CBC calls my four-star review of Anne of Green Gables 'unkind'

So the CBC has published a story claiming that Toronto theatre reviewers were "unkind" to Anne of Green Gables - The Musical, which is in Toronto for a couple of weeks.

There I was girding myself for attacks on why I praised it and gave it four stars out of five--I'm an Anne fan and I don't deny it--and, out of left field, I'm held up as an example of a meanie Toronto critic who trashed it.

The irony of the whole thing is that theatre artists are always complaining, "You should get rid of the star ratings. People just look at the stars and don't read the reviews which are often a better indicator of whether they themselves will like the show," an argument I totally agree with. But here's a case where the rating has been discarded in the writer's attempt to dig up the dirtiest parts he can.

I've submitted this comment to the reader comments on the story:

I'm Paul Gallant, the critic who wrote the review for Eye Weekly that is quoted here.

I've always laughed at movie adverts that take a review phrase like "an astonishing achievement in boredom" and turn it into "Astonishing achievement!" For the sake of a sharp headline--and presenting Toronto as a snobby place, I guess--this CBC piece has done the opposite, quoting 50 of the most negative words--the only negative words, really--of my 670-word mostly positive review.

I gave Anne of Green Gables - The Musical four stars out of five, which is a far more important indicator of my feelings about the play than the qualms quoted in here. Please check out Eye Weekly's website to read my full review.

Green goggles

Islanders have a strange relationship with Anne of Green Gables--the musical and the book more than the TV movie, though that, too, gives us ambivalent feelings. Early exposure embeds the story deep in our DNA. "Ice Cream" might or might not be a better show tune than "You Won't Be an Orphan for Long" from Annie (which debuted 13 years after Anne, I'll have you know) but that's like a left paw wondering if life would be better if they were right-handed. You just don't know. We grew up proclaiming, "School again! School again!" every September, which was enough to cue giggles. It's not much of a song, really, but everybody knew the dance number that was being invoked.

Provincial minds can overrate their own marginal distinctions, but Islanders have the hard data to prove Anne's more than a local obsession. The provincial population is about 140,000 but 3.3 million people have seen the musical. Summertime on the Island sees a flood of Japanese tourists, mostly female, many wearing to dress up in frocks and wear braided red-haired wigs as an ode to their heroine. Anne has turned much of the province into a Victorian-era theme park, which Islanders resent, but it generates lots of cash, which we like, a lot.

At the opening of Anne of Green Gables - The Musical at Toronto's Elgin Theatre, P.E.I.'s Minister of Communities, Cultural Affairs and Labour was on hand for opening remarks. Carolyn Bertram was a total charmer, but the effect was to turn the whole show into a living, breathing tourism advertisement. One suspected the P.E.I. government might have underwritten Dancap's partnership with the Charlottetown Festival. Liked the sets? See them rendered in water, soil and sand as you drive from Cavendish to Brackley Beach! Liked the picnic scene? Try Cow's handmade ice cream next time you're in Charlottetown!

As a critic, you have to push aside nostalgia in order to set the script against the expectations of nowadays, the acting/directing against past productions. Though the musical has been tinkered with over the years, the current incarnation is a back-to-its-roots effort, with the original 1960s sets and choreography. Does that make it a museum piece or is it an artistic decision that has some contemporary resonance?

It's been at least 15 years since I last saw Anne of Green Gables and this time I was surprised by its imperial themes, particularly the strange school pageant where depictions of Eskimos and Indians flirt with racism. I had forgotten the cavalier treatment of teen pregnancy--treated with more levity than, say, school teasing. I had remembered Anne and Diana's platonic love song "Kindred Spirits"--it's the name of a fan magazine. But I had forgotten that it was the visit to the horrible Mrs. Blewett--we know she's horrible because she doesn't hang her laundry to dry sorted by colour and size--that made Marilla change her mind about keeping Anne. It's a funny scene, but there's no song in it and the Blewett character doesn't recur, so it didn't penetrate into my psyche. But the moment I saw the laundry, I knew exactly what was coming. Mrs. Blewett was there in my brain whether I knew it or not.

I can say this about the current production: Amy Wallis is probably the best of the four Anne's I've seen. And I always get excited when they start the egg and spoon race which is, strangely, more thrilling than the three-legged race that precedes it. But I didn't cry when... you know who... you know whats. A ritual is supposed to provide satisfaction each time, but get one ingredient wrong and the spirits will ignore you.