{"id":9729,"date":"2014-12-12T00:39:56","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T08:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=9729"},"modified":"2014-12-11T00:54:57","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T08:54:57","slug":"laughter-guaranteed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/12\/12\/laughter-guaranteed\/","title":{"rendered":"Laughter guaranteed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Left to right, Josh Drebit, Donna Soares, Allan Zinyk and James Long in Cinderella: An East Van Panto. (photo by Emily Cooper)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If Canada wants to be an energy super power, it\u2019s going to have to run some pipelines through some plays. Well, some pantos. Starting with Cinderella: An East Van Panto<\/em>, now on at the York Theatre until Dec. 28.<\/p>\n

As with the inaugural East Van Panto last year, which took Jack & the Beanstalk<\/em> to strange and hilarious new heights, this Cinderella<\/em> is only loosely based on the fairy tale. In this version, Ella \u2013 Cinderella is only a mean nickname given to her by her wicked step-hipsters (not a typo) \u2013 loses her mother in a tragic food truck accident. Her father directs his grief to improving safety standards and is awarded for his efforts with the Mike Duffy Food Truck Safety Award, or something along those lines. He falls in love with the Government of Canada representative who presents him the medal. Marriage soon follows, the father is offered a senatorship, which takes him to Ottawa, leaving his beloved Ella \u2013 played wonderfully as the straight man to everyone else\u2019s wackiness by Donna Soares \u2013 in the hands of her stepmother.<\/p>\n

In true panto fashion, Ella\u2019s new family is played by Allan Zinyk as the matriarch and Josh Drebit and James Long as her sisters. As they order Cinderella about, the audience gets to boo every meanness, and cheer Cinderella\u2019s every win. While Jewish community member Drebit ably pulls off the fishnets, his comedic talents really shine as Feral Cat. Drebit, Long (as Rat) and Dawn Petten (as Old Crow) are about as far away from Disney cartoon birds and other forest animals as one can get, but \u201cthe other vermin,\u201d three young actors as mice, are absolutely adorable \u2013 and, in a panto, the audience is allowed to \u201cooh and ahh\u201d at their cuteness.<\/p>\n

Zinyk also plays bad guy Ronald Grump, costumed in a business suit and an awful wig that\u2019s only marginally worse than that worn by the character\u2019s inspiration, Donald Trump. King Grump decides to hold a ball (there are lots of ball jokes, FYI) to celebrate the opening of Grump Towers (plural, even though there\u2019s only one). At the ball, there will be a beauty pageant \u2013 a speed-dating marathon, actually \u2013 to find a wife for his son, played by Petten channeling Justin Bieber. (Petten also plays the hippy narrator\/canvasser, Len Til, to perfection.)<\/p>\n

And this brings us back to pipelines, and the spills that the suit-wearing, hard-hatted forewoman notes \u201conly happen in movies and on the news.\u201d As the chorus (pipe)line is passing through Cinderella\u2019s family home, sadly, there is a spill \u2013 a spill that Cinderella must clean up before she can go to the ball. With the help of her vermin friends and, in one of the funniest scenarios to be conceived, a vacuum-harmonica-playing David Suzuki (played by Zinyk, you have to see it to believe it) and her B.C. Ferry Godmother, the belle gets to the ball.<\/p>\n

But does she marry her prince? You\u2019ll have to go to the panto for the answer \u2013 and for all the witty, weird, Vancouver-specific humor, the inventive costumes (Cinderella\u2019s gown appears like magic), the charming music, the fitting choreography, the inspired sets and props, the bold and beautiful backdrops.<\/p>\n

With Cinderella<\/em>, the creative team of playwright Charles Demers, musician Veda Hille and director Amiel Gladstone have improved on what was already an intelligent, silly, energetic, crowd-pleasing formula. The lead actors in this year\u2019s production are joined by the very talented chorus of Bailey Soleil Creed, Sean Sonier (who rocks a tutu) and Alexandra Wever, as well as the children who share the roles of the mice.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering what to give that person on your Chanukah list who has everything, at least 99 percent of non-Grumps would enjoy this show. For times and tickets, visit thecultch.com<\/a> or call 604-251-1363.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left to right, Josh Drebit, Donna Soares, Allan Zinyk and James Long in Cinderella: An East Van Panto. (photo by Emily Cooper) If Canada wants to be an energy super power, it\u2019s going to have to run some pipelines through some plays. Well, some pantos. Starting with Cinderella: An East Van Panto, now on at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[2754,2751,2749,2752,2757,2756,2753,2755,493,2750],"class_list":["post-9729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-allan-zinyk","tag-amiel-gladstone","tag-charles-demers","tag-cinderella","tag-dawn-petten","tag-donna-soares","tag-east-van-panto","tag-james-long","tag-josh-drebit","tag-veda-hille"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}