In January 2000, the Canadian Stage Company of Toronto premiered a new
musical by Richard Ouzounian and Marek Norman. Cooperatively developed
with the NAC in Ottawa and the MTC in Winnipeg, Larry's Party was an original
Canadian musical based on the novel by Carol Shields. Larry's Party was
a financial success for the Canadian Stage Company but a critical failure.
There seems to be little possibility of the work being remounted, and there
has not been a recording produced of the show. This paper will examine
not only the adaptation of the musical from the written page, and the decisions
the librettist and composer made in "musicalizing" a critically respected
and popular work of literature, but also a stage work that requires music
and choreographed movement to expound its story. I will also consider the
work in relation to critical expectations of the Canadian musical in general.
I will try to distinguish the nature of the Canadian musical by asking
whether there is an indigenous tradition of music theatre production and,
if so, where Larry's Party fits into this body of work.
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