How does a singer/actor breathe new life into old, familiar songs? Write a show that weaves them into a fresh context, then, render the tunes with as much spleen and spite as humanly possible. That’s the approach Bremner Duthie, left, has been taking for the past five Tuesday nights at Kensington Market’s Bread & Circus. Born at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2000, the one-man show has won rave reviews around the world. Duthie has reworked the material and changed up the songs several times; at Bread & Circus the show has gelled into a one-hour tour de force of hope and regret rooted in the songs of Kurt Weill.
And not just Three Penny Opera Weill. Duthie cherry picks from the composer’s entire oeuvre, ranging from his 1920s collaborations with Bertolt Brecht — “Mack the Knife,” of course — to his Broadway collaborations with Ira Gershwin (”One Life to Live”) and Ogden Nash (”Speak Low”).
“The stuff he was doing with Brecht in the ’20s and ’30s still resonates,” says Duthie. “He was born the son of a cantor and went on to become one of Germany’s most popular composers before devoting himself to musical theatre. He was singled out as THE composer the Nazis hated, they really vilified him. They called him decadent and he did have an artistic lifestyle but he was Jewish and that was enough for the Nazis.”
In Whiskey Bars, Duthie plays a washed-up actor on the cusp of a comeback. An encounter in a bar the previous night spurs a visit to the star’s dressing room by a newspaper critic. And so the cajoling for a good review begins as our sad clown prepares for his make or break moment.
It’s a spirited show and Duthie rips into the songs with real conviction. “Mack the Knife” is teased out slowly and dramatically, “Speak Low” is almost a lullaby delivered like a plea.
“In some ways it’s the same show it was nine years ago,” says Duthie, “but I hope it’s much deeper. When it works, the character goes on a lot of complicated ups and downs.”
WHEN/WHERE: 2010 remount, Tuesdays, Jan. 12 – March 2, 8 pm at Bread & Circus, 299 Augusta Avenue, 416.925.8898. $10
Photos by Christopher Jones
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an inspiring show about fighting to do what you love! great singing…and nice abs…