By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Why do we make a playlist? For a workout. For studying. For commuting to work in the car. But there’s more to a playlist than providing background noise to our everyday routines. It’s an opportunity to express ourselves. By gathering together our favourite songs into one inventory, we create something of an audio collage of our own lives. We construct a timeline, or a personality chart. When we invite other people to listen to our playlist, we initiate a conversation and a connection. That is exactly what Burlington-based singer and performer Alanna Perkovich-Smith has done with her one-woman cabaret show My Corner of the Sky, performed at the Drury Lane Theatre for two nights only, on January 24 and 25.
As Smith related to the packed audience herself on the Friday night of Jan. 24, Drury Lane Theatre specifically asked her to kick off the 2025 theatre season with a jukebox lineup of songs intertwined with snippets of personal stories. January is the month of individuality, after all, with everyone still sticking true to their New Year’s resolutions and exploring a new, reset version of themselves. Why shouldn’t she do the same? Teaming up with musical director Anne Barnshaw, Smith delivers an electric variety show of 80s rock, modern pop, Broadway, and Disney to an audience hungry for a spark of something bright and warm after just experiencing a polar vortex week of gray sky days. Smith’s corner of the sky, which she claims for herself with leading lady confidence and perky charm, is coloured in with purples and pinks and sparkles. The vibrant colours of life.
Smith has lived quite a life, and each chapter has a song to match it. A string of disappointing relationships was accompanied by the soundtrack of pop star Lady Gaga’s hit song “Bad Romance.” Anxiety about chaotic current politics and world affairs was partnered with 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Going On?” Smith also gives a relatable account through monologue of being an awkward adolescent girl trying to achieve socially and perform femininity when what she really wanted to do was perform on stage. Dreams, as she was growing up, were sometimes achieved, while others were compromised. Loved ones were gained and lost, while fears about the future loomed — and still loom — like ghosts. But throughout it all, music and her love for the theatre have been the pillars that have held up her resolve to get the most out of everything.
Smith puts the most of herself into the songs about women’s empowerment. She slips easily into the character of The Little Mermaid’s infamous sea witch Ursula with her rendition of the Broadway musical’s song “I Want the Good Times Back.” She doesn’t try too hard, she simply dons a pair of sunglasses and transitions into a villainess with nefarious ambitions. Smith also impressed on the anti-villain — or anti-heroine, depending on the way you look at it — front with her performance of Wicked’s “Defying Gravity,” a now-classic climatic declaration of an outcasted women’s independence. There is raw power in these song choices. When women refuse to accept the limitations imposed on them, they are always demonized, but songs like these resonate with singers like Smith who strive to be unapologetically boisterous, liberated, and flamboyant.
The show was audience-interactive, inviting guests to sing along when the feeling to sing moved them. Though this was technically a one-woman show, Smith understands that music never has to be a lonely or solitary experience. By asserting herself with her chosen playlist, Smith combines the casual fun of a karaoke night with the wonderment of traditional musical theatre. Her corner of the sky is something to look up at, especially when the sun is shining.
