Gateway Theatre’s A Broadway Holiday injects musical jubilance into the season
The show features seven singer-musicians who play everything from accordion to bass to kazoo
Tim Howe (far left), Jenny Andersen, and Sean Hara are among seven singer-musicians in A Broadway Holiday. Photo by David Cooper
Gateway Theatre presents A Broadway Holiday at the Gateway Theatre in Richmond and via video on-demand from December 16 to 23. (Pay What You Will Preview is on December 16, with the opening on December 17.)
PIANO, ACCORDION, MANDOLIN, ukulele, bass, kazoo, and drums: combine those instruments with fresh takes on songs like “Let it Snow, “Sleigh Ride”, and “White Christmas”, and you’ve got A Broadway Holiday, Gateway Theatre’s comeback performance after 20 months away from the stage. It’s a show that co-creator Barbara Tomasic says goes beyond what people might think of when it comes to a concert filled with smash hits.
“It really does live more in the realm of a revue,” Tomasic tells Stir on the line from her East Van home. “It’s not just singing. There’s interaction with the audience and conversation and story and playfulness.
“We talk about togetherness so much in the show,” adds Tomasic, who notes it’s accessible, too, with the option of experiencing it in live in-person at Gateway Theatre’s Richmond MainStage or at home via video on-demand. “When we were planning our season last year, we weren’t sure where we were going to be; it was such a crazy time trying to plan stuff. We talked about: ‘How do we welcome people back to the theatre in a way that is inspiring and fun where they also feel safe and happy?’”
Barbara Tomasic has been nominated for multiple Jessie Richardson Awards and won Ovation awards for her acting and directing.
Gateway Theatre’s director of artistic programs, Tomasic created the show with Christopher King (Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Music Man). King arranged the songs, which touch on themes of family, togetherness, home, food, and hope. And what better way to reach people than through the jubilance of Broadway music? It’s a style that filled Tomasic’s childhood home in New Westminster.
“My dad and mom always had Broadway stuff playing,” she says. “As immigrants, that was their exposure to western music; that’s what everyone was listening to. My dad sang a lot of Fiddler on the Roof. ‘If I was a rich man’ was a big one in my house. He loved that show; he loved My Fair Lady. With the stories and the music, I find it [musical theatre] takes us out of our everyday life—especially right now, we need that. I’m not a ‘forced positivity’ person; people who know me know I have a pretty dark side, or, okay, a realistic side, but I think it always gets me in the heartstrings. I’ve yet to see a musical doesn’t affect me in that way.
“There’s something about sharing that with people that I just love,” she adds. “It is kind of a gateway to theatre. [No pun intended.] We joke about musical theatre being a gateway drug; it’s beautiful and accessible, especially for people who perhaps wouldn’t be comfortable going to a theatre.”
With musical direction by Jenny Andersen, who’s among the show’s cast of seven singer-musicians, A Broadway Holiday features Devon Busswood, Sean Hara, Tim Howe, Catriona Murphy, Alexander Nicoll, and Gabrielle Rutman. There are classic songs like “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” from 1970 and tunes by the likes of American composer Jason Robert Brown. Then there’s a Sound of Music medley, a number that stirred a good amount of debate during the creative process. The 1965 blockbuster has become a Christmas movie tradition, even though the holiday is never actually mentioned once in the film.
“Sound of Music is always played at the holidays, but it’s not actually a holiday musical,” Tomasic says, adding with a laugh: “Just like people have strong opinions about fruitcake, they have strong opinions about Sound of Music.”
A Broadway Holiday is for everyone regardless of their holiday traditions or beliefs, including those who find this time of year tough, Tomasic says.
“We’re embracing everybody’s experience of what the holiday season is, and this isn’t always the easiest time of year for people,” she says. “Not everybody celebrates the same way and not everybody has a great time at this time of year, and we address that in the show. We wanted to create a show where everybody feels warm and welcome.”
For more information, see Gateway Theatre.
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