Byron Toben from Westmount Mag reviews Beethoven Lives Upstairs: “Polished acting, crisp body movement and wonderful music that appealed to adults and children alike.”
Read on WestmoutMag.ca: Montreal theatres celebrate milestones
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BEETHOVEN LIVES UPSTAIRS – GEORDIE PRODUCTIONS.
By Byron Toben
B.Toben reviews Beethoven
(Could not resist that intro as our names sound similar and Ludwig’s symphonies are my favourite).
This play had its origins in a popular children’s audiotape made into a 1992 TV film shown around the world. Geordie toured it a few years back and has restaged it as the last show under artistic director Dean Patrick Fleming’s 10-year reign, since succeeding founding director Elsa Bolam.
All in all, polished acting, crisp body movement and wonderful music that appealed to adults and children alike.
The top-notch cast featured Alec McCooeye as the composer, who rented an apartment in Vienna from Leni Parker, the widowed mother of rambunctious 10-year-old Chistoph (Lucinda Davis). The lad initially can’t stand the late night pounding of the deaf genius as he creates above. He complains by letter to his uncle in a different city (Quincy Armorer). Eric Hausknost as Schindler, Beethoven’s publisher, appears from time to time, but cannot soothe the exasperated tot.
Christoph gradually warms to Ludwig, capped by a great scene where the 6’7’’ McCooeye conducts an imaginary 9th symphony on a stormy riverbank, in a visual that conjures up the equally tall Nicola Tesla demonstrating his command of electrical power to investors a century later. Ms. Davis, who has played God (twice) displays her versatility as a petulant boy… lots of stomping and demanding. This bookends the imperiousness of the genius himself, who dismisses a fawning royal courtier with “There are many princes, but only one Beethoven.”
Local audiences may recall Keir Cutler’s Fringe hit a few years ago, Ludwig Van Lunatic, and Brave New Productions’ replication of the Broadway hit 33 Variations last May.
All in all, polished acting, crisp body movement and wonderful music that appealed to adults and children alike.
Dah, duh duh dum…
Beethoven Lives Upstairs ended at Concordia’s D.B. Clarke on May 8.
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