Aimée Beaudoin, Rain Matkin, Jeff Halaby, Tyler Pinsent in Romeo and Juliet’s Notebook, Spotlight Cabaret. Photo by Mint Captures
By Liz Nicholls, .ca
You know that hyped-up dust-up between the Montagues and the Capulets? A mere suburban skirmish compared to the “ancient grudge” and “new mutiny” of the Hendays vs the Yellowheads — “the longest feud in Alberta history … other than that one with the Trudeaus.”
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“Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Strathcona where we lay our scene….” And to be precise, up the stairs (follow the twinkly chandeliers) and into the Spotlight Cabaret, across the street from Meat and the Next Act. That’s where you’ll find Romeo and Juliet’s Notebook, the latest original musical comedy spoof from the nimble wits of Spotlight’s co-proprietors/ co-hosts Aimée Beaudoin and Jeff Halaby.
And, in John Hudson’s production, that’s where you’ll find the star-cross’d lovers, Juliet Henday and Romeo Yellowhead, and “the fearful passage of their death-marked love.” After all, anything involving either the Henday or the Yellowhead is bound to be fearful. But I digress…. Can mad pash (and first-rate song-and-dance expertise) prevail in bridging the unbridgeable? The long-standing hostility between the ring-road bougies and the beer-drinking north end freeway types? And speaking of traffic, and “bike lanes everywhere but no bikes,” the cast is dismayed by the prospect of “the three-hours’ traffic of our stage”— “Whaaat?” — until they get reminded that three hours includes dinner.
Ah, not to mention themed cocktails, whimsically named, along with the delish four-course menu that includes such choices as When Worlds Collide Chicken and Beef Between Us, as well as vegetarian and vegan creations. I can personally recommend the Mine Forever Mahi Mahi.
Anyhow, this is R&J as house party. And Beaudoin and Halaby preside with an air of genial amusement that includes the audience — improvising with them, threading what they learn about anniversaries, birthdays, retirements into the show to follow. No-threat audience participation at its kookiest. And, hey, it’s educational. For centuries Shakespeare scholars have somehow been missing the clear references in Romeo and Juliet to Sturgeon County and the Leduc Canadian Tire (“with a garden centre”). Here is the cabaret that fills in that gap.
When the show starts, with Don’t You Worry Child (Swedish House Mafia), Beaudoin and Halaby dip with energetically into an array of costumes, accents, and wigs (designer: Beaudoin), as the earthy lifestyle coach Nurse, a manic Italian Friar Laurence (his hair will make you smile), the hothead Mercutia, the cowboy Tybalt, the high-contrast dads, Henday and Yellowhead, and Lord Escalade of St. Albert (a ringer from the audience). They are busy.
Tyler Pinsent and Rain Matkin in Romeo and Juliet’s Notebook, Spotlight Cabaret. Photo by Mint Captures
And we meet the starry love-struck teenagers: Rain Matkin, as the dewy innocent Juliet, who’s got a lot more on the ball than the dimbulb Yellowhead son and heir Romeo, played with amusingly goofy charm by Tyler Pinsent. Matkin, a recent MacEwan theatre grad, is one of the season’s hottest new prospects, highly watchable and with a supple voice that wraps around songs like Nelly Furtado’s I’m Like A Bird or Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe with ease.
Coming up is the social event of the year, the Henday Holiday Costume Party. Romeo’s buddies come up with “two tickets to paradise,” as per the Eddie Money song, in a mashup with Pink’s I’m Coming Out. Under musical director Simon Abbott, who’s the reigning monarch of the witty, apt mashup, the cast mines an Millennial-fave song list dozens and dozens long. With choreography to match from Mhairi Berg and Sarah Dowling. Yup, as they say, “Strathcona knows how to party.”
The sound is perfectly judged for the space by design whiz Aaron Macri, who also does the romantic (and anti-romantic) lighting. “But soft what light through yonder window breaks?”
Rain Matkin and Tyler Pinsent in Romeo and Juliet’s Notebook, Spotlight Cabaret. Photo by Mint Captures.
Romeo is an interloper, a Yellowhead who’s crashed the big Henday bash, but, hey, the guy’s willing to change his name for love — “Motorhead? Blackhead?”. The scene in which R and J discover just how much they have in common is a charmer (with thanks to Ed Sheeran and Perfect). My own personal favourite is the reassessment of Alanis Morissette’s Ironic. Is it irony or just bad luck? The Nurse has thoughts on that.
It’s all framed, à la Notebook, by an older version of the characters, Romeo and Juliet on video (Glenn Nelson and Davina Stewart) remembering their younger selves. And the stage design includes old-school painted backdrops by Jaimie Cooney.
Romeo and Juliet’s Notebook is light on its feet, it’s silly-smart, smart-ass, and the songs keep coming at you. The shameless comical way local references are part of the romance — Spotlight is devoted to local in pursuit of fun — will make you laugh. As Lady Gaga has it, “I don’t wanna be friends; I want your bad romance.”
REVIEW
Romeo and Juliet’s Notebook
Theatre: Spotlight Cabaret, 8217 104 St.
Created by: Aimée Beaudoin and Jeff Halaby
Directed by: John Hudson
Starring: Rain Matkin, Tyler Pinsent, Aimée Beaudoin, Jeff Halaby
Running: through May 15
Tickets: spotlightcabaret.ca
