New West Theatre’s music comedy revue Legends of Rock and Country will emphasize the music.
The new show runs at the Yates Theatre from Feb. 15-25.
Legends of Rock and Country features some familiar faces including. Alinafe Lupwayi, Devon Brayne, Erica Hunt, Katie Fellger, Scott Carpenter, Kathy Zaborsky, Keenan Pezderic, Scott Mezei and new performer from Calgary, Ray Val. Music director/ keyboardist Kathy Zaborsky’s husband Tyson Maiko will be playing bass for this show.
“He’s a great bass player and they don’t get to perform together too often,” said Director Kelly Reay, who is excited about the show.
“We wanted to do something a little different, so we‘re focusing on the tribute part of the show and a handful of interpretations. But most of it will be tribute with the cast dressing up as the performers ” he continued, noting Devon Brayne will be reprising his Johnny Cash performance, which is only one of the many highlights of the show.
” Ray Val does an excellent Tina Turner as well as has several other fantastic performances,” Reay said, praising the versatility of the cast.
“ Keenan Pezderic takes centre stage for more performances than usual. His first on e is Mick Jagger. With such a versatile cast, we can do things like that. While he’s performing, Devon can play drums, which we didn’t know he could do until this show,“ he continued.
He noted Alinafe Lupwayi will be performing as Marvin Gaye among other performances, Erica Hunt will be singing some Janis Joplin. Scott Carpenter, who grew a beard to play Santa Claus in Elf the Musical, trimmed it down and will perform as Kenny Rogers.
“ This will be a lean, stripped down show. There will be light banter between songs, but no comedy sketches. We want to focus on the music for this show,” Reay said, adding it is a shorter run as well. The cast were just fitting their costumes as of Feb. 13.
“ We‘re experimenting a little bit, so we’re excited to see how audiences respond to it,” Reay said.
The show runs at 7:30 p.m. each night Feb. 15-25 plus matinees on Saturday and Sunday.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
