FRINGE 2019: Four of Colin MacLean’s Favourite Musicals
Coat of Many Colours
Stage 41 (CKUA Performance Space)
Andrea House is one of our best singers. She gives each song she sings a specific life of its own. Like Streisand and Lady Gaga you feel that the song has been wrung out of every subtlety, lyric intelligence and musical significance it can possibly offer. She is blessed with a wide vocal range and a supple and fluid delivery.
For the past few years the writer-producer-performer has been using CKUA’s Performance Space on Jasper Avenue to present a series of Fringe shows celebrating well known country and folk stars – most notably last year’s Chasing Willie Nelson.
Her subject this year is Dolly Parton – and we get two Dolly Partons for the price of one, as House is joined by the equally talented Gianna Read-Skelton, who has been very busy recently in Edmonton musical theatre. Dolled out in Parton wigs and country attire, sporting impressive Tennessee twang, the two are remarkable on their own and approach the celestial when they sing together. They also narrate together and strike up a warm and funny relationship on stage.
We all know Dolly Parton. She’s worth somewhere north of $500 million – sharing the most Grammy nominations of all time with Bruce Springsteen. We know of her rags-to-riches story, her conquering of the country and then the pop charts, then movies and TV shows. Through it all Parton has managed to keep much of her personal life away from the public, and I’m not sure if House has managed to pierce the star’s private iron curtain either. But she sure has done her research and you get to know a lot about the often tortured life of the star.
House has assembled a hootenanny of an entertaining evening. First is Parton’s own rich catalogue of more 3,000 songs with their musicality, social presence, cheeky references and down home philosophy. Out of that treasure trove House has chosen such songs as Jolene, I Will Always Love You (in a rendition that may reduce you to tears), Here You Come Again, 9 to 5 (which develops into a showstopper) and Parton’s tribute to her mother, Coat of Many Colours.
As usual House’s backup is provided by consummate local musicians: Harley Symington and Erik Mortimer are superb, as is special guest Austin guitar virtuoso Mitch Watkins.
And since many of those decade-spanning songs come with their own rich memories, there is more at work here then just great tunes.
5 out of 5
