Jordyn, Bette MacDonald, Jenn Sheppard, Lucy MacNeil, Heather Rankin & Emily Dingwall
Last night I attended the always crowd-pleasing Island Girls show at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax, which stars Bette MacDonald, Lucy MacNeil, Heather Rankin, and Jenn Sheppard. This is a brand new evening of music and comedy, a third instalment in this series, and this one has a lot of sketches and some new characters, along with some much-loved familiar faces.
Lucy MacNeil, known to audiences across the country for her long career with her brothers as The Barra MacNeils, has released her first solo album Angels Whisper, and she sings the first single “Hope for One And All,” written by David Mallett, in the show. The song, written in 1995, is a grounding one, encouraging us to find hope in the consistency of nature, even amidst times when our “backs are against the wall,” an accurate description for the way the world often feels lately. MacNeil’s voice is inherently warm and calming as well, adding beautiful little Celtic lilts and a fiddle interlude that nestles the song gently into the rolling hills of Cape Breton.
Heather Rankin performs a new song written with Jamie Robinson called “The Red Shoe,” an ode to the Mabou pub that she owns with her sisters Cookie and Genevieve, which has become a Mecca of traditional music in Cape Breton. Mirroring the upbeat spirit of the pub, the song is a toe-tapper, and like her songs “We Walk As One” and “Olde Fashioned Christmas” it really brings a snapshot of Rankin’s own life, personality, and experience to life, while also capturing a familiar essence of the community where she was raised.
Jenn Sheppard also sings a new song of her own, with the help of both MacNeil and Rankin, which explores the additional workload often baked into the lives of women, especially those who are also parents or caregivers. Both Rankin and Sheppard write deftly for their unique voices: Rankin’s cozy and bright, and Sheppard’s bluesy and belty.
Other musical highlights in the show include a tribute to the late great Cape Breton songwriter Bruce Guthro, a rousing performance from all four ladies of the wistful “You’ll Be Home Again” from the 1987 Cape Breton Summertime Revue, a send-up to the late great Island Girl Rita MacNeil, and intermittent fiddle tunes from Colin Grant.
Bette MacDonald treats the audience to a new monologue from Mary Morrison about Cape Breton’s historic snowfall this past winter which had the audience at the Cohn howling in both laughter and, I think a bit of amused disbelief, as MacDonald keeps pushing the boundaries of what she can have the irrevent, but also sometimes hysterically oblivious, octogenarian say. She also plays Sydney’s infamous Romeo Wayne Tomko (still in the doghouse), and Beulah Claxton, the world’s most obscure lounge singer.
Sheppard plays Ellsa, Cape Breton’s perpetually crabby great-grandmother and Rankin plays Mickey, Mabou’s answer to Gollum, and while they both mention the other in their monologues, we don’t get a chance to see them together in this show. I think there’s so much comedic potential for Ellsa and Mickey as a duo; Rankin has exceptional physical comedy skills, and Sheppard is so visually hilarious as Ellsa, the possibilities for shenanigans are endless. Speaking of shenanigans, there’s a lot of sketch comedy in this show, the entire cast (with Musical Director/keyboard player Stephen Muise and Colin Grant) also perform a mystery date sketch where we are introduced to a whole array of entertaining new characters, and then we get to see MacNeil play the fiddle as Kitty, her Marilyn Monroe-adjacent bachelorette, which was really a lot of fun.
One bright glimmer into the future of Cape Breton music comes from a performance by special guest (and stage manager) Jordyn who sings her recent single “A Little Love,” a pop tune I can imagine folks singing and dancing along to in the club this summer.
The band, led by Stephen Muise, with Fred Lavery, Emily Dingwall, Colin Grant, and Brian Talbot, make the whole thing look like breeze.
Island Girls is a celebration of Cape Breton music and culture, embracing all that makes the island unique, filled to the brim with unbelievable talent, homey, charming, quirky, and beautiful. Whether you are from Cape Breton or you wish you were MacDonald, MacNeil, Rankin, and Sheppard are proof of why the island, Unama’kik, has captured the imagination and stolen the heart of people for hundreds of years, and from all over the world, including many famous celebrities.
It’s a magical place, but some of that magic can be shoved into a bottle and can travel to places like the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown April 13th, the DeCoste Centre in Pictou April 14th, and the Capitol Theatre in Moncton on April 15th to bring a little bit of Cape Breton to audiences across the Maritimes.
Tickets to Island Girls at the Confederation Centre of the Arts (145 Richmond Street, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island), on April 13th, 2024 at 7:30 are $62.93 and are available at this website, by calling the Box Office at 902.566.1267 or visiting the Box Office in person at 130 Queen Street, Charlottetown. The show is in the Sobey Family Theatre inside the Confederation Centre. Both the Richmond Street and the Queen Street entrance are wheelchair accessible.
The Island Girls show at the DeCoste Centre in Pictou on April 14th, 2024 is sold out!
Tickets to Island Girls at the Théâtre Capitol Theatre in Moncton (811 Main Street, Moncton, New Brunswick) on April 15th, 2024 at 7:30pm are $48.00 and are available at this website, by calling the Box Office at 506.856.4379 or visiting in person at 811 Main Street. The Théâtre Capitol Theatre is wheelchair accessible, and the Main Floor, just in front of the stage, is barrier-free, and has a number of removable seats to accommodate wheelchairs for every performance. Call the Box Office ahead of time to reserve one of these seats. The Capitol also has specialized equipment to accommodate those with hearing loss. Please speak to a volunteer upon arrival and a Front of House Manager will assist you.
Lucy MacNeil’s new album is available for purchase at all the Island Girls shows. It will be released on iTunes and streaming services soon. You can find Heather, Jenn, and Jordyn’s music HERE, HERE & HERE.
