Tony and Governor General Award-winning actor Brent Carver has created Walk Me to the Corner, An Evening with Brent Carver, to honour the 10th anniversary of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company.
Carver hails from Cranbrook, B.C., and lived in London, England, before making his home in Ontario’s picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake for the last 20 years. The internationally known star of Stratford Festival’s Fiddler on the Roof and Broadway’s Parade and Kiss of the Spider Woman has starred on stages across North America and the United Kingdom, lending his talents to intimate cabarets and large musical productions spanning over four decades.
He has participated in past fundraising events and was in An Arlen Evening – music of Jewish composer Harold Arlen, for the Harold Green. Last January the theatre’s co-artistic directors, Avery Saltzman and David Eisner, approached the actor over a coffee, about doing something special to celebrate the company’s upcoming milestone.
Carver quickly realized it would be a lot of work to complete for the fall premiere and has been intensely working on it since the beginning of August.
“For me, it was something of a journey,” he says. “With the decisions along the way, challenges you come across – and you allow yourself to say it’s OK, and you give it a whirl.”
The title, Walk Me to the Corner, was inspired by the Leonard Cohen lyrics, “Walk me to the corner, our steps will always rise,” but for Carver, the saying “I will walk you to the corner” means you will have a companion until you part. He thinks of the 20 songs he’s selected for the show, all by Jewish composers, as companions.
Carver will share the stage with award-winning musical director, arranger and pianist Reza Jacobs and with Anna Atkinson on violin and viola. “Reza Jacobs and I have gone through so very many songs,” he says. “The Jewish songbook is vast and it’s so humbling, awesome and rich. I just had to feel with my instincts what songs would be best. Some, I have done before, but most of the repertoire, I haven’t.”
READ: THEATRE COMPANY MARKS ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY
Carver includes some spoken word in the show, including the words of William Shakespeare, as well as the works of Jewish composers such as John Kander and Fred Ebb, who wrote Cabaret, and Jason Robert Brown, all of whom he has worked with. Others include Lerner and Loewe, Randy Newman, Jules Stein, Harold Arlen, Stephen Sondheim and Rodgers and Hart. Also included are Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson, who wrote It All Depends on You. For Carver, that song sums up dependency and the idea that every decision we make depends on everything else that happens in the world.
The actor hopes audiences will be entertained and feel uplifted and satisfied. “We have talked about the possibility of doing the show again next year. I just think it would be fantastic if it was three nights here and three nights there. It is such a rich kind of possibility that’s kind of awesome in a way too.”
The show runs 85 minutes with no intermission. “It’s a beautiful theatre and a marvellous theatre company and community,” Carver says. “I feel really privileged to be asked to contribute to their season.”
Prior to Carver’s show for Harold Green, he will be in Uncovered at Toronto’s Koerner Hall with Acting Up Stage Company, performing the songs of David Bowie and Queen on Nov. 1, 2 and 3. In the coming year, Carver will be performing with The Art of Time Ensemble.
Walk Me to the Corner runs from Nov. 8 to 20, at The Greenwin Theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. For more information, call 1-855-985-2787 or go to www.hgjewishtheatre.com