Category: Music

Izad Etemadi as Buddy the Elf: ‘It’s fully a dream come true’

As he honed the role of Samuel for the world premiere of the musical Grow earlier this year, Canadian-Iranian actor Izad Etemadi had no idea he’d be back at London’s Grand Theatre so soon. And this time, in a lead role.

Artistic director Dennis Garnhum, however, was already thinking seven months ahead. Among those thoughts: asking Etemadi whether he’d be interested in the role of Buddy in this year’s holiday production of Elf, The Musical.

“[During the run of Grow], my husband, Bruce, asked whether I’d settled on who would play Buddy,” Garnhum said. “I said I hadn’t. He said I think you’ve found him…. The very next day, [former executive director] Deb Harvey suggested the same thing. As Samuel, Izad showed he could charm you and entertain you. He had heart.”

Izad Etemadi
Izad Etemadi

“Dennis told me that story not long ago,” Etemadi said this week. “He sent an email [in spring] asking whether I’d consider playing the role of Buddy. I sent back a coy response: ‘Yes, I’d consider it. Please contact my agent.'”

Etemadi’s casual reply, however, belied his excitement about the offer. Aware of the physical demands of the role, he immediately began weekly voice lessons, which soon ramped up to twice-weekly. He learned the music over the summer and began memorizing lines three weeks ahead of rehearsals so that he could go off-book as quickly as possible.

“On a personal and emotional level, this is the kind of role I’ve always dreamed of getting to do,” Etemadi said. “I’ve found sometimes in musical theatre people didn’t always know what to do with me…. With Buddy, I get to sing, I get to dance, I get to make people laugh for two hours. But it also has so much heart; it’s the really moving story that drives the whole show forward. Fourteen-year-old me would be in shock right now… it’s fully a dream come true.

Izad Etemadi and Buddy the Elf
Izad Etemadi as Buddy the Elf in the Grand Theatre’s 2022 production of Elf, The Musical. Photo by Morris Lamont

Script and songs aside, Etemadi says the physical demands of playing the energetic, unworldly Buddy are a challenge all their own.

“It’s a lot. It’s, straight up, two hours of me talking and singing and screaming non-stop, but I started the process really early, because it’s the first time I’ve been the lead-lead-lead of a show…. The big thing has actually been learning how to yell healthily on stage. Buddy is always very excited. It’s really easy to get swept up in that excitement and then shout improperly. There’s a lot of yelling in the first 20 minutes, so if you’re not doing that properly, the rest of the show is going to be really, really difficult. Also, you have to get it to a cadence that’s funny and not annoying. There’s a really fine line.”

Garnhum and Etemadi agree that audiences will expect certain lines and gags from the 2003 motion picture Elf, starring Will Ferrell, to show up on stage; however, the musical version doesn’t slavishly follow the hyperactive thrust of the film. Whereas the movie is steeped in frenetic realism, the musical version is more fantastical, honouring audience expectations but telling a more heart-rending story, Garnhum said.

“And I’m not 6-2,” said Etemadi. “I went into this thinking this is not going to be the Will Ferrell version; this is going to be my version. And that’s what I’m going to give to the audience. Because this is a musical adaptation, there are so many new things for the audience that, while they’re going to be familiar with the story, they’re not seeing the movie on stage.

Izad Etemadi with Michelle Bardach and Ma-Anne Dionisio
Buddy (Izad Etemadi) enjoys a bowl of spaghetti with Emily (Ma-Anne Dionisio), left, and Michelle (Riley Deluca). Photo by Morris Lamont

“Emotionally, everything has to be played for real. It has to come from the heart…. It’s funny and it’s over the top and it’s silly, but it’s grounded in so much truth that, when it does get sad and when it does get moving, we’re all going to feel it as well. And that lets the funny stuff be even funnier. So I’m really hoping we can have justice for Buddy.

“It’s a challenging role, but this process with this company and this theatre has been one of the best that I’ve ever been in. Everything has gone smoothly, everyone is so positive … it’s been magic,” Etemadi said.

Elf, The Musical has a history at the Grand as being one of the theatre’s most successful shows. It boosted the institution’s bottom line in 2013, when former artistic director Susan Ferley directed and actor Liam Tobin played the role of Buddy. More than 20,000 tickets have already been sold for the current production, with shows extended to New Year’s Eve. It had originally been slated to close on Christmas Eve.

Elf: The Musical
Book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin
Music by Matthew Sklar
Lyrics by Chad Beguelin
Directed by Dennis Garnhum
Musical director: Alexandra Kane
The Grand Theatre, London, Ont.
November 22-December 31, 2022
Buy tickets here.

Buddy the Elf with Jovie
Buddy (Izad Etemadi) tries to befriend Jovie (Michelle Bardach) in the Grand Theatre’s 2022 production of Elf, The Musical. Photo by Morris Lamont

(More photos are available on freelance photographer Morris Lamont’s Facebook page. A preview of the show by London Free Press entertainment writer Joe Belanger is here.)

We should all shout ‘Bravo!’

There are moments in the cultural life of a city that should be remembered as nothing less than a triumph. What happened Saturday night, at the corner of Wellington Street and Dufferin Avenue in London, Ont., was one of them.

London Symphonia‘s season-opening concert at Metropolitan United Church was more than an evening of orchestral music. It was the dramatic, even cathartic, meeting of two story lines: that of a skilled and undaunted ensemble that has wandered an artistic wilderness for nearly a decade in search of place to call home, and that of a faith congregation in the heart of the city that seized an opportunity to transform its space into one that could serve as both a place of worship and an arts hub. Saturday night’s result was as brilliant as the autumnal colours of the weekend and as glorious as its warm sunshine.

London Symphonia performs En el Escuro, es Todo Uno, by Kelly-Marie Murphy, under the direction of conductor Gordon Gerrard, at Metropolitan United Church on Oct. 22, 2022.

The concert, dubbed We Are All One, after the double concerto for harp and cello by Kelly-Marie Murphy titled En el Escuro, es Todo Uno (In the Darkness, All is One), was spectacular for its music alone. Murphy’s evocative score revealed the skilful artistry of harpist Angela Schwarzkopf and the prodigious talent of cellist Cameron Crozman. But layer on the culmination of a $1.65-million renovation, jointly financed by the church and the orchestra, and the evening became a landmark event. It was a brand new space — not even Metropolitan’s congregants, who had spearheaded the fundraising, will gather in the renovated sanctuary until Oct. 30. One could hear the understated satisfaction in the voice of Al Edwards, chair of the renovation steering committee, during opening introductions: “This is really going to happen,” he said, with a hint of emotion. “It’s tremendous.” And it was.

Al Edwards, chair of the joint renovation steering committee, welcomes patrons to London Symphonia’s new home at Metropolitan United Church at the start of yesterday’s concert.
Kelly-Marie Murphy

Akasha, (meaning “sky” in Sanskrit) by Canadian composer Glenn Buhr, offered a foretaste of the exotic sounds and rhythms that would pervade the first half of the evening, while Mendelssohn’s familiar Symphony No. 4 in A major (“Italian”) closed the program, post-intermission. The concert’s centrepiece, however, was Murphy’s remarkable double concerto, which premiered in Montreal in 2018. The composition draws on songs from the Sephardic tradition for each of its four movements, together with Bulgarian, Turkish and Balkan influences. The concerto’s third movement, the Cadenza Yigdal, was arresting in both the emotion it evoked and the musical virtuosity it revealed. Conductor Gordon Gerrard, in his sixth season as leader of the Regina Symphony Orchestra, brought a casual yet masterful, business-like style to the podium, displaying an ease with audience interaction as he offered an unscripted, light-hearted introduction to the Mendelssohn work.

Harpist Angela Schwarzkopf and cellist Cameron Crozman perform En el Escuro, es Todo Uno, by Kelly-Marie Murphy, on Nov. 22, 2022, in London, Ont.

After two years of experimenting with live-streaming as a box-office option, London Symphonia appears to have mastered that aspect of its business plan too, with the help of Stratford-based Stream Studio. (Much as I would have loved to have been there in person, I opted for the livestream of Saturday’s concert. I’ll leave it to others to evaluate the acoustics of Metropolitan’s new space.) The livestream’s production values are high: superb direction, timely switching, sharp and focused video and a rich sound quality. The best I’ve seen and heard.

Amid the information desert that is London, Ont., on weekends, it’s easy to miss — or worse, dismiss — events of this import. But Saturday’s concert was a marvellous, exultant feat, both on the stage and off.

Here’s a time-lapse video produced by Metropolitan than speeds through the orchestra’s rehearsal on Thursday evening:

A guide to the remainder of London Symphonia’s 2022-23 season is here.

Review: London Symphonia renders a smouldering 19th-century love story

If the word “love” denotes deep affection, yearning and commitment, and if the word “story” means a series of events connected to a each other over a period of time, then the relationship between pianist Clara Schumann and composer Johannes Brahms was a love story indeed — one which may or may not have been consummated.

That was the mystery teased out by London Symphonia and its guest performers last night at Metropolitan United Church, under the baton of Saskatoon-based conductor Eric Paetkau.

Marion Adler
Marion Adler

The program, conceived by actor and singer Marion Adler (currently playing Grandma Elliot in the Stratford Festival’s extended run of Billy Elliot The Musical), stitches together the music of Schumann, her husband Robert Schumann, and Brahms in a way that tells a story of deep friendship, longing and undying commitment. Adler played the part of Clara Schumann; her husband, Stratford-based actor and director Scott Wentworth, read the lines penned by Brahms.

Only a handful of the dozens of letters exchanged between Schumann and Brahms survive. But the careful interspersing of text and music is an inspired way of relaying, to today’s audiences, a complex relationship more than century in the past. The extracts harken back to a time when desire, yearning and longing were essential elements of love and being in love; when instant gratification was uncouth and digital connectedness unimaginable.

Among the excerpts from Schumann were hints of satisfaction over the applause that greeted and stirred her in Vienna, but also the tedium that awaited her among the musically unwashed masses of Belgium. There were flashes of jealousy over “your new lady pupils.” She wrote of her deep appreciation for the music of her husband, Robert, and the depths of her sadness over his death, especially when “they bore him away.” She repeatedly yearned to see Brahms again, expressing ecstasy over his most recent compositions and, more practically, hoping that each of her seven children would, by the time they are 20, be able to earn their own livings.

From the pen of Brahms flowed frustration over his vocation (“It is really no fun to teach children”), the distance between himself and Clara (“Your portrait is looking kindly down upon me . . . I am thinking too much of you”) and the “kisses too intangible” between them. And as the concert drew to a close, Brahms’ declarations became ever more plain and direct: “I love you more than myself, more than anyone else.”

Orchestra and piano tied the letters together. London Symphonia played beautifully through all four movements of Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90(though they were separated by the actors’ recitations), Variation I and Variation IV from Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by R. Schumann, Op. 9, and four sections from Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a.

Augmenting those performances was the brilliance of pianist Stéphan Sylvestre, an associate professor in the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University, who punctuated the Schumann-Brahms story with four of Robert Schumann’s Bunte Blätter, Op. 99, as well as four selections from Clara Schumann’s Variations on a Theme by R. Schumann, Op. 20. Sylvestre’s performance of Variation V was a statement in itself about his virtuosity — absolutely thrilling.

The concert demonstrated — and validated — what London Symphonia sees as an important goal this season: the use of music, drama and spoken word to tell stories and explore contemporary themes, not in a didactic way, but through a playfulness and accomplished musicianship that stirs listeners’ spirits, engages their minds and prods their imaginations.

The evening’s printed program also included a prominent tribute to London Symphonia’s founding board chair, Paul Weaver, who passed away in May. Members of his family were in attendance. An online obituary is here.

London Symphonia’s next concert, Take Me to the Cabaret, is scheduled for Oct. 29 at Talbot Street Church.

Review: Titanic The Musical, the 2019 High School Project

Titanic The Musical
The 2019 High School Project
The Grand Theatre, London, Ontario
Runs Sept. 17-Sept. 28, 2019
Story and book by Peter Stone
Music and lyrics by Maury Yeston
Directed by Andrew Tribe
Musical director Andrew Petrasiunas

Cast shot at media call on Sept. 17, 2019
The cast of Titanic The Musical in the Grand Theatre’s 2019 High School Project. Photo by Whitney South

In a 1998 interview with Contemporary Musicians writer Mary Kalfatovic, composer Maury Yeston explained that it was the positive aspects of what the Titanic represented that moved him to embark on writing the musical about the fated ship. Among those were: “1) humankind’s striving after great artistic works and similar technological feats, despite the possibility of tragic failure, and 2) the dreams of the passengers on board: 3rd Class, to immigrate to America for a better life; 2nd Class, to live a leisured lifestyle in imitation of the upper classes; 1st Class, to maintain their privileged positions forever.

“The collision with the iceberg dashed all of these dreams simultaneously, and the subsequent transformation of character of the passengers and crew had, it seemed to me, the potential for great emotional and musical expression onstage.”

To successfully portray such poignancy and tragedy would be a challenge for the most skilled stage actors, let alone high school students with limited lived experience: By the show’s intermission, the Titanic’s hull has already been breached. Act 2 is the extended process by which the ship’s captain, crew and passengers face their unsinkable ship’s demise and reckon with their imminent fates.

The London-area teens who bring this production to life are at their best when they’re imagining, dreaming, yearning, wishing — emotions with which they are well acquainted. The more subtle and complex demands of Act 2 — hubris, separation, regret, unfulfilled lives and the prospect of a death so near its saltiness can already be tasted — are less familiar to them and, consequently, less convincing.

There are occasional missed notes and dropped lines. But there are also standout performances and flashes of promise. Among them: Mikéla Marcellin as second-class passenger Caroline Neville, Max Webb Comor as first officer William Murdoch, Sarah Dennison as Titanic designer Thomas Andrews, Leyla Boyacigil as White Star Line chairperson J. Bruce Ismay, Clare Scanlon as first-class passenger Ida Straus, Carter Keane as first-class steward Henry Etches, Matthew deKort as stoker Frederick Barrett and Lauren Gillis as second-class passenger Alice Beane.

Bradley Amesse is sturdily measured and authoritative in his role as Titanic Capt. E.J. Smith, while Tanner Hamlin puts every ounce of energy he possesses into his role as bandmaster Wallace Hartley. And Daniel McKinnon, consigned to the more minor role of Harold Bride, the ship’s radio operator, telegraphs a firm command of his talents.

From media call on Sept. 17
Jack Crim and Lauren Gillis, both Grade 12 students at H.B. Beal Secondary School, portray second-class passengers Edgar and Alice Beane. Photo by Whitney South

This High School Project is ambitious and daring. It was a bold choice. Unlike many previous HSPs, this one has no signature tune, no song that patrons will walk out humming, and no ending that satisfyingly resolves any of the sub-plots within. The iceberg ends all. But this cast and crew meet those challenges without blinking. These students are ambitious, zealous and in firm possession of a story that is both inspiring and tragic — a success for director Andrew Tribe.

There is another layer to this production too. With the show’s run coinciding (inadvertently) with the global climate strike, the comparisons between the Titanic and the fate of Planet Earth are easily apparent. The students on stage will be forced to live through whatever climate legacy the rest of us leave them. Questions about the course we’ve set for the planet; the impacts of our carelessness, negligence and even recklessness; the impending collisions between our dreams and natural science; and whether there’s still time to change course, avoiding a cataclysm ahead — all of these come into focus. They are questions begging for answers, raised by a hard-working cast for whom some future consequence is already inescapable.

For another take on this show, see London Free Press journalist Dan Brown’s review here.

Belonging, revisited

On the eve of its new season, London Symphonia has posted a superb video from its concert titled Belonging: A Journey of Longing and Discovery, performed at Talbot Street Church in London, Ont., on Feb. 2. The segment runs a generous one hour and 11 minutes.

The concert featured London poet Najwa Zebian, with songstress Maryem Tollar and London Symphonia players, in a performance that blended Najwa’s poetry and texts with music by Léo Delibes, Astor Piazolla, original Arabic-influence songs by Tollar and Yalla Tnam Rima, a traditional Lebanese lullaby. Zebian and Tollar collaborated with London Symphonia composer-in-residence Scott Good to create a new song, titled Phoenix Rising, as part of the larger piece.

Conducted by pianist Good, the ensemble consisted of violinists Joseph Lanza and Andrew Chung, violist Marie-Eve Lessard, cellist Christine Newland, bassist Fil Stasiak, flutist Liesel Deppe, clarinetist Marie Johnson and percussionist Graham Hargrove.

Titanic The Musical prepares to set sail

In the spring of 2016, as Grand Theatre artistic director Susan Ferley was concluding her tenure, I asked Ottawa-based theatre writer Patrick Langston about the yardsticks by which ADs should be measured. What makes theatre ADs successful and how should we evaluate their contributions to their theatres and communities?

The resulting column listed a number of Langston’s criteria; among them, whether the AD had managed to develop “local theatre makers” (actors, designers, technicians, playwrights), especially young people, who could reinvigorate the local theatre community.

Over the course of 34 productions spanning 21 years, the Grand Theatre’s primary tool for achieving that goal has been the High School Project. Launched by Michael Shamata and nurtured by successive ADs Kelly Handarek, Ferley and Dennis Garnhum, the HSP has grown steadily in popularity and reach.

Like many previous productions, this year’s HSP is a formidable challenge. Titanic: The Musical premiered on Broadway in 1997, winning all five Tony Awards for which it was nominated, and has since toured worldwide. Like its namesake, it is a monumental piece of work that will pose a significant challenge to the 50 students in the cast, supported by another 20 students in production positions. The students come from 12 different schools within the Thames Valley District School Board and the London District Catholic School Board. One student is home-schooled. By far the largest plurality of students (30!) hails from H.B. Beal Secondary School.

Illustrates blog post
Cast members of the 2019 High School Project appear at a media call for Titanic The Musical, on Sept. 17, 2019. Photo by Whitney South

Titanic: The Musical officially opens at the Grand Theatre on Sept. 20 and runs through Sept. 28. It’s directed by Londoner Andrew Tribe, best known for his work as artistic director at Original Kids Theatre. Check back later for a brief review. A link to The London Free Press’s advancer on the show is here.

Previous HSP productions:
1998: West Side Story (May 7-16; Michael Shamata, director)
1999: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (May 14-22; Michael Shamata, director)
2000: Guys and Dolls (April 28-May 6; Kelly Handarek, director)
2001: Hello, Dolly! (April 10-22; Kelly Handarek, director)
2002: Oliver! (April 3-14; Susan Ferley, director)
2003: The Music Man (April 8-20; Susan Ferley, director)
2004: Fiddler on the Roof (April 14-25; Susan Ferley, director)
2005: Oklahoma! (April 5-17; Campbell Smith, director); The Sound of Music (Sept. 27-Oct. 9; Susan Ferley, director)
2006: Twelfth Night (April 4-8; Susan Ferley, director); West Side Story (Sept. 13-30; Susan Ferley, director)
2007: Romeo and Juliet (April 17-21; Susan Ferley, director); Les Misérables, School Edition (Sept. 25-Oct. 6; Susan Ferley, director)
2008: Listen to the Wind (April 15-19; Andrea Boys, director); The Pirates of Penzance (Sept. 23-Oct. 4; Susan Ferley, director)
2009: As You Like It (May 5-9; Lee Wilson, director); Grease (Sept. 22-Oct. 3; Susan Ferley, director)
2010: Macbeth (April 6-10; Heather Davies, director); Anything Goes (Sept. 21-Oct. 2; Heather Davies, director)
2011: The Odyssey (April 5-9; Jeremy Smith, director); Footloose (Sept. 20-Oct. 1; Heather Davies, director)
2012: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (April 24-28; Jeremy Smith, director); My Fair Lady (Sept. 17-28; Susan Ferley, director)
2013: The Taming of the Shrew (April 23-27; Jack Grinhaus, director); Legally Blonde (Sept. 17-28; Susan Ferley, director)
2014: The Importance of Being Earnest (April 22-26; Jamie Dunsdon, director); The Addams Family: A New Musical (Sept. 16-27; Susan Ferley, director)
2015: Much Ado About Nothing (April 21-25; Krista Jackson, director); Hello, Dolly! (Sept. 22-Oct. 3; Susan Ferley, director)
2016: Julius Caesar (April 12-16; Megan Watson, director); Les Misérables, School Edition (Sept. 20-Oct. 1; Susan Ferley, director)
2017: Shakespeare: The Mixtape (April 6-8; Megan Watson, director); Evita (Sept. 19-30; Jan Alexandra Smith, director)
2018: Prom Queen: The Musical (Sept. 18-29; Dennis Garnhum, director)

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