Dentists got them laughing — no gas required

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/05/2017 (3374 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ALL-DENTISTS SHOW: The same Manitoba dentists who do a cautious job on your teeth performed an uninhibited, bang-up job of Broadway hit Lucky Stiff at the University of Winnipeg’s Asper Centre of Theatre and Film, which ran May 3 to 7 to packed houses. The docs sang 23 songs between them and danced like pros.

The plot? Harry Witherspoon is a poor shoe salesman, who finds out he stands to inherit $6 million from his dead uncle Tony Hendon if he successfully takes him in a wheelchair on a week-long gambling trip to Monaco, before he’s buried.

The show involves elaborate moving sets, as well as an airplane side with windows suspended above the crowd.

A horrified Vinnie Di Ruzzio (played by Billy Kettner, my own crazy dentist) and his gun-toting sister Rita la Porta (played by Adriana Gomez) can be heard screaming at each other, looking out at the ocean as they fly to Monaco chasing the stiff and the $6 million in jewels.

Jonathan Archer played Harry Witherspoon three out of five nights, alternating with Ken Hamin. They also took turns playing dead Uncle Tony Hendon in the wheelchair — totally limp, never changing expression and not appearing to breathe.

It was a huge task… Ilana Shepera played Annabel Glick — an annoying young woman from the Universal home for dogs in Brooklyn who is following Witherspoon, because the money goes to the dogs if Witherspoon fails to carry out the terms of the will, to the letter.

The talented cast — no onstage cavities in this group — included dental types Jerry Abells, Cheryl Bacala, Kristin Cuthbert, Katie Davidson, Sherry Ghodousi, Adriana Gomez, Frank Hechter, Hoda Hosseini, Sarah Keating, Patrick Mao, Karen Rosolowski and Robin Szmadyla. Many of them played up to four parts each, plus singing and dancing in this madcap musical.

Also on the creative team were director Simon Miron, music director Rachel Cameron, choreographer Jillian Willems, assistant music director Renate Rossol and assistant director and choreographer Montana Lehmann.

SIGNS OF SPRING: Mon Ami Louis has just reopened on the Esplanade Riel walkway over the Red River for the season.

Chef Luc Jean’s brasserie is serving drinks and/or appetizers and a full French-inspired menu, with a panoramic view of the boats on the river… On the Corydon Avenue patio strip last week, the 20-somethings were out under the trees at Bar Italia into the wee hours and the 30-to-55 set hit the decks at Saffron’s bar and bistro and Teos, with their tall gas heaters blazing… Live racing starts at Assiniboia Downs on Mother’s Day, May 14. . . And for car-racing enthusiasts, Red River Co-op Speedway roars to life with their season opener on May 25.

BS TO THE FUTURE: The real power behind the “throne” in the United States government was revealed in BS Comedy Players’ beer-and-skits political satire show — first lady Melania Trump, in a dominatrix suit, played by Anita Daher.

In the skit, a shocked German chancellor Angela Merkel (played by Melody Anderson) asks, “So you are the one in charge?” Snaps Melania: “Always have been. Always will be!”

In an earlier bit, Melania carries off her true love — a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with a dog leash around his neck.

She purrs: “Justeen you are such a master of zee French language — a cunning linguist.” She carries him off stage with her where they will have “zee cold shower.”

The show needed seven sketches to embrace the year’s political excitement, touching on scandals with the civic, provincial and federal governments and the world at large.

The skit Trump This featured 45 in a brilliant orange wig (almost covering actor Kevin Birkholz’s head). Other world players included Mexico’s Enrique Pena Nieto (Bradley West) and British Prime Minister Theresa May (Pamela Roz).

The beefy bald-headed biker with angel wings (Todd Kelly) stole the scene in the opening skit BS Writers Tonight. Corey Quintaine played a sad and bewildered Mayor Brian Bowman in Ross Eadie’s Day Off and Nick Xiod played Eadie himself, pratfalls and all. Shane Jordan played Premier Brian Pallister and Brad Hickling was Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen.

Other actors included Andrew Teeluck, Arielle Morier-Roy, Tim Beaudry, John Giroux and Travis Taylor.

Spotted in the audience: Liberal MLA Jon Gerrard and the real Kelvin Goertzen in the back rows, and yes, they were laughing heartily.

Former Liberal leader Rana Bokhari was the emcee of the show. Also, yours truly spotted Serge Scrafield, the chair of the Clean Environment Commission, and former City of Winnipeg communications director Steve West.

POETRY RETURNS TO HOMELAND: Award-winning Winnipeg poet Carmelo Militano, a longtime teacher at Sisler High School, just found out he’s been published in Rome — much to his surprise.

“It goes like this,” Militano recalls. “A couple of years ago a guy called Francesco LoRiggio, called me and said, ‘I’m a professor at Carleton University, and I’m interested in translating your work, OK?’ I said, ‘Sure!’ ”

“He translated the things he wanted, sent them back and I approved them, and then I didn’t hear boo from him for two years.”

And now — surprise — LoRiggio got in touch, and told him he was in being published in Rome.

“Fourteen of my poems and five prose pages from my first book The Fate Of Olives have been translated into Italian and are included in a collection in Italy edited by LoRiggio and Vito Teti (Donzelli editor in Rome).

The book is called A Filo Doppio: Un’anthologia di scritture calabro-canadesi, which translates into English as A Double Thread, an Anthology of Calabrian-Canadian Writing. Many Italian immigrants to Winnipeg hail from Calabria, the southernmost region of mainland Italy.

“There’s been a dusting of Italians immigrating here since the 1900s, but there was a big wave post-war,” says Militano, who came with his mother to join his father in Canada in the 1950s.

Militano has done readings in cities from Victoria to Montreal. His poetry books and short novel can be found at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

His weekly radio show is P.I New Poetry Sundays at 4:30 p.m. on CKUW FM 95.9. “We investigate, integrate, and speculate with the usual and unusual suspects.”

Got tips? Know of cool things happening in the city? Been rubbing shoulders with the stars who come to town? Email Maureen’s Tips at mscurf@shaw.ca.