Charlottetown Festival goes Full Monty
Anne of Green Gables will be joined on stage next year by a cast of characters that would never even have been imagined in Lucy Maud Montgomery's Avonlea Village.
The lineup for next summer's Charlottetown Festival was announced Wednesday and includes the R-rated show The Full Monty.
The play, based on the 1997 British film about a group of unemployed men who try their luck as male strippers, will be featured on the Homburg stage.
"There are moments of nudity that are blocked by particular lighting," said Penny Walsh, Confederation Centre marketing director. "You always want to make the lighting cue works exactly as you want, so we'll be doing a lot of rehearsing."
The centre's artistic director, Anne Allan, said: "Don't be fooled by The Full Monty. It's the undercurrent of why they're stripping that really reaches out to people."
Anne of Green Gables, Canada's longest-running musical, will be back in June, but there are changes planned. The show will have a new concept, design, director and choreographer.
Festival organizers said some scenes will be cut to make it more contemporary.
And a new scene will be added, which will be the first revision of the script in more than 40 years.
"We live in an age of computers and kids looking at things very fast and in a different way," said Allan. "I think a brand new, fresh look will actually entice more people to come to the show."
Harron on board
Comedian Don Harron, the only surviving creator of the musical, doesn't see the changes as messing with a good thing.
"I don't know if it's messing because there are things that I've always wanted to put in," said Harron. "So I'm going to do something in the final scene which I think is terribly important.
"After the funeral of Matthew, there is a great opportunity there to bond with Anne and Marilla on a very, very sound basis — just information about them. The why: why Matthew died, why Marilla wants to sell Green Gables."
The estate of the other creators of Anne have not been notified of the changes yet. But Confederation Centre officials said they will be speaking shortly with the family of Norman and Elaine Campbell.
The biggest seller at the box office in 2010, The Buddy Holly Story, will also be back in September to round out the mainstage season. It's the one show returning without any changes.
"It saw 78 per cent houses," said Walsh. "We just felt this show had legs. People just kept asking us, 'So, when's it coming back?'"
This past season, each show had its own block of time on the main stage. But in 2011, the centre will be trying a different approach. Anne of Green Gables and The Full Monty will share the Homburg stage from June to September. Then, from Sept. 9 to Oct. 9, Buddy Holly will have the stage to himself.
Organizers said the goal is to boost ticket sales next season.
The 2011 festival opens June 15.