Curtains Up Winnipeg

This musical is based on a larger than life trip, a woman named Annie Londonderry who cycled around the globe in 1895, collecting sponsorships and giving lectures. Annie is at the newspaper to give a pitch for a regular newspaper column about her adventures. When she discovers the slide machine is out of commission, she enlists Martha, the secretary, to act out various scenes. It’s a story full of pomp and pageantry, designed to sell headlines, inspire people and make Annie a big star on the international stage. This show is based on real life events – more or less. This is also a lot more bare bones than you might imagine for a musical. Normally the word “musical” evokes giant casts and elaborate set changes. Instead, we are treated to two talented performers, Berkley Silverman as Annie and Colleen Furlan as Martha, taking on the whole narrative by themselves. Berkley Silverman in particular absolutely shone as Annie. In the initial scenes I was prepared to dislike her but the performance made her irresistibly charming in spite of her foibles.

This show is beautifully efficient from the perspective of stagecraft. The costume changes are few but highly meaningful, and the set and prop work was absolutely bang out. Nothing distracted. At all moments the stage had exactly what it needed to tell the story. Every piece of furniture was multipurpose, and the transitions were done in such a way that they built the story itself. The idea of the screen projected in the background was creative, but I found the actual images were a little hit and miss. For example, the palm tree scene came across as 90’s clip art versus a lush middle eastern paradise. On the whole, I decided that for me these discrepancies reflected Annie’s tendency to want to make things more idealized, maybe even exaggerated, than they actually were. She wants to present a professional slide show about a perfect trip, but she will make do with enlisting the secretary to act. She would like to be knowledgeable enough to be able to give lectures on academic subjects, but barring that she’ll just jump in and give it what she’s got. It makes her both charming, while also not entirely trustworthy. Exploring that line is where this show excels.

What makes it interesting is that the show ends up being less about the big postcard-worthy moments of her trip, and more about the identity formation she undergoes as part of this project. The exploits of Annie take second stage to how Annie Londonderry made herself into a media darling. In spite of how her story changes, what remains constant is her indomitable enthusiasm for facing down challenges and taking on a new adventure. At first she presented (to me at least) as exceptionally entitled, a person who felt that she could order around Martha, the secretary, the moment she found out Martha was a big fan. As it goes on, she grows more nuanced and complex. For example, she has to make fundamental changes to her travelling style for cycling to be feasible which take her further away from the feminine ideal of the time. At the same time, her back story flips around faster than that of an Instagram influencer, leading us to wonder who the person is behind the facade. By the time we find out, we are deeply invested and ready to accept her as she is – in spite of, or maybe because, she seems unable to do this for herself.

It is worth mentioning that this show changed my friend’s mind about musicals. She was under the impression that she didn’t like any of them, mainly informed by Wicked (such a waste of nice costume design). Instead, she found that this show left her humming tunes and feeling overall optimistic about the world. I was charmed by the exploration of identity and how that interacts with capitalist notions of success and achievement. Not to mention the place of Jewish identity at the turn of the twentieth century. I actually thought that ethnicity and cultural identity was a thread they could have woven in a little deeper, but the revelation scene was absolutely perfect. To sum up, we both liked it a lot. It was fun and made us think without leaving the theatre with a furrowed brow.

I do think it’s important to note that travel isn’t that much of a theme in this show. If you are recommending this to someone as a female version of Around the World in 80 Days, they may be disappointed. On the other hand, it is a great investigation of female identity and how they can both break and conform to expectations at the same time. It’s a fun show to bring your grandmother to (or at least I know mine would love it). It’s not going to break boundaries or change your life, but this is an afternoon well spent that will leave you continuing to hum tunes a few hours later.