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She's a he's a she. He/she, of course, is Victor/Victoria, conflicted centrepiece of Orpheus Theatre's brassy, funny and occasionally poignant production of Blake Edwards's musical farce that opened Friday at Centrepointe Theatre. An unemployed opera singer fed up with poverty and women's second-class citizenship, Victoria Grant impersonates a man (Victor Grazinsky) so she can earn a living impersonating a female in the anything-goes Paris of the 1930s. That decision plunges Victoria, and the audience, into a whirlwind of adversity, romance and self-discovery, not to mention a whack of great songs. Under artistic director Richard Elichuk and musical director Gabriel Leury, Orpheus' generally crisp production features Barb Seabright-Moore, right at home with big show tunes and exterior bravado, as Victor/Victoria. The warm and saucy Rejean Dinelle-Mayer plays Carroll Todd (Toddy), Victor/Victoria's lonely gay co-conspirator in the impersonation scam. Al Baldwin, stiff when he should be self-contained, is the gangster, King Marchand, who falls for the Victoria beneath the Victor (or is Victor the real attraction?). Dozens of other characters - nightclub owners, thugs, pushy reporters - keep the action bubbling. The show's scene stealer, though, is Joyce Landry as Norma Cassidy, King Marchand's bleached blond moll who falls, futilely, for Toddy and who gives a hilarious lesson in plain sepaking on her big solo number, Paris Makes Me Horny. Brash, spunky and endearingly stupid, Landry's Norma could make it as a one-woman comedy act. Helping propel the story line is Henry Mancini's showy score, which elicited a few dissonant squeaks amid the enjoyable showboat sounds from the orchestra pit Friday. Dance also abounds, Orpheus' choreographer Debbie Millet strutting her stuff especially onthe sexy, slinky number that accompanies the song Le Jazz Hot. Fittingly for a musical about the fluidity of sexual identity, Victor/Victoria features 16 scenes, the transitions between them Friday night sometimes less than smooth. Fortunately, Margaret Coderre-Williams' sets are up to the scenic challenge, her Paris hotel suites (two double-storey, side-by-side suites littered with doors) a particularly apt visual metaphor for the themes of duality, duplicity and openness to new possibilities that permeate the musical. Costumes (Judy Froome) and lighting (John Solman) also merit mention. Victor/Victoria - and boy does get girl, and boy gets boy etc. - by the end isn't quite as polished as some of Orpheus' other productions. But it is fresh, fun and well worth the ticket price. Victor/Victoria runs until June 10 at Centrepointe Theatre. For tickets and times, call 580-2700 or go to www.centrepointetheatre.com . |