{"id":21436,"date":"2015-09-25T20:00:42","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T03:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/?p=21436"},"modified":"2015-09-28T11:35:13","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T18:35:13","slug":"ernest-shackleton-loves-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/2015\/09\/ernest-shackleton-loves-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Ernest Shackleton Loves Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Musical, Performance (2009)<\/p>\n

Lyrics by Valerie Vigoda
\nMusic by Brendan Milburn
\nBook by Joe DiPietro<\/p>\n

Directed by Lisa Peterson
\nMusic Director: Ryan O’Connell
\nTechnical Director: Ahren Buhmann; Scenic, Lighting and Projection Designer: Alex Nichols; Costume Designer: Chelsea Cook; Sound Designers: Kevin Heard, Rob Witmer, John Emmett O’Brien<\/p>\n

ArtsEmerson<\/a>
\nParamount Theater
\nTheater District, Boston<\/p>\n

September 20 – October 4, 2015<\/p>\n

With Valerie Vigoda (Kat) and Wade McCollum (Ernest Shackleton, et al.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Wade<\/a>
Wade McCollum and Valerie Vigoda
in “Ernest Shackleton Loves Me”
Photo: Jeff Carpenter
Courtesy of ArtsEmerson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A terrific takeoff on the story of Antarctic adventurer-hero Ernest Shackleton from the perspective of a present day out of work single mother.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Kat (Valerie Vigoda) has a young child, has been abandoned by the father, and is losing her current contract for doing music tracks for a video game. On the edge of despair, she seeks out companionship on a Lover Leftovers<\/em> site and winds up getting in contact with the legendary Antarctic explorer, Ernest Shackleton (Wade McCollum). The romance takes off from there, with Kat and Shackleton imaginatively navigating his Antarctic adventure together and bolstering one another’s spirits.<\/p>\n

In September 1914, British explorer Ernest Shackleton led an expedition to Antarctica that could easily have ended in disaster. His ship, the Endurance<\/em>, was frozen in the ice just miles short of its destination, and the crew was stranded there for months while the Endurance<\/em> was gradually crushed by the ice. Venturing out in rowboats after a seasonal melting of some of the ice, they came to the deserted Elephant Island, and from there, Shackleton and a small group rowed over 700 miles in the wickedly torrential Southern ocean to get help on South Georgia Island. They succeeded, and, after an ordeal lasting until August 1916, returned to Elephant Island to save the rest of the crew. In the end, not one of Shackleton’s team perished.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

What a fabulously wild, crazy ride this is, and full of zip, talent and pure fun. <\/p>\n

Valerie Vigoda, who plays the single mother, does it with musical finesse throughout, playing a six stringed electric violin with panache, singing gorgeously, and managing all kinds of sound effects. Wade McCollum, as Shackleton, and a few other characters, carries off the multiple roles with brilliant exuberance, and plays the banjo and sings up a storm as well. <\/p>\n

The lyrics, by Vigoda, are terrifically down to earth and very much to the point. The whole vibe is upbeat, and the message itself about being upbeat, with a ridiculously upbeat and self-parodying Shackleton, McCollum adeptly conveying the positive message as well as the satire in one fell, and coherent, swoop.<\/p>\n

Great projections of stills and films of Shackleton’s actual voyage (unbelievably, a photographer-filmmaker was along for the trip in 1914) enhance the performance significantly, all included ingeniously and very effectively. <\/p>\n

\"Wade<\/a>
Wade McCollum and Valerie Vigoda
in “Ernest Shackleton Loves Me”
Photo: Jeff Carpenter
Courtesy of ArtsEmerson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At one point, near the end of the voyage, Shackleton and Kat have to scale a mountain range and they both climb high up on a scaffold onstage, peering way down to the audience. It’s a simple, but highly<\/em> moving stunt and makes for a wonderfully dramatic moment.<\/p>\n

The final parts of the narrative are hugely funny. Shackleton gives way to Vasco da Gama, also played by McCollum, and the two have a face-off over Kat. Her errant boyfriend, again played by McCollum, enters the scene at various points adding hilarity and drama.<\/p>\n

\"Ernest<\/a>
Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vigoda’s and McCollum’s tight delivery of songs and of music, combined with a totally lively and wackily offbeat script, make for a fabulous show. It runs just an hour and a half without intermission, but it covers a lot of ground, and ice, in that time and one walks away most satisfied. <\/p>\n

This production certainly keeps in line with ArtsEmerson’s now solid tradition of bringing offbeat and interesting theatre to Boston, for fairly short runs. Catch this one if you can – it’s upbeat, wacky and well-done, and full of adventure, literally and figuratively.<\/p>\n

– BADMan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musical, Performance (2009)
\nLyrics by Valerie Vigoda
\nMusic by Brendan Milburn
\nBook by Joe DiPietro
\nDirected by Lisa Peterson
\nArtsEmerson<\/a>
\nParamount Theater
\nTheater District, Boston
\nSeptember 20 – October 4, 2015<\/strong>
\nA terrific takeoff on the story of Antarctic adventurer-hero Ernest Shackleton from the perspective of a present day out of work single mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-musicals","7":"category-performance-art","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21436"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21475,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21436\/revisions\/21475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}