“Variety Live”

ELATE presented this show on Friday Sept 19, 20 at the Lester B. Pearson Civic Centre, featuring music, skits and monologue.  Directed by Fran Jensen, it showcased many local performers. 

Harry McWhirter started the evening off  with his rendition of “Amazed”.  In the second act he performed “Save The Last Dance For Me”.

Barb Crocker vamped Marilyn Munroe and schmoozed Mayor Rick Hamilton with “I Wanna Be Love By You”  à la JFK.  Later she performed “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”.

Thor Bonfig as Elvis did “Unchained Melody” and “Suspicious Minds”, a parody of the Judds  titled “Mama She’s Lazy” and then performed “Stars” from Les Miserables.

Patrick Guité sang “”Music of the Night” from Phantom and then teamed up with Barb Crocker  to do “We are a Couple of Swells” from Easter Parade.

Kim Arnold sang “You Must Love Me”, from Evita, “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Mis and the “Diva’s Lament” from Spamalot.

Sonja Portengen sang and danced her way through “All That Jazz” and Bill Child performed “I’ll See You in my Dreams”.

Murray Finn did Shylock’s monologue from the Merchant of Venice.

Harry teamed up with Janet Hickman to perform the humorous  skit titled “Dinner for One”.

Three talented young people added new energy to the show.  Alina Juuti played Czardas, a complicated violin solo.  Shawna Naklicki  did two piano solos; “Sonata in E Flat Minor” by Jan Dussek and “Andante Sostenuto” by Mendelssohn.  Stephanie Morel sang “The Way You Love Me” accompanied on the piano by her dad Denis and later accompanied herself singing Cheryl Crowe’s “Always On Your Side”

The Finale featured Sonja Portengen, with fellow nuns Kim, Barb, Janet and Kitty Binkle singing “Holier than Thou” from “Nunsense”.

What a great variety of local talent.  The audience enjoyed the breadth of material, from classical to jazz.

The Cast of Variety Live

Shawna, Stephanie, Alina

Contact ELATE at alpflolm@onlink.net

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