Wanderlust

Robert Service was a famous Canadian poet (not great, but famous) whose two most famous poems - The Shooting of Dan McGrew and The Creation of Sam McGee - are well known to the nation. A musical about the life of Service using his poems seemed like a natural with Morris Panych, Marek Norman and Ken Macdonald handling the creative and you should have a recipe for a blockbuster. Add Tom Rooney in the lead role, with Dan Chameroy and Randy Hughson supporting and the mix is promising indeed. Robin Hutton was charming as Louise (aka the lady known as Lou.)Lucy Peacock was an over the top drunken landlady. But the big surprise was Rooneynas a singer. Is there anything he can't do? The result was a fun evening of theatre, but unfortunately not a smash hit. There were a couple of excellent dance numbers, but the score was unmemorable, even for the well known numbers based on the famous poems. It is worth seeing, but won't be remembered. It seems that writing a hit musical is not easy.