Photo by Dahlia Katz
After the Rain, book by Rose Napoli, music and lyrics by Suzy Wilde, music direction by Rachel O’Brien, directed and dramaturg by Marie Farsi.
How much did I love the new Canadian musical After the Rain?
If there had been a recording I would have bought it in an instant. I loved the music, and more to the point, I was profoundly touched by the story almost to the point of tears. Furthermore, that After the Rain is based on true events just added to the emotional heart that makes this musical such compelling drama.
After the Rain is about a family and what happens when their varied interests begin to break apart.
Suzie Evans Stone (Annika Tupper) has grown up surrounded by music. Her father Ashley Evans (Andrew Penner) and her mother Jean Stone (Deborah Hay) are the nucleus of the legendary Canadian rock band Evans Stone. Suzie (a fictionalized version of composer/lyricist Suzy Wilde) is herself a burgeoning if troubled songwriter who has her own ideas of how to make music which is at odds with the family, particularly with her mother..
The music is diegetic (a new word for me) which means the songs occur within the world of the narrative – we see them happening in real time, which adds an interesting flavour to the mix. I would call Wilde’s music classic rock, ageless, timeless, but also memorable, tuneful, beat-driven, on the heavy side, which added together, holds you in its sway.
The catalyst for the family conflict begins when Suzie substitutes for her father with new piano student Donna (also played by Hay). Donna has a special request. She wants to learn to play just one piece of music – French composer Eriik Satie’s famous and very challenging Gymnopédie No. 1 (1888). Donna’s family includes husband Frank (Andrew Penner also double cast) and son Julian (Shaemus Swets), with Julian becoming an important figure to Suzie.
Already straining for independence, Suzie’s growing interface with the upscale D’Angelo family causes her to redefine her values and her goals, the biggest battle of wills happening with her mother. Meanwhile, Evans Stone is trying to put new songs together for a potential album and t\ensions are funning high..The other talented band members are the happily married drummer Joe” Jojo”Bpwdem (Jo Kunkel) and the much-divorced Mickey Mintz (Brandon McGibbon).
Suzie is the narrator, but she is also an honest broker, always telling the truth, even to the character’s own detriment which makes her all the more endearing. Tupper is absolutely outstanding, a multi talent who can act, sing and play an instrument in brilliant fashion, not to mention possessing charisma up the whazoo. The engaging Swets is someone to watch, a charmer if ever there was, while Hay and Penner in their dual roles are their usual peerless selves,and one would expect nothing less of them. Kunkel and Gibbon are fabulous musicians.
One of the delightful surprises of the script is audience participation. You may be chosen to be Suzie’s hot but stupid boyfriend or a four-year-old in a ukulele class, but whatever the task, it is laugh out funny, Another enjoyable aspect of the show, but on a different level, is seeing how music is made, watching a song, in fact a couple of them, being born, including the title tune.
David Boechler’s set has a central platform that can be a stage, but can also be transformed into a grand piano or a band keyboard, with playing space around the edges. Director Farsi has treated After the Rain like theatre in the round,and as the lives of the characters grow in turmoil, so do they revolve around the stage. In a small space like the Tarragon, it’s amazing how lighting designed Logan Raju Cracknell and sound designer Brian Kenny can actually create the feel and excitement of a rock concert.
After the Rain is a show that takes you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. It’s about the constraints of love and breaking free. Napoli’s script knows how to tug at the heartstrings without ever getting sappy while Wilde has given us a set of songs you want to hear again the minute the show is over.
I would call the world premiere of After the Rain a triumph.