Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Toronto, ON – Luminato Festival adds two iconic Canadian projects - like you’ve never seen them before - to the programming line-up at the Hearn Generating Station this June.
A decade after his celebrated, sold-out Carnegie Hall performances, Rufus Wainwright pays tribute to the “greatest night in show business” once again with Rufus Does Judy (June 23 to 24) an epic recreation of Judy Garland's 1961 comeback concert. Backed by a 36-piece orchestra led by Broadway legend Stephen Oremus and presented with Pride Toronto as part of the city’s first-ever Pride Month, Wainwright’s spectacular show comes to Luminato following a NYC remount at Carnegie Hall on June 16 and 17.
After a 10-year hiatus, Vancouver's explosive contemporary dance company The Holy Body Tattoo return to the world-tour circuit, reuniting with Montreal's post-rock legends Godspeed You! Black Emperor to bring their epic collaboration, monumental (June 14 to 15) to Toronto. Part of a cross-Canada and international tour (already boasting sold-out and critically-acclaimed runs at Vancouver’s PuSh Festival and the Adelaide Festival) with original music performed live; this is the must-see dance show of the year.
Both projects will #TurnOnTheHearn by transforming The Hearn Music Stage, a custom-built, adaptable performance space that will host an audience of up to 5,000 for Unsound Toronto (June 10 to 11). With Rufus Does Judy, the Hearn becomes a concert hall with a seated audience of 2,300. For monumental, the stage is set for dance with a more intimate audience of just under 1,000.
“We’re presenting two huge Canadian projects that will be even bigger as we #TurnOnTheHearn,” said Weisbrodt. “The stunning dance piece monumental won’t look better anywhere in the world than here in Toronto; the steel and concrete maze of the Hearn is like an extension of the set, blowing it up to gigantic dimensions,” said Weisbrodt. “And I’m so thrilled to announce that Rufus Does Judy is BACK! We’re going to prove The Hearn can be the most sparkly concert hall in the world – and a place for the two of us to say good bye in June to five wonderful years in Toronto and at Luminato.”
JUNE 14 TO 15, 8 PM | #monumentalTO
“a twitchy, mad version of contemporary life” – Edmonton Journal
An explosion of contemporary dance and post-rock music from Vancouver’s The Holy Body Tattoo and Montreal’s Godspeed You! Black Emperor that shatters the façade of capitalist urban culture. Nine dancers balance on top of illuminated pedestals that resemble a miniature city. A projected backdrop evokes a gritty urban vision. Live music from an eight piece band echoes through the Hearn.
Together, The Holy Body Tattoo and Godspeed You! Black Emperor hold up a mirror to modern life, exposing mass isolation, oppression, repetition, and despair. Movement turns into metaphor and sound into substance as the human need for intimacy and individuality breaks through the noise.
This is a rare opportunity to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor, one of this country’s most legendary and influential musical acts, live in performance with The Holy Body Tattoo. Rocking the Hearn music stage, and monumental in name and resonance, this show is as violent, beautiful and cathartic as art can get.
Choreographed by Dana Gingras and Noam Gagnon with live music by Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
The Hearn Music Stage. Two nights only, June 14 to 15, at 8 p.m. Tickets from $29.
JUNE 23 TO 24, 8 PM | #RufusDoesJudy
“Not even Madonna… has attempted anything so ambitious.” — New York Times
“Breathtaking in its chutzpah and panache” — The Guardian
On April 23, 1961, show business legend Judy Garland staged a concert at Carnegie Hall that reignited her career and also solidified her status as an icon for the LGBT community. In 2006, Canadian singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright teamed up with Broadway legend Stephen Oremus and a 36-piece orchestra to pay tribute to "the greatest night in show business" with an exact recreation of Garland's original show. Wainwright took to the stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Palladium, Paris’ Olympia and L.A.’s Hollywood Bowl – all the same venues Garland performed in decades earlier. The shows were a critically-acclaimed, sold-out sensation, with the who’s-who of the industry lining up to get in. After the Carnegie Hall show The Guardian gushed “every male couple in New York was there - and Sarah Jessica Parker.” The live recording, Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, garnered a 2009 GRAMMY® nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and charted in three countries.
Now, ten years later, Rufus Does Judy at the Hearn Generating Station, giving Toronto audiences a chance to see the iconic production like never before. Wainwright, an icon himself, carries on Garland's legacy with his signature showmanship, energy, and style, joined on stage by special guest stars. Once more, his brilliantly talented sister, singer/songwriter Martha Wainwright, will bring the house down with her rendition of the classic “Stormy Weather” (the one song Rufus felt really had to be sung by a woman). Other guests are yet to be announced.
Including beloved hits such as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", "Get Happy”, and "Chicago", it's sure to be just as fun and fabulous as before. Wainwright is a popular Luminato Festival alumni, with past appearances including Love Over and Over: The Songs of Kate McGarrigle, Prima Donna, Joni: A Portrait in Song and more. Wainwright’s last appearance at Luminato, the 2014 concert If I Loved You: Gentlemen Prefer Broadway, sold out.
"A lot has happened in 10 years on all fronts and musically this show will reflect that,” said Rufus. “This brilliant material was constructed to widen and deepen with age and I'm looking forward to the experience of singing these songs again, myself being more experienced. Can’t wait to slip back into those ruby slippers, though in this day and age of comfort and commercialism I suppose they should be ruby sneakers!"
In collaboration with Pride Toronto as part of the city’s first-ever Pride Month, the June 23 performance is followed by a post-show party (tickets $60 +HST), sure to blow the lid off the Hearn.
Performed by Rufus Wainwright and guests. Musical direction by Stephen Oremus.
The Hearn Music Stage. Two nights only, June 23 to 24, 8 p.m. Tickets from $39.
Presented with support from Jonas and Lynda Prince.
“I’ve hugely admired the distinctive, world-class artistic work created here in Toronto and across Canada which I’ve seen since I moved here last summer – further evidenced by how often Canada’s artists share their work and collaborate internationally,” said Anthony Sargent, CEO, Luminato Festival. “It’s a thrilling honour to present these two projects – iconic, viscerally exciting, earth-shattering – in the vast, ruined splendour of the Hearn Generating Station, and so fitting that both return to the world stage a decade after their premieres – in perfect time to be highlights of our own 10th birthday celebrations.”
10TH ANNIVERSARY LUMINATO FESTIVAL
This June, Luminato Festival celebrates its first decade of creating adventurous art in adventurous places. From June 10 to 26, with an extended 17-day Festival, Luminato will #TurnOnTheHearn with its first-ever residency, temporarily transforming Toronto’s iconic, decommissioned power plant, The Hearn Generating Station, into the world’s largest multi-arts centre under one roof with a 1,200 seat theatre, a music and dance stage, a site-specific performance space, an art gallery, restaurants, bars and more.
Working with the thinkers and cultural enthusiasts at Toronto-based, award-winning architecture firm PARTISANS, and leading international theatre and acoustics consultancy Charcoalblue, Luminato will create temporary performance spaces inside the Hearn Generating Station for the entire ticketed program of the Festival this June. Design details and layout will be shared in April 2016. To learn more: http://bit.ly/TurnOnTheHearn
Tickets for monumental and Rufus Does Judy, as well as previously announced programming, The National Theatre of Scotland’s epic 5-star trilogy, The James Plays; Situation Rooms, a multi-player video experience from Germany’s Rimini Protokoll; and the return of Poland’s electrifying music festival Unsound Toronto are all now on sale. For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.luminatofestival.com. Additional programming details will be announced in the coming weeks.
LINKS
•Full show details, schedules, and hi-res images: http://www.luminatofestival.com
•Jorn's Blog: monumental and Rufus Does Judy
•#TurnOnTheHearn: https://luminatofestival.com/blogs/jorn-blog/2015/turnonthehearn/
•January Programming announcement: The James Plays, Situation Rooms and Unsound Toronto
TICKETS
Tickets for the 2016 Luminato Festival are now on sale and can be purchased 24/7 at luminatofestival.com or by calling the Luminato Festival Box Office at 416 368 4849 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. Ticket savings are available for youth (18 and under)/students, arts workers and groups (6+). For full ticketing details, dates, times and prices, please visit luminatofestival.com.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: @Luminato; #Luminato10 #TurnOnTheHearn; @PrideToronto #PrideTO
Facebook: www.facebook.com/LuminatoFestival and www.facebook.com/pridetoronto
Instagram: @LuminatoFestival and @PrideToronto
Photo: Poster for Rufus Does Judy. ©2006 Carnegie Hall.
2016-03-07
Toronto: The Luminato Festival presents "monumental" and "Rufus Does Judy"