hall into 1931 Berlin with the classic Broadway musical favourite Cabaret.

Directed by Liam Parker and featuring a cast of Trent University students and ASTC alumni, Cabaret presents all the lavish sensuality of German nightlife with all of its charisma, sexuality, and romance, paired with the bleakness of the rise of the Nazi regime in all its horror.

A bold choice for ASTC, Cabaret proves to be a good one, and the student theatre company brings all they have to the stage, creating one of their best musicals in years.

One of the best-loved musicals in the history of theatre, Cabaret found its roots in a 1939 novel called Goodbye to Berlin by English author Christopher Ishwood, which was adapted into a stage show in 1951 titled I am a Camera by playwright John Van Druten.

Based on this unlikely source material for a Broadway musical, Cabaret was created by the team of Joe Maskeroff, Fred Ebb, and John Kander.

Opening at New York’s Broadhurst Theater in November 1966, Cabaret pushed every social and ethical boundary to its limit, but become an instant hit with both audiences and critics, making a sweep that year at the Tony Awards winning a total of eight awards, including Best Musical. The original Broadway run would continue until September 1969 for more than 1,100 performances.

Cabaret would reach an even wider audience in 1972 when director Bob Fosse brought the show to the big screen (although in an altered state) starring Liza Minnelli. Like the stage show before it, Cabaret became the big winner that year at the Oscars, winning seven Academy Awards but losing Best Picture award to The Godfather (still today, Cabaret holds the record for having the most Oscars for a film that did not also win Best Picture).

Although it is beloved by many of my friends and colleagues, I have never seen Cabaret and, until now, had no idea of the plot or premise of the show. I don’t know how this show escaped my cultural radar, but sometimes we just see everything at our own pace.

Thus, as a total Cabaret virgin, I was able to watch the ASTC production with new eyes, and without comparing it to any other previous version. The result had me falling into the drama and tragedy of 1931 Berlin for the very first time, and falling in love with the mirth and music of this powerful stage show.

Cabaret welcomes the audience to the legendary Kit Kat Klub, where the German girls are sexy and the German boys are too hot to handle. You are greeted by charismatic Emcee (Connor Clarkin), who welcomes you to Berlin and acts as your guide through the sights, sounds, and sex the German nights have to offer.

At the centre of the drama is Cliff Bradshaw (Daze Francis), a failed American novelist who comes to Berlin on December 31st, 1930 to find inspiration in the crumbling city. Befriending personable Berliner Ernst Ludwig (Eddy Sweeney) on the train, Cliff rents a room from landlady Fraulein Schnieder (Caitlin Currie) and finds himself at the Kit Kat Klub on New Year’s Eve, where he encounters spunky British performer Salli Bowles (Dani McDonald).

However, before he can sober up and unpack, Cliff’s world turns upside down with Salli suddenly moves in with him and the pair begin an unlikely romance.

While the plot revolves around Cliff and Salli, a more powerful emotional story emerges in the subplot featuring Schnieder and her suitor Herr Schultz (Mark Hiscox). As the two fall into a sweet courtship, their romance is torn apart by the changing political landscape, where the emergence of the Nazis threatens to crush everything, from unlikely lovers to the gaiety of the Berlin cabaret.

The ASTC production of Cabaret is well cast, with Daze bringing a meek sensitivity to Cliff and Dani giving a spritely performance as Salli. The pair gives strong performances, becoming the audience’s anchor for the deeper political backdrop of the show.

But it is Caitlin and Mark who really pull the dramatic punches as middle-aged couple Schnieder and Schultz. Their romance begins so awkwardly beautiful with the gift of a pineapple, and Schneider’s loneliness paired with Schultz’s gentlemanly mannerisms bring a sweetness to the story. But it is a sweetness that is doomed, ushering in the bleak reality of 1930s Germany. Caitlin and Mark are such strong character actors, and they steal the show within every dramatic scene and musical number they perform.

As compelling as the story is, Cabaret is all about the Kit Kat Klub and the seedy romanticism of 1930s Berlin. ASTC’s production team creates a provocative spectacle of appropriate sexual deviance and, no matter how far they push the envelope, they always seem to keep to the spirit of the show. The girls are beautiful, the boys are cool, and everything goes at the cabaret. The big chorus numbers such as “Wilkommen”, “Don’t Tell Mama”, and “Money” are among the performance highlights.

The true shining star of Cabaret is the Emcee performed by Connor Clarkin. Despite knowing nearly nothing about Cabaret going into the show, even I knew about the reputation and the importance of the Emcee and Connor pulls off this complicated role.

Played with a perfect androgynous flare, Connor is both charming and charismatic and delightful to watch. However, when the cabaret is over, he is also able to deliver deep and powerful emotional punches, and during his final moments of his performance I could feel a tear streaming down by face. I’ve seen Connor in a number of shows now, but his performance as the Emcee is the performance of a lifetime.

Further applause goes to Eddy Sweeney as Ernst Ludwig, as well as the beautiful Khora Tatyana as Cliff and Salli’s neighbor Fraulein Kost. Both give charming and funny performances in the first act, which get more sinister as the show goes on.

I also want to give a big shout out to singer Mary Grace Murphy who gives the most outstanding musical performances of the night when she performs on stage with Justin Hiscox’s great orchestra. A fantastic musical performer, Mary Grace adds another layer of musical excellence to this fantastic performance.

As a show that is so beloved by audiences, Cabaret was a daunting show for ATSC to take on, especially since it will be compared to every previous version. I can say, as someone who has never Cabaret before, that ASTC’s production of Cabaret has sent me on my own journey to discover this haunting and beautiful musical in all its forms.

I was delighted by the Kit Kat performers, drawn in by the romance, challenged by the politics, and deeply moved by the ending. If nothing else, ASTC’s production has made a Cabaret fan out of me. Cabaret is truly the best musical that ASTC has put on for a number of years. If you love musicals, enjoy local theatre, or just love Cabaret, please come out and support this show.

I want to congratulate the ASTC for having their best season in the time that I have been covering their shows for kawarthaNOW. I have truly enjoyed the ASTC season this year and look forward to seeing what you bring to the table in 2020. I want to see more shows that are as enjoyable and engaging as Cabaret and The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon. Whatever they did this year, they really got it right.

Cabaret runs for six performances — March 15th and 16th and March 22nd and 23 at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on March 15th and 23th — at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough. Tickets are $25 for cabaret seating, $20 for adults, and $15 for students, seniors, arts workers, and the underwaged. Advance tickets also available at the ASTC office at Trent University.

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, March 14 to Wednesday, March 20.

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.

This weekend come to the Theatre on King (TTOK) in downtown Peterborough to take a journey through the dark world of British playwright Howard Brenton, as directors Shannon McKenzie and Lindy Finlan present two of his short plays, Gum and Goo and Heads.

Featuring the talents of Ange Sorensen, Mark McGilvray, and Derek Bell, both Gum and Goo and Heads are filled with dark humour, dynamic visuals, and compelling character studies within creepy little stories that will twist your emotions and rattle your nerves. This is horror-induced theatre done with a touch of whimsy, but filled with disturbing performances that leave the audience speechless.

Gum and Goo and Heads are two of five short plays written by Howard Brenton packaged under the title “Plays for the Poor Theatre”, intended for small theatrical companies as they have with minimal production and cast requirements but still contain complex themes.

Both making their stage debut on the London stage in 1969, the two plays are different from one another in tone, although both are essentially stories revealing the evil within the human condition. While Heads is a black comedy about one woman’s search for the perfect man, Gum and Goo is a psychodrama dealing with innocence, evil, and the darkness of the soul.

Shannon McKenzie directs Gum and Goo, in which Ange Sorensen plays Mary, an autistic girl who retreats into her own mind during moments of distress where she confers with Gum (Derek Bell) and Goo (Mark McGilvray), the gremlins that live in the darkness in her head. Although on the outside Mary seems victimized and helpless, within her mind a terrifying figure emerges who combines childlike innocence with unbridled evil.

Through a series of interactions between Mary and people she encounters, including playground bullies, a dirty old man, her suffering parents, and a police officer (all performed by Derek and Mark), a new type of horror emerges as the audience hopes that Mary doesn’t really know what she is talking about, although they know that she probably does.

What is interesting about Gum and Goo is that the play opens with Derek and Mark as the schoolyard bullies, identified as being 11 and 12 years old, who seem to have an unknowing sense of evil within their childish dialogue. However, their sense of cruelty is just a soft set-up to the secrets that lie in Mary’s mind, and the ideas that her gremlins attempt to bring to the surface.

Ange Sorensen’s performance as Mary is pure brilliance. She is a child who is simple yet complex, and can seem so helpless and unknowing yet terrifying and dangerous. There are these moments where she seems to completely let go of all of her human inhibitions, and gives herself over to the madness of the character — especially during extreme emotional moments where she allows herself to cry and flail her body around the stage wildly.

She also delivers her lines in a childlike “sing-song” delivery, but finishes with this impish grin and glowing eyes, penetrating the audience’s collective heart with pure terror. Ange’s performance as Mary is one of the rawest and most engaging performances I’ve seen on any stage in a long while, and could be capable of creating nightmares for the people who witness this powerful performance.

Gum and Goo also includes some haunting lighting design, created by Shannon McKenzie, which includes the cast illuminating themselves with flashlights. Timed just right, these simple effects create a chilling visual image that will stay burnt into the memories of audience members.

Just how powerful is Gum and Goo? Well, during the dress rehearsal’s intermission, a small group of TTOK regulars was stunned speechless at the performance they had just been witnessed. For a theatre where just about anything can happen (and it usually does), that says a lot to the effectiveness of Gum and Goo. It really is something special.

Thankfully, Gum and Goo is paired with Heads, directed by Lindy Finlan, which is essentially a clever comedy but with its own twisted moments of darkness. This time Ange plays Megan, a woman in love with two men: Rock, played by Mark, who is a bodybuilder with few brains; and Brian, played by Derek, who is an intellectual with no confidence.

While Megan claims to love both men, it becomes clear she loves Rock only for his body, and Brian only for his mind, but is repulsed by what each man doesn’t have. To find true romance, Megan has to take some extreme measures to get the man that she really wants.

While Gum and Goo is truly Ange’s show, in Heads Mark and Derek get their moments to shine, giving incredible comedic performances as Rock and Brian. While Rock worships his own body, Brian gets off on his own intellect. By playing with voice, posturing and body language, not to mention some clever costuming, Derek and Mark create these characters to be charming and lovable despite their obvious flaws.

But what becomes far more interesting than their relationship with Megan is the relationship eventually created between the two men. As TTOK’s Kate Story rightfully pointed out at the end of the performance, the tenderest moments of the entire night belong to the two male characters during the show’s final moments.

While Derek and Mark take the spotlight in Heads, once again Ange gives a dynamic performance as Megan. Vain and conniving, Megan is an effective foil in how she uses both her body and her mind simultaneously to get what she wants.

Megan is dangerous to Brian and Rock because she has both of the men’s dominant traits, using her gifts to her own advantage. She really doesn’t want Brian and Rock for what they are; essentially, she’s looking for a man who is more like herself. Ange plays sexy evil genius very well.

While all three charcters are essentially one-dimensional stereotypes, if performed well they eventually break out of their tropes and reveal unexpected sides to themselves. The cast of Heads manage to do this beautifully, creating endearing characters that all become audience favourites.

Although Shannon McKenzie and Lindy Finlan are well known within the Peterborou8gh theatrical community for their many various contributions over the years, Gum and Goo and Heads are their directorial debuts. However, their years in theatre have already made them seasoned pros, and that’s reflected in the quality of these two short plays. Together Shannon and Lindy have created one of the most dynamic, smart and haunting nights of theatre that I’ve experienced in a while.

With a trio of extremely talented performers, this double bill of Howard Brenton plays is a perfect night of theatre you shouldn’t miss. These are shows that people will be talking about for months to come, and are sure to enter the canon of TTOK classics.

Gum and Goo and Heads open on Thursday, March 14th and run until Saturday, March 16th at The Theatre on King (171 King St., Peterborough). Tickets are $15 or pay what you can, and the show starts at 8 p.m.