By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Burlington’s Drury Lane Theatre has been putting on shows for the people of Burlington for fifty years and they have a lot to be proud of. Burlington itself is over one hundred and fifty years old, so that means Drury Lane has been keeping the city’s people entertained for a third of the city’s lifespan. If you’ve missed any past shows over the past five decades and regret it, now is your chance to get all caught up with the 44th Annual Music Hall. The show opened on Friday, February 21, and will have regular showtimes all the way up to March 16, 2025. It’s locally sourced Broadway and it’s just a five-minute drive from downtown.
Historically, a music hall was a British form of entertainment that dates back to the nineteenth-century Victorian era. The whole point is that it’s variety, like a box of chocolates. There is a repertoire of carefully selected and satisfyingly popular songs and skits to appeal to every taste. The audience, made up of working-class folk who need a little pick-me-up after a long week on the job, come for a good romp and get it. Drury Lane understands that, and so they’ve successfully made it to their 44th Annual Music Hall, which also happens to be Drury Lane’s 151st show, period. With Danny Harvey as the stage director, Donna Dunn-Albert as the music director, and Aislynn Curran as the choreographer, it makes for an impressive milestone. There is lively music, there are corny jokes in between the scenes, there’s bingo for the audience, and there are sing-a-longs. It’s the kind of out-there entertainment you would nowadays expect from a vacation resort or on a cruise.
It’s all very silly and wild and fun. Michael Belton, who has performed in 27 musical halls at Drury Lane, makes for a charismatic presenter throughout all the chaos. The song selection performed by the ensemble is like an iPod on shuffle. There’s no narrative to it, no storyline to bind it all together like beads on a necklace. It’s just random, chaotic flashbacks to all the hit numbers Drury Lane has pulled off over the years, every choice a bona-fide people-pleaser. By far the funniest sketch is “A Girl Named Fred” from Once Upon a Mattress, which features an infatuated suitor singing about all the imaginary charms he assigns to his beloved. A close second is “If I Were Not Upon This Stage,” where various iconic fictional characters battle it out on the stage to get their voices and plot-related woes heard. Have you ever heard of a crossover of Spamalot, Into the Woods, Anne of Green Gables, and Little Shop of Horrors anywhere else? You get it here, and it’s bonkers and hilarious.
“Always Look On the Bright Side of Life” from Spamalot is a certified audience favourite, and everyone knows the lyrics to “White Christmas” from White Christmas and Holiday Inn. Only once does the show shift into something more serious, and that’s its powerful rendition of “Hold On” from The Secret Garden, impressively performed by singer Carolyn Campell.
The costumes are delightfully flamboyant and were obviously picked with great care to complement each performance. The small stage and the large cast combined makes for occasional awkward choreography, with actors having to vie for space and duck around each other. Some sketches work with this and make the characters’ determination to outshine one another in a cartoonish way part of the humour.
After the Music Hall wraps up, Drury Lane has one more show lined up for the 2025 season: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. This show will be music matched to a plotline this time, being a full musical. You can purchase your tickets to both the Music Hall and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder right here.
