Spies Are Forever

A wise man once said ‘youth is wasted on the young’ however, if he had seen the opening night performance of Spies are Forever, I’m sure he would agree with me – the young are best to handle youthful enthusiasm, youthful confidence and have a great time doing it!

Before an enthusiastic and very supportive audience this cast of bright young things threw themselves into every aspect of the production and held it together despite technical difficulties, miscues, costume malfunctions and prop failures.

Spies are Forever is an ambitious piece for anyone to take on and I congratulate young Director Matthew Dorahy for his effort and commitment in bringing this satirical musical to the stage. He was ably supported by Choreographer Jess Luth and Co-Musical Directors Zoe Conolan-Glen and Kimberly Gilbert.  The orchestra was excellent and I was somewhat amused to read in the program Daniel Craig was on Drums.

I won’t attempt to give an outline to the plot – the verbose dialogue was tricky to follow, and at times delivered with chaotic energy, and it was only via the musical numbers that I was able to gain an insight to the story and character development.  Having said that, there were far too many songs with several of them way too long.  In a nutshell, the piece needs a serious cull. The plot does not have the integrity to go on for almost 3 hours.

The show opens with a scene between Curt Mega (Toby Rowe) and Owen Carvour (Milo Kidd) and we are off to a great start with the bond (see what I did there?) between these 2 quickly established. Tragedy strikes and Mega struggles with guilt and grief.  Toby Rowe in the lead role is outstanding.  This 18 year old – let me repeat that, 18 year old – performer is just about a triple threat in the making.  He acts with a swagger and charisma, his singing voice has excellent promise, he portrays confidence and vulnerability as required and his comedic timing is spot on.  Rowe did much of the heavy lifting throughout the performance and showed skill and maturity way beyond his years.  Milo Kidd’s interaction with Rowe provided humour and pathos and is another young performer who showed great potential as a future talent.

Meg Nevin as Tatiana Slozhno portrayed the femme fatale with a sincerity and class that had us all fooled.  Her singing voice was sensational and a duet with Toby Rowe in the second act was a real highlight of the production. 

Several other performances are to be acknowledged for their excellence viz.  Jay Mancuso, the Lounge Singer who negotiated a hazardous set of stairs in a tight red dress while singing; Toby Nunn as Sergio Santos offered something of the classic vaudeville performer in his portrayal of the brash prankster who sings and dances his way through life; and Brianna Webster, the fast-talking Barbara Larvenor, a great dancer and her song ‘Who’s Saving You’ was fun.

A large ensemble supported the leads very well in both singing and dancing and several members made a particular impact – Claire Garment, Jordan Miller, Kane Hudson, and Sabine Grubisa among others.

When the cast sang together the voices harmonized well, and there was a touch of Broadway about the show which countered the somewhat slower dialogue which caused pace and audience engagement to dip.

A warning appeared in the program regarding themes of facism, genocide, antisemitism, and homophobia with reference to death and torture. These concepts are presented comedically and the audience was warned the content may offend.  I guess they went by the principle – ‘If it doesn’t offend somebody, it probably isn’t funny.’

Annette Snars

https://www.northshoretheatrecompany.org/