The Dreamland and Girls in the Gang

David E. Kemp is head of the Drama Department at Queen’s University.

This unique volume contains two of the best of Canada’s recent
musicals, both of which were originally presented at the Blyth Festival.
Given that a musical is difficult to produce—involving, generally, a
large cast and considerable expense with respect to orchestra and
music—it’s good to see these two fine examples of the genre
collected here for posterity.

The Dreamland begins on the day when the once-grand dance pavilion in
Ontario’s Muskoka cottage country is put up for sale. A storm gathers,
and Rose Russell takes shelter in the soon-to-be-demolished
“Dreamland,” which she and her late husband once operated. The
arrival of a mysterious American woman transports Rose back to 1933 and
a heady summer filled with music, romance, and betrayal. The Dreamland
is sheer delight even without the music. It’s full of nostalgia,
humor, the kind of characters you want to know, and the kind of dialogue
you want to hear. The lyrics are the catchiest and cleverest this side
of Stephen Sondheim, and there are moments that are deeply affecting.
The Toronto Star called The Dreamland “one of the best Canadian
musicals ever,” an assessment that could just be right.

Girls in the Gang is very different in both style and content. The year
is 1950 and the members of the notorious Boyd Gang are capturing the
hearts and minds of the public and garnering nearly all the newspaper
headlines. The story is based on actual events, but the characters are
fictional. A nice touch is that this dramatic musical play concerns
itself not only with the gang members but also with the women they loved
and left behind. Stylistically Girls in the Gang owes much to the genres
of detective magazines, private-eye movies, film noir, and to the
mythology of the American underworld. What provides much of the tension
in this musical is the tragedy of real people living out passionate and
desperate lives against the mosaic of this mythology. Girls in the Gang
is slick, funny, and ultimately very clever indeed.