It's off-Broadway where innovation counts and foreign talent is welcomed. A former Montrealer, playwright Oren Safdie has become a regular at the off-Broadway La Mama theatre. This year's entry is his new musical, Fiddler Soupe Terraine, a satire on Fiddler in the Roof set in Cote St. Luc. The best work rises to the top. I'm not sure that the best work in Canada gets what it deserves.
Canadian theatre is very bureaucratic.
The toughest thing about launching a show in New York, Safdie said, is getting press. To that end, French Quebecers and native Canadians have an advantage. When he presented a festival of Canadian plays at La Mama a few years ago, Tomson Highway went over big. Don't tell that to former Westmount mayor May Cutler, who now owns an apartment in New York. That's Snow, at the Riverside Church last July.