Copyright 1995 Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation   
The Toronto Sun 


July 23, 1995, Sunday, Final EDITION 

SECTION: SHOWCASE, Pg. S11, ON THEATRE 

LENGTH: 988 words 

HEADLINE: LIFE AFTER TONY; 
BRENT CARVER LOOKS FOR BALANCE SINCE FINDINGSUCCESS WITH KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN 

BYLINE: JOHN COULBOURN 

BODY: 


If this were New York, where memories of his Tony Award-winning performance still burn brightest, there's no doubt he'd turn heads as he makes his way through this trendy eatery. 

But it's Toronto, heartland of a starless nation - and Brent Carver wends his way through the crowd without drawing so much as a second glance. 

But his invisibility is only partly due to Canada's implacable ennui with home-grown talent. Part of it is also Carver himself, served up in the flesh with self-effacing grace and disarming charm. 

Can anyone this damn nice possibly be important? 

The chorus of unturned heads to the contrary, the answer is most definitely yes. In the world of Canadian theatre, his importance is secure. It's self importance that he lacks. 

It's that lower case sense of the first person, in fact, that leaves Carver a little bewildered at the excitement his forthcoming Harbourfront gig has engendered here in Toronto the Good. Riding the number three slot in Harbourfront's Magnificent Seven Summer Series, Carver takes centre stage in the Premiere Dance Theatre July 25 to 29, presenting a brand new, self-created one-man show. 

It's the first time Carver has graced a Toronto stage in full performance mode since he packed his bags for London and hence, New York, where his Toronto-born performance in LiveEnt's The Kiss Of The Spider Woman earned him a 1993 Tony Award and made him the toast of the town. 

Yeah, Toronto is anxious to welcome him home. 

Of course, he hasn't abandoned T.O. entirely since he bowed out of Spider Woman. He's made the occasional appearance hereabouts, including hosting Dancers For Life. 

But his acting talents have been spent in other markets, on stage in productions of Cyrano de Bergerac and Richard III at Edmonton's Citadel Theatre and, for film, in the not-yet-released The Songspinner, opposite Patti Lupone and John Neville, under the direction of Randy Bradshaw. Exteriors were shot in the Maritimes and interiors in Edmonton. 

Whether it's movies or stage, however, location is secondary in Carver's decisions. 

"It was the parts," he explains of his theatre gigs. "And certainly Robin." 

That would be director Robin Phillips, of course, only recently retired as the Citadel's artistic director and a long-time Carver collaborator. 

But the bottom line for his decisions is even more ephemeral. 

"More and more, it seems to be what I feel is fair and right and what is going to energize me," he says. 

Toronto has always been an option, he explains, but "I guess it was just whenever I was talking to people about doing certain shows and stuff, it conflicted with something else. 

"It wasn't intentional." 

So, credit for this homecoming must ultimately go to Don Shipley, Harbourfront's manager of performing arts. 

"Don asked me a year ago if I would be interested in doing some sort of concert show," Carver explains. "I thought the Premiere Dance Theatre would be a nice space - and it is a brilliant space. I thought: 'Oh, I'll give it a whirl.'" 

So, he reteamed with Laura Burton - "We did sort of an evening at the Factory Theatre's Studio Cafe years ago," he explains - and started to build the show from the ground up. 

"It takes so much work," he says, more in wonder than complaint. "Like everything, it's a lot of choices - deciding what instrumentation, finding arrangers and all that stuff." 

He smiles. 

"This is a sort of gentle coming home." 

Currently rooted and seemingly thriving in London, Ont., Carver is obviously still relishing a life of quiet after his whirlwind dance with Kiss and fame. 

First of all, there was New York itself, a pressure cooker for anyone with sufficient talent to attract attention. 

"I don't think you can step away from it," he says. "All you can do is go home and lock yourself away from New York City for awhile." 

The city itself, however, was just the opening act. When Carver wrapped his hand around a Tony for his Kiss performance, he found himself at the eye of a hurricane of public interest. 

"At least for the time you have it in your hand, there are a lot of people around, trying to find out what you're gonna do," Carver recalls. "There was a kind of spin around it and you just kind of go: 'Here we go.' 

"Sort of a spin cycle," he adds with a quiet smile. "And the operative word is 'cycle.' If you're going to continue to grow, you've got to have fallow periods." 

Periods, in other words, like the ones he's enjoyed between engagements since he stepped out of Kiss after more than 500 performances. It wasn't an easy show to do, nor was it an easy show to leave. 

"It was an absolute balance," he says in hindsight. "And for every great thing that came out of that show, there was a cost. 

"Leaving, I felt totally both ends of the spectrum - extremely grateful, and I felt absolutely sorrowful that I needed to make a decision." 

Still, there are more decisions to be made - like when he'll return to the Stratford Festival stage. 

"I would like to work with the company again," Carver says, his face brightening. "I've done four seasons there, over the years, always with different artistic directors, and I've always felt that the relationship is open. 

"But I personally need to feel that the time is right for me to spend eight months there," he concludes. 

'Til then, he'll make his choices, one at a time. Kiss and his brush with international fame have taught him a lot - stuff he can take with him anywhere. 

"It comes down to finding a balance in everything," he says. "But I know where home is. More and more, we (artists) all feel that and it really energizes us - to know that we are not just Canadian artists. 

"We are artists of Canada in the world." 

The CARVER File 

ON DOING ANOTHER MEGA-MUSICAL: "It would have to depend on what it was and exactly where I am. A healthy six month run isn't bad - 12 weeks, nah. 

Give me 15 weeks." 

GRAPHIC: 3 photos photo by Bill Sandford KISS 'N' TELL ... Canuck Brent Carver is back in Toronto with a concert show at Harbourfront after winning a 1993 Tony Award for Kiss Of The Spider Woman (with Chita Rivera). 

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH 

LOAD-DATE: July 23, 1996