The Cheezie Musical Canmore run finishes on Sunday 16 August, in a theatre that seats 51 people. Anyone still meaning to go has about two weeks and very little margin for dithering.
Bridget Ryan went deep into the history of a family-owned Ontario snack company and came out with a book, a set of lyrics and a director's chair. Morgan McKee wrote the score, and the full title is The Cheezie Musical: The Unofficial Underdog Story of the Snack that United a Nation.
It plays at the Carter-Ryan Theatre at 705 8 Street, which everyone here calls Main. Maxwell Vesely, Hailey Balaz, Jorja Polischuk and Graham Mothersill carry the entire production between the four of them.
The story never leaves the breakroom of the Hawkins Cheezie factory in 1957 Belleville, Ontario. The cast moves through jazz, rap and dance numbers while the set stays put around them.
Ryan created the show and directs it, so her reading of it is the one that counts. She describes it as a snapshot of life seen through one small orange snack that somehow connects everybody.
The Cheezie Musical Canmore Set Is Half Local Salvage
The lockers are 1940 stock from the Lafarge plant, which is the sort of thing a Canmore audience clocks before the first song. The first aid kit came out of the mines here, and the 1936 fire extinguisher still works.
Getting In Before Sunday The 16th
Evening performances run Tuesday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with matinees at 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Saturday the 15th is the last evening show, and the Sunday matinee closes the run.
Tickets start at around $40, and the production is billed as suitable for all ages, so bring the children and let them be baffled. Seating is ground level with no stairs, and reservations are held for accessibility needs rather than general seat-picking.
Carter-Ryan Theatre Productions has the remaining dates.
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