By Sally Warburton
It’s July! It’s Toronto! It’s the Toronto Fringe Festival!
The opening night of Mathew’s Big Broadway Bash at Toronto Fringe Festival was a hit! Featuring lots of big hits!! Broadway songs from Grease, Cats, The Sound of Music, Mamma Mia, The Little Mermaid, Annie and others! Mathew MacLean of Toronto Cabaret Productions was the star. Welcoming the audience to the venue, barefoot Mathew prepared us for audience participation with songsheets encouraging singing to a few of the songs and dancing. Plus audience members were asked for words to fill-in the Madlib style song lyrics for Mathew to sing later in the show. That was a lot of fun… and very spontaneous for Mathew to sing. A relaxed and professional atmosphere creating a warm audience vibe. With a story of his Annie-themed birthday party as a child, this led into the next Broadway song ‘Tomorrow’ from the musical Annie. What a beautiful voice!
Not just a one man show. Each night Mathew will have a ‘party crasher’. July 3rd it was singer Sarah Stahmar for one solo song who was fantastic. And then dancer Jada Prato George Brown graduate to dance along to a song. Amazing.
Where is this? Very convenient to get to by TTC Bay or Museum Subway… Held in the beautiful Helconian Club building at 35 Hazelton Ave in Yorkville, Toronto… closing your eyes and hearing Mathew’s professionally trained and natural talent voice, you’d think you were at Princess of Wales theatre or Royal Alex at a big theatrical production!
Mathew can sing. He can act. He can entertain. And entertain us, he did – with humour! And what a magnificent voice! The hour flew by… and when the last song was announced, we were all surprised… and sad that Mathew’s Big Broadway Bash was over!
Highly recommended! Get your tickets before the Toronto Fringe Festival ends July 12th! Check the schedule at fringetoronto.com and for updates on Mathew torontocabaretproductions.com
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