Terra Novella Theatre presents the World Premiere of Firebird: The Musical by Carolyn Curry at the Bus Stop Theatre until November 24th, 2019. It is an extremely ambitious production, featuring all original music by Curry and a cast of ten actors telling a story adapted from Tsarevitch Ivan, the Grey Wolf and the Firebird, a Russian fairytale collected by Alexander Afanasyev.
Firebird tells the story of a Tsar with three children, Violet, Dmitri and Ivy. When one of his golden apples goes missing from its tree the Tsar sends Violet and Dmitri to catch the thief. Knowing they won’t be up to the challenge Ivy finds out that the apple has been carried off by a mysterious, beautiful bird. Her father then gives a challenge to all three children- whoever can bring the bird back will receive half the kingdom. Once again, Violet and Dmitri lack the focus and determination of their younger sister and she sets out on the adventure ahead of them. With the help of a sly wolf, she gets into quite a bit of trouble, but ends up tracking down the firebird. There are lots of legitimate twists, turns, and surprises along the way.
There is a lot that is really strong in this piece, beginning with this unique, intriguing and unpredictable tale of adventure. It lends itself beautifully to being told through song in this way. Curry’s music captures both the sweeping emotions and silly razzmatazz that makes the musical theatre genre so fun and the songs also work quite well in terms of plot and character development. Many of the tightly knit rhymes in the lyrics are delightful. You can hear the Schwartz, Sondheim, Anderson-Lopez, and Gilbert and Sullivan influences weaving their way through the songs in a way that almost feels like pastiche, but not quite. Curry has also done a great job of modernizing the story, including working to create some strong female protagonists, while also using the character of Harold the Handsome to poke fun at gender stereotypes common in these sorts of fairy tales.
I really liked that although Ivy is our ingenue character, she is flawed and makes considerable missteps throughout her journey, but the leap between Ivy being characterized as sweet, clever and ambitious and then having her start to make poor decisions based on greed feels rushed and underdeveloped. Similarly, I wanted to know more about Violet’s dark motivations: why does she hate Ivy so much (especially when their father seems to allow her to do whatever she wants, while Ivy has to beg and plead and prove her worth to him), and why does she allow their brother, Dmitri, to latch onto her, when she then has to share her rewards with him, as all he ever does is thwart her plans and slow her down? I think Curry would benefit from writing a few more scenes of dialogue to further clarify and strengthen the characters’ relationships with one another and their continually changing motivations. I also wanted the stakes for Ivy to be higher, I wanted to feel like Violet was cunning enough to plausibly catch up, regardless of how fast Ivy and the Wolf were moving, and that there was a clear sense of urgency and dread surrounding the prospect of their meeting. I think if we see Ivy a bit more desperate to complete her tasks quickly it will also help establish how she is able to enter in to the agreement with the hungry wolf and why she begins to behave in a way that goes against her own values.
All the actors give strong performances. Chris Bolton has great physicality as the Crow, Jessica Oliver shines in the role of the Jackdaw, Mike Chandler creates a Tsar Vyslav who has a lovely care for his children, Stephanie Mah is a delight as Ivy, Cat McCluskey gives an exuberant performance as the Wolf, and Tamara Fifield is gloriously evil as Violet. The sound balance between the band (Daryl Nichol on piano and Casey Jones on bass) and the singers is perfect, and the cast all have lovely voices. There is some fun choreography from director Tyler Craig, along with some shadow puppets and Fight Choreography by Audrey Eastwood that really add to the fairy tale magic.
As a brand new musical Firebird: The Musical is very strong. It has a very clear story, interesting songs and characters, and a lot of silliness and fun. I hope the creative team will continue to work on this piece because I think the show has a lot of promise.
Terra Novella’s Firebird: The Musical plays at the Bus Stop Theatre (2203 Gottingen Street, Halifax) until November 24th, 2019. Performances are tonight (November 23rd) at 7:30pm and tomorrow (November 24th) at 2:00pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are available HERE or at the door before the show.
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