It wasn’t that long ago when cinema screens were regularly visited by the stock characters of film noir: the femme fatale, smoke swirling from her dark lips as she lied to whoever would listen; the world-weary anti-hero, armed with a revolver, a fedora, and a bad attitude; assorted crooked cops, gutsy dames, and villains, all cogs in some sort of shady conspiracy.
The film noir period – the most prolific years of which fell in the 1940s – made icons of actors like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and offered a melancholy alternative to the peppy musicals of the post-war era. Films like The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, and Double Indemnity were revolutionary for their use of shadow, light and smoke, as well as their mood: bleak, morally ambiguous, paranoid, cynical and undeniably sexy.
This week, the spirit of film noir descends upon Vancouver in City of Angels, Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H), David Zippel, and Cy Coleman’s 1989 musical that weaves together two plots: that of the "real" world of a writer in the 1940s trying to turn his book into a screenplay, and the "reel" world of his fictional noir film.
This particular production of City of Angels (the Canadian premiere, courtesy of Vancouver’s Putting it Together Collective) takes Gelbart’s notion of dual worlds and further blurs the lines between stage and screen and ticket-holders. Not only is this a stage play about making a film in which the actors – many of whom straddle the Vancouver film and theatre worlds in real-life – play dual roles on stage and in pre-recorded film segments, but the audience is meant to feel like they’re part of the show, too.
“We have a whole pre-show happening where there’s a craft services table in the corner and racks of costumes going by,” says Jennifer Copping, a busy Vancouver actress whose lengthy credit list includes screen (Fargo, Van Helsing) and stage (Les Miserables). Copping – who played Jesus in the Arts Club’s 2015 production of Godspell and won a Leo Award for her work in Becoming Redwood – acts, co-produces, and (with Sylvia M. Zaradic) co-directs City of Angels. “There are a couple of actresses on their way to an audition for a new film. You might see Betty Grable walk by in costume. You’ll feel like you’re in a Hollywood sound stage in the 1940s.”
If there is an angel behind this production of City of Angels, though, it’s probably Christopher Shyer. It was Shyer (a veteran actor with 70 credits to his name, including J. Edgar and NCIS) who brought the idea of an epic City of Angels production to Copping in the first place.
“I said, ‘From what I know of City of Angels, it’s a massive show, what are you thinking?’” she chuckles. “‘Are you cuckoo?’”
But in the great Hollywood tradition of “Let’s put on a show!”, Copping and Shyer rallied the local showbiz community and crowdfunded more than $40,000 for the limited engagement run – and, during the run, the campaign’s top donors will be picked up at their cars in golf carts, driven through the doors of the Performance Works “sound stage” right up to their seats, and handed flutes of sparkling wine.
Those perks are eye-popping, but so is everything else about City of Angels, says Copping, from the dual worlds of the musical to the film elements to the size of the cast and creative team. “We have 19 people in our cast, a six-piece orchestra, all our designers, two directors, musical director, choreographer, his assistant, three stage managers,” she says. “It just goes on and on, and we’re all doing this basically for the love of it.”
(And, if film noir intrigues you, check out some of the greatest works of the genre in The Cinematheque’s annual film noir series August 3-24).
City of Angels’ massive cast includes Michael Lomenda (who played Nick Massi in Jersey Boys on stage and in the film directed by Clint Eastwood), Crystal Balint, John R. Taylor, and Jessie Award-nominated actor Paul Herbert. Shyer booked an off-Broadway gig and was unable to direct or appear in the production, but he has stayed on as creative producer and production manager.
City of Angels is “smart, sexy, funny, complicated and feel-good,” according to its director. “There’s a reason this won a Tony,” Copping says. “It is a gem, and it’s just not produced enough because it’s a complicated and expensive show.”
• Putting it Together Collective’s production of City of Angelsruns July 8-17 at Performance Works on Granville Island. Tickets at cityofangels.brownpapertickets.com.
