Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Annie: Bellini does Stratford

31 May 2025 -

If you love theatre, you have to love Stratford. They do such great productions. I just got back from a weekend there, where I saw a matinee of Annie and an evening show of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Two musicals, both very different, but both of them definitely worth seeing.

I go to Stratford to hang out with my old friend Howard Kane, who used to write the Show Queen column at fab Magazine. Last year Howard and his partner Domenico moved to Stratford. They were tired of Toronto’s noise and so they bought a big house within walking distance of all three theatres. They just can’t get enough theatre. 

Annie sort of blew me away. Howard told me that he saw the Broadway production when he was just 11 years old and has loved it ever since. It’s being performed at the Festival Theatre, with its legendary thrust stage, and to see huge dance numbers take place on such a large performing area was a real treat. Howard thought the choreography was a bit much and it slowed down the plot, but the plot of Annie is simply ‘red-headed orphan girl looks for birth parents with the help of a billionaire.' The production uses not only nine girls, rehearsed within an inch of their young lives, it also uses two actual dogs. Actors are fond of the saying “Never work with kids or animals, as they will always upstage you,' but the grown-ups in this production seemed to hold their own. 

Years ago, when Howard ran an acting school in North York called The Children’s Theatre Project, he directed a production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, starring his little students as con artists working the rich crowd at the Riviera. The show, playing at the Avon Theatre, is hilarious (it was based on a Steve Martin movie from 1988). The actors in this production were fun, light on their feet, even a bit sexy, and the show moves along with a brisk happy pace. The audience seemed to love it. But where were all the gays? The audience for Annie seemed to consist mostly of young girls (who look like the lead character) and their older chaperones. Annies and grannies. The audience for Scoundrels seemed to be largely straight guys. Gay audiences were certainly courted last season, when the Festival mounted La Cage aux Folles. But this year, the big show is Robert Lepage’s Macbeth, done in the style of Quebec motorcycle gangs, which might be homoerotic but not necessarily of gay interest.

That night, after a lovely dinner we sat down to watch the new documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story. We all thought we knew everything about Liza Minnelli, but the documentary does a good job revealing the truth, that her mother’s death freed her to pursue other mentors like Kay Thompson and Bob Fosse and Halston, all of whom made her a star. If gay theatre has a deity, it has to be Liza Minnelli, and we were happy to worship at her altar. 

We’re lucky to have Stratford. They do great work and spend a lot of time and money to get it right. Oh sure, one can quibble with the casting or the directorial approach to certain shows, but the shows are never indifferent or cheap looking. Howard and Domenico told me that they love when I come visit. Good, as there are always lots of reasons to go to Stratford.