Chickens

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Chickens

Playwright/composer - Book by Lucia Frangione and Royal Sproule, music by Royal Sproule and Lewis Frere with Mark Lewandowski, Jason Bertch and Bill Hamm. Lyrics unknown.

Production Company/Theatre space – Fire Exit Theatre / Engineered Air Theatre at the Werklund Centre.

Length – Two acts (2 hours 15 minutes with one intermission).

Genre/s – Musical Fantasy Comedy Romance.

Premise – The lives of four chickens dovetail with the main story of a farmer and his wife who acquired them and use them to save the farm.

Why this play? Why now? – This musical was developed at Rosebud School of the Arts whose aesthetic and audience base mirror each other.

Curiosities – The program askes us “What do you think has “slipped by” God? and “Will there be chickens in heaven?” which presupposes quite a bit…

Notable Moment – Joel Grey’s moments by Zazakov

Notable writing – This is in the vein of Babe -- the movie about the little pig in the well-worn let’s-save-the-farm”-and-our-relationship sub genre done as a musical. Frangione and Sproule do a fine job of it. The chickens steal the show; I’d rather watch this over Cats any day. Full of humour (including puns and one downplayed double entre) these feathered characters rule the roost.

Notable performances – John McIvor, as the farmer, buys Butterball. Danielle Baker is terrific as Butterball, an ol’ southern broad who wants someone to fertilize her eggs and who the farmer introduces to the shy rooster His Nibs (Jonathan Top). When that doesn’t work, he buys the cockier cockerel, Alphonso, played by Mark Zazakov. Zazakov channels the Elvis character he played for a 9-month run and mixes it with a fully committed zany madness that steals the roost.

The fourth and final member of the flock is Joy Robinson, an escaped battery hen with a punk Pat Benatar persona.

Notable design/Production – Costume designer Melissa Mitchell Boychuck’s under feathered pieces are perfect.

Notable direction – Having helped develop the score while working on the original production, Mark Lewandowski knows the material intimately and serves up a delightful chicken repast.

One reason to see this show – Finger lickin’ gold

Caroline Russell-King is a member of the International Theatre Critics Association.