REVIEW: Ski Bum: The Musical zippy and witty original show coming to Grand Forks

By Adrian Barnes

As I was in Pro Hardware yesterday, buying my tickets for last night’s world premiere of Ski Bum: The Musical, who should come up to the counter just as I was handing over my cash but a somewhat harried Nadine Tremblay, cast member, composer, and goodness knows what else for both the show at hand and Iron Mountain Theatre, the production company behind the show. It was a classic Rossland moment, and one that was true to both the nature of life in a tiny ski town and to both the subject matter and nature of this excellent musical.

Ski Bum is a small miracle: a full-on production inspired by Rossland, written in Rossland, and produced in Rossland by a small cohort of creative types with enough determination and professionalism to fill the ranks of a Broadway company.

When it comes to musicals in general I’d describe myself as somewhat on the fence: no friend to productions like Grease, Wicked, or Moulin Rouge, still I’m a sucker for Chicago or anything with Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, or Fred Astaire in it. In short, not bad for a straight guy. Much to my delight, Ski Bum weaves its zany way along tracks carved by the latter and not the former. In short, Ski Bum is witty. And sharp. And zippy--like any good ski musical should be.

The dialogue, courtesy of writers Tyler Austin Bradley and Mark Pollard as well as the lyrics (by Tremblay, along with the music) move along at a consistently snappy pace. Ski Bum isn’t afraid to be dumb AND it isn’t afraid to be smart either. One liners and puns whipped through my brain at just the right pace: slow enough to be processed, but in rapid enough succession that I never found my attention flagging. Again, there was high and there was low humour: sexual innuendo (‘you don’t want to end up being a crusty old sock like Mr. Wooly’ being one of my faves) and word play (words like ‘legendairyism’ spring to mind).

The plot revolves around Richard (Mark Pollard) a cultural anthropologist come to town to investigate the tribal ways of ski bums (a study I’ve been advocating for years, incidentally) and who gets involved in the romantic blizzard that surrounds Liz and Jeff Snowden (Tremblay and RJ Peters), a split-asunder couple destined for romantic reconciliation. No spoilers here: it’s a musical comedy--of course true love conquers all! The cast is rounded out by Jane Gaudet as Sunny, a vengeful, rule-bound, and ditzy (when in love) ski patrol diva. All the actors had well-defined, broadly-written characters to play and made the most of what they were given.

Indeed, the actors had the crowd in the palm of their hands from the moment the first number, “Rocky Mountain Air”, began. The melodies, arrangements, and harmonies were first rate: varied, memorable, and impressively polished for a first performance. From there, well, things just kept rolling along. Again, snappy dialogue and good songs were the order of the day.

Special mention should be made of the direction. Shane Snow, having descended from the megapolis we call Vancouver for this production, has orchestrated a really nicely-put-together piece of work here. Looking at the fairly spartan stage before showtime, I was wondering how a ski-based musical would play out on the RSS stage. I was more than pleasantly surprised. Using a special, cutting edge technology called ‘Heelies’, the actors did an amazing job of looking as though they were skiing around the stage--almost continuously. In fact, well-choreographed movement is one of the show’s greatest strengths aside from the writing: it’s a pretty kinetic spectacle for a four person, low budget production.

My own favourite moment had to be the somewhat disturbing ride Jeff takes with the Lonesome Snow Plow Driver and his unusual friend, Mr. Wooly. But I’ll let you find out about that for yourselves.

There were surprisingly few flat spots or glitches for a first time performance. I have a few quibbles: once in a while some of the lyrics were a little hard to follow, which might have been either a sound or enunciation problem, and during the second half there was a musical ‘ski bum’ hook that played between every scene shift. It began to grate in the same way that any tasty little pop hook will eventually burn a hole through one’s brain--indeed, my younger son complained, back at home, that he couldn’t get those two notes out of his head.

But these are small things, and this was a big night. I feel lucky to live in a town where this sort of project can be both dreamed up AND brought to fruition. And I don't think I was alone in this.

By the time the final number, “30 Centimetre Day” came around, the audience felt as though they’d just finished a great day at the hill. Epic even...I’m sure ski towns around BC lucky enough to receive a visit from the Ski Bum cast and crew will feel the same.

Ski Bum: The Musical will play in Grand Forks as a fund raiser for the Christina Lake Arts and Artisans Society on Friday Feb. 11 at GFSS Auditorium 7:30 p.m. Tickets at: The Source, Chain Reaction, Thistle Pot and Huckleberry Market.