Rasing Caine! (Rebecca Caine's Canadian Cabaret)

Taken from the Raising Caine! Event Page.

RAISING CAINE!
Rebecca Caine, Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning star of the original Canadian Phantom of the Opera, the World Premiere production of Les Miserables and the Canadian Opera Company returns to Toronto for the first time in 9 years to present the Canadian premiere of Raising Caine!

A special Cabaret to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Canadian premiere of Phantom. And a chance for a sneak preview of the new Conservatory Theatre at The Royal Conservatory’s stunning new Telus Centre for Performance and Learning.

Music to include songs by Bernstein, Loesser, Flanders and Swann, Coward, Novello,Legrand, Schwartz and Sondheim. Shows include Les Miserables, Follies, Music Man, Bittersweet, My Fair Lady, Marguerite, Rags and My Life With Albertine.

The event is tonight-- and I'm quite excited to be going I kept getting the invites to Rebecca's "Leading Ladies" performances over in London, and I was always frustrated I couldn't go. Anyway, I'll be sure to post pictures and a review tonight when I get back.

Sounds awesome. Glad that someone from here is able to attend.

Christine's Shadow wrote:
The event is tonight-- and I'm quite excited to be going

You've only squee'd about it a million times on Facebook.

Have fun!

Fine, I'll be honest. To say "I'm quite excited" was the biggest understatement ever. I sorta exploded all over facebook whenever I stole wifi from a nearby second cup. Nevertheless, the show was brilliant. I'll post more tomorrow once my head is on straight, I'm exhausted! Until then, the two pictures I was allowed to take. Pardon the fact I look like a fat kid presented with a 10 pound chocolate cake.





I also picked up her CD, and I'm listening to it now, and it sounds awesome. Rebecca is very much like a fine wine, she's gotten better with age.

Aaaaw, looking forward to more on this!

Christine's Shadow wrote:I sorta exploded all over facebook whenever I stole wifi from a nearby second cup.

Don't worry...no one noticed.

Nice pictures...and I want to hear more details, please.

I'm glad you guys liked the photos, and I honestly wish I could have taken more. They said at the beginning "No flash photography" so I took that as a "No photos, period." But after, a few pictures popped up on facebook during the performance, so apparently I could have taken photos, as long as I didn't use flash. Aaugh.

Anyway, I'm upset that I can't tell you every song she sang simply because I can't remember, but she kept a healthy dose of musical theatre in her repertoire, and balanced that out with standards and she threw in some unexpected songs like Sondheim! She sang two songs from Follies (though again I fail at remembering which), and said herself that she often was pigeon-holed as a more classical soprano and Sondheim was one of the few composers she was able to sing before becoming a cabaret singer. I think she was great in choosing them, it really showed off her performer side along with the Lerner and Lowe stuff from My Fair Lady (Just You Wait and I Could Have Danced All Night). She, of course, couldn't come and sing in Toronto without singing something from Phantom and she sang All I Ask Of You with the guest Baritone (Bari-hunk as she called him) Brett Polegato who was such a wonderful partner for her, they just complimented one another excellently.

Another great thing about Rebecca when she sang, she continually connected with her audience. Either between songs when she would talk about the songs she was singing or just sharing stories, there was always a sense of connection. I loved how she was also very open with her stories, and was quite happy to poke fun at everything she did.

"I could remember during the rehearsals of Phantom a certain production member, who shall remain nameless but goes by the name of Gillian Lynne, came up to me and waved a hand in front of my face and said, 'Careful darling! You're looking a little too intelligent!' "

From there she sang "Bring Him Home" from Les Mis, which was such a nice treat and Rebecca said she related this most to the soldiers overseas, and it did make a bit of a performance difference and there were quite a few tears in the audience. That was supposed to be the end of the performance, but she graciously came out and sang "Think Of Me" for her encore, which I have to say, completely blew every recording I've ever heard of her out of the water. Flat out, I honestly wish more actresses that played Christine sounded like her, even vaguely.

Anyway, everyone was invited to stay for an hour afterwards to drink and chat with her and everyone else which was awesome because I was able to talk to Brett for a while, and I later found out that he was going to be holding a master class over at the nearby university in march, so I'll hopefully be headed to that! After talking to Brett, I finally made my way over to the Table where they were selling Rebecca's CD's and I was one of the last people she had to put up with talked to before going to those still lingering (close friends and whatnot I'm assuming) and I was so happy because I introduced myself and she got all excited because she remembered me and was happy that I actually came (because that was so doubtful after my facebook profile picture with me holding my ticket looking like a complete child in a candy store) and she actually remembered me from facebook, so I was floored as heck. She signed my CD and her and I talked about absolutely nothing for 20 minutes, and I took a look as to what she wrote in my CD, and I looked over some people's shoulders, seeing that she signed it as her full name, and was so excited to see she signed it as 'Becky' which sounds stupid, but I feel like it made it a little more personal for myself.

On a side note, I ended up staying a little longer after her and I chatted, and discovered that I had been sitting next to Janna Polzin, who plays the alternate Maria in Toronto's Sound of Music! random and exciting, she had been to the 20th anniversary the weekend before and her and I ended up talking about various other theatre shows we had been seeing soon, and I later met the children's chaperone who makes sure none of the kids in the show get hit by a moving set piece or a cast member bolting for a quick-change. It was honestly such a random evening, but I enjoyed it so much.

Rebecca Caine's singing has honestly gotten better over the years, she's a gracious person to be around and doesn't take herself too seriously. I encourage anyone who hears she'll be doing a Cabaret near them to go and see her, she's completely wonderful!

And to wrap it up, here's my signed CD (which has been playing on loop through my iPod non-stop since Sunday.)

and yes, I did take these while working on this post.

Christine's Shadow wrote:"I could remember during the rehearsals of Phantom a certain production member, who shall remain nameless but goes by the name of Gillian Lynne, came up to me and waved a hand in front of my face and said, 'Careful darling! You're looking a little too intelligent!' "

Haaaa-ha-ha-ha-ha!! Great one. Gillian Lynne has some memorable quotes...

Great review of your wonderful experience! I would have loved to have attended such an event. Rebecca seems like such a great lady and I love her voice. Wish I had seen her as Christine.

I really enjoy that when performers take time to give little stories etc between songs rather than just throwing out song after song in a rapid fire manner. It really adds something to the evening.

Neat that you got to meet Janna too. I was pulling for her and Elicia in "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?".

I'm glad you took the time to share how the evening went. It was a lot of fun to read.

Wow, that sounds like a great event! Rebecca is probably my favorite voice out of the OCC. What sort of tracks are on her album?

R.

The track list is somewhere along the lines of the sort of songs she sang that evening. Musical theatre, standards, etc.

The official track list:
(artist, show, song)
Lionel Monckton - Our Miss Gibbs: Moonstruck
Fraser-Simson - The Maid of the Mountains: Love Will Find A Way
Noel Coward - London Calling: Parisian Pierrot
Noel Coward - Shadow Play: Dialogue and You Were There
Gershwin - Oh Kay: Someone to Watch Over Me
Gershwin - Oh Kay: Do, Do, Do
Noel Coward - Bitter Sweet: I'll See You Again
Lerner, Goodhart, and Hoffman - Gangway
Gordon and Revel - Lookin' Around Corners for You
Rogers and Hart - Dancing on the Ceiling
Harry Woods - Over My Shoulder/Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle!
Ivor Norvello - The Dancing Years: My Dearest Dear
Ivor Norvello - Perchance to Dream: We'll Gather Lillies
Vivian Ellis - Bless the Bride: I Was Never Kissed Before
Lerner and Lowe - My Fair Lady: Wouldn't It Be Loverly
Lerner and Lowe - Camelot: Before I Gaze At You Again
Lerner and Lowe - My Fair Lady: I Could Have Danced All Night

I think out of all of the tracks, I'm rather partial to the Lerner and Lowe but as well as the song Gangway! Rebecca just does very well with Lerner's works either with others or with Lowe.