New wave musical fest ends with flower power

Byron Toben

September, 2010

The only Broadway creators who did their own book, music and lyrics sans collaborators were Irving Berlin and Cole Porter.

N.D.G.’s Jean Elliott Manning wants to join that august company with Daisy and the Wonder Weeks, an eco-musical work-in-progress that wowed audiences at a two-day showcase at Theatre Monument.

It was the closing presentation of four summer musicals held in Montreal by Stephen Pietrantoni’s CETM outfit (which organizes Le Spotlight in the winter to feature local, emerging talent).

Photo: http://junior.britannica.com

The show, now in its off-off-off-off-Broadway stage, has potential, director Andrew Cuk says. Besides the trendy plot, development vs. nature, paving paradise to put up a parking lot (or more precisely, a condo development), Manning has wisely included a variety of musical genres, ranging from ballad to rap to bluegrass to Latin.

The Montreal area’s two outlying summer theatres also closed their seasons: Knowlton’s Theatre Lac Brome with an insightful Shakespeare’s Will and Hudson’s Village Theatre with Alan Ayckbourn’s gripping Snake in the Grass. Look forward to Hudson’s Irish-themed Wake of the Bones by David Gow in late October.