Great “Shucked” bests Bad “Bad Cinderella” on Broadway April 4, 2023.Punctuate! Theatre’s “First Métis Man of Odesa” Touches Our Collective Heart Against a Backdrop of War and Disease April 7, 2023.“The Hooves Belonged to the Deer” Shoots Wild and True at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre April 8, 2023.The Public’s “The Harder They Come” Dreams Big April 9, 2023.Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ Rides High, But Slowly Loses Its Steam Heat.“How To Defend Yourself” Punches Strong at NYTW April 13, 2023.The Captivating “Vierge” Vibrates with Spiritual Energy at Factory Theatre Toronto April 15, 2023.The New Group’s “The Seagull/Woodstock, NY” and Soulpepper’s “The Seagull” Flies Out With Force in Uniquely Different Ways Over a Vastly Different Lake April 16, 2023.Body So Fluorescent Glows Extra Strong and Bright at Buddies Toronto April 18, 2023.A Dutiful and Desirable Summer at Stratford Festival 2023 April 19, 2023.Search for titles on my site Search for: Recent Posts To this exploration of myth and dreamlike legend and to The Bergsons, I can only say “Yes”. Enough memories and ideas to fill the air with light from the stars overhead, or enough to tell the passing of time with crystals of sand (or salt) pouring down through an hourglass. It will vibrate through your heart, wondering how so many beautiful and painful suspended memories of love can be created and encompassed. This is a story that breathes hope and desire into us all, signaling that love without fear can last far longer than a Hundred Days, regardless of sickness or health. The space is enlightened further by the specific and subtle choreography, designed with the lightest of touches by movement director, Sonya Tayeh (Encores’ The Wild Party) and lit to perfection by Hungerford (The Flea’s remount of These 7 Sicknesses). Presented without intermission, the show runs about 90 minutes sans intermission and follows Shaun and Abigail through a roller coaster ride of emotions that range from deep, dark and a bit wacko (lookin’ at your, Abigail) to the hopeful, soaring final number (“I’ll Keep Walking”) that left the audience thinking that maybe, just maybe, there’s hope for this world.Staged simply but majestically by Anne Kauffman (NYTW’s Mary Jane), with scenic design by Kris Stone and Andrew Hungerford, props design by Stone (PH’s The Light Years), costume design by Sydney Gallas (59E59’s Knives in Hens), and sound design by Nicholas Pope (Broadway’s Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812), every moment feels authentic and spontaneous. With Nehls at the helm as musical director and the prolific Nick Sugar in the director’s seat, there was little chance Hundred Days would be anything but a first-class production. How many of us waste the precious few years we have on this Earth with bullshit that’s not part of the good stuff of being with the person you love 100 percent? When you meet someone who you understand knows you completely in the first five minutes (and the feeling is mutual), it dispenses with a lot of the other noise that typically accompanies a new relationship and sets them free to explore. The journey of the couple is an exploration of what it’s like to hastily throw two lives together. Nehls’s character jumps in as well, and fans of Denver’s busiest musical director may be surprised that he’s a pretty good singer as well. In particular, Nicole DeBree steps up playing different characters while also playing guitar and fiddle. What’s interesting about this musical is that the backing band has some parts as well. The music is a sort of folk-punk, with Francisco on guitar and Abigail singing. You’d want to treat each day as a year, they theorize, setting the stage for a variety of songs aligned along that vein. (I have a wife who has dreams that bleed over into reality, often with me in less-than-savory roles, so this I could sympathize with.)Įven if Abigail understands that it was “only a dream,” the couple ask the question of what life would look like with that 100 days deadline. A minor car accident sends Shaun to the hospital, and next thing you know his wife is counting down the days to his demise. In reality, that circumstance was cooked up from whole cloth by Abigail in one of her dreams. The plot is based on the idea of what’d it be like if you only had 100 days to live. Abigail is a high-strung, needy nutbag and Shaun her placid and enamore counterpart, and together they explore not only the meaning of love but the ways in which we spend our time here on Earth. Then they got married within a few weeks of meeting. As the Bengsons’ story goes, they met and fell in love so quickly that Abigail dumped her fiancée and Shaun screwed over a friend who was going to come live with him.
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