We celebrated our 10th anniversary of musicals this past May with a production of Naughtyham, a romp of a Robin Hood tale with silly nods to Monty Python.
It took Sarina and I three months to co-write and adapt this crazy play, which was performed by our cast, the Bedford Park Players, and the Summerhill Players over six days at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto. Together, with contributions by some very generous donors, we raised $150,000 for Sarina’s amazing charity, Childhood Now ! Hats off to Donavon, our musical director and his band, and Sarina, our producer, director, choreographer, and fearless leader.
As word caught on about this infectious show, both casts sold out their final nights, even with the Raptors playing in the NBA semi-finals. Thank you to our friends, family and neighbours for your incredible support!
What follows are some of the lovely comments from attendees and a photo diary of the journey:
You guys absolutely rocked it!
“Show was awesome!”
“Just wanted to send a quick note to say how much I enjoyed tonight’s show. Your “silly, little” musical, is neither silly nor little…. it’s fun, fun, fun and packed with amazingly talented actors! I don’t think I saw one person walk out that wasn’t smiling. It’s such a feel good show. I had such a great time tonight (totally loved the music – I’ll deny it if you ever repeat this, but many of the songs are on my playlist😋). Good luck with your remaining performances. If they’re anything like tonight, you may need to extend your run of this show.”
“OMG that was so much fun last night. It looked like you all were having a blast up there on stage.”
“So many highlights for me. Loved that Pete got his Mack the knife solo. Ventriloquist number amazing. The men in flesh suits hilarious! And you and John killed it together. Amazing chemistry. Great job!”
“Fabulous show!! Wish it was on longer so all my friends could see it. Made my evening.❤️❤️”
“It was so entertaining and a pleasure to be entertained. I will say that I have noticed improvement over the years.”
“Thank you for a sharing your love of arts and your passion for theatre.”
“Wanted to let you know how much we both thoroughly enjoyed the performance last night. It was super funny, fast-moving and the whole cast was incredibly talented!”
“Bedford you were brilliant tonight! Your energy was amazing throughout. You had us singing and laughing from beginning to end. Watching you all was sheer joy! It was simply the best!”
“Bedford Park Players, you guys killed it on stage with NaughtyHam. You were all so strong and full of smiles and the show was crazy entertaining and TIGHT. You guys always put on a master class in acting – gorgeously drawn characters with layers of silly creative add-ons. And love how the script is just kind of a suggestion/springboard for you guys 😉. Stellar show – congrats!!!’
“Fabulous show… every star shined!”
“What a fantastic, fun , laugh out loud show!”
“We laughed our butts off!”
“I had a blast and I could tell that you all did as well.”
“You guys were incredible!”
“I was so impressed last night! So many great moments…you should be so happy! Brought back some great memories too…always does…”
“Huge congrats; what a huge accomplishment!! And of course, what an amazing cause!”
“It was truly the best extended laugh I’ve had in ages. Just my kind of thing, I guess. Please tell the [writers] that I felt it was like they had been given the key to my exact sense of silly. “
“Please pass on my huge, heartfelt congrats to the entire cast and crew!”
“I cannot imagine how difficult it was to write, cast and choreograph such a large, involved production but you guys nailed it, totally!”
“I just wanted to send a quick note to tell you how much fun we had at the play!!! We all laughed out loud so many times and it was obvious how much fun you were having on stage, too.”
“Fabulous voices and choreography!”
“Loved all the dances and the singing was fantastic. The costumes were awesome!”
“Thank you again for the tickets! It was a truly entertaining and talent-filled production!”
“OMG! Your play was fantastic. We loved it! I can’t believe I never made it for 10 years but can promise BPP performances will be a must-see in the future. Also, who on earth was the guy playing the Prince? Absolutely hysterical! And the woman who played Rapunzel had such a gorgeous voice. ”
“Good luck with the remaining performances and congrats on your huge fundraising success!”
“The show – A joy, pure joy! What really struck me this time is how congenial, supportive, may I even say loving the group of actors felt to me as I watched them perform last night. I don’t know if it’s because it is the tenth year and they want to honour and treasure that, or, if over time, you’ve just simply grown to be a family. People experience their own ups and downs and divergent roads in life, but in coming together year after year, doing your show provides a common element where they can cast all troubles aside and just enjoy the child in them. Which I find interesting because the child is the basis and the essence of all your work. Stands out for me were:
•the plethora of jokes and innuendos
•large number of speaking and singing roles which I found particularly inclusive
•each actor bringing something unique to the show, I honestly didn’t have a favourite, they all were.
•the rich, colourful costumes (the body suits and how the different guys and gal looked in them were priceless)
•so many interesting director choices to name just a few: the horses who were not horses, the guy on two skates and the girl on one, the skinny relative to Humpty Dumpty, the ventriloquist who wasn’t but was fantastic, the three ladies in waiting wearing identical clothes and moving together in motion, the king having a special stuffed toy, the sheriff being female, etc. I could go on and on, simply said every single scene included some quirky fun thing)
•and the band was absolutely incredible, I could have spent the evening just listening to them on their own. ”
TREDSUP 