New Joni Mitchell Musical

by Ernio Hernandez
Playbill.com
May 26, 2004

New Joni Mitchell Musical, Ladies of the Canyon, Debuts at San Francisco's ACT, June 4-19

A new musical production featuring the music of Joni Mitchell will make its world premiere as part of the Young Conservatory program at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, June 4-19. Ladies of the Canyon: The Music of Joni Mitchell will play the Zeum Theater stage.

Created and directed by Craig Slaight with musical direction from Krista Wigle and musical arrangements by Naomi Sanchez, Ladies of the Canyon will feature an all-female cast performing an array of such classic Mitchell songs as "Both Sides Now," "Big Yellow Taxi," "Help Me," "Woodstock," "Free Man in Paris" and "The Circle Game."

In previous years, ACT's Young Conservatory similarly presented Forever Young: The Music of Bob Dylan and Dangling Conversations: The Music of Simon and Garfunkel. Both converted the songs of the popular artists into musical numbers, each as its own scene. Ladies of the Canyon will do the same.

The Mitchell homage will feature teen actors from the Young Conservatory performing a combination of solos, duets and ensemble numbers. The cast includes Dillan Arrick, Adde Bigelow, Hannah Finnie, Lucia Grahamjones, Sarah Grandin, Emily Iscoff-Daigian, Scout Katovich, Julia Mattison, Rachel Rubenstein and Charlotte Ubben.

Designers for Ladies of the Canyon include Dean Shibuya (set) and Kimberly J. Scott (lighting).

Folk-rock singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell started her career in the 1960s and has created the albums "Joni Mitchell," "Clouds," "Ladies of the Canyon," "Blue," "Court and Spark," "Miles of Aisles," "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" and "Hejira." In 1994 she won a Grammy Award for the album "Turbulent Indigo." To date, Mitchell has accumulated five Grammy awards, the 2002 Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement and the Billboard Century awards as well as being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The complete songlist for Ladies of the Canyon: The Music of Joni Mitchell is as follows:

Act I

"Morning Morgantown"
"Ladies of the Canyon"
"Marcie"
"Michael from Mountains"
"Help Me"
"Love"
"I Don't Know Where I Stand"
"Chelsea Morning"
"My Old Man"
"A Case of You"
"I Had a King"
"He Comes for Conversation"
"Big Yellow Taxi"

Act II

"The Sire of Sorrow"
"All I Want"
"Free Man in Paris"
"River"
"Amelia"
"Cactus Tree"
"Woodstock"
"Songs to Aging Children Come"
"The Fiddle and the Drum"
"Both Sides Now"
"The Circle Game"

For tickets to Ladies of the Canyon at the Zeum, in the Yerba Buena Gardens at the corner of Fourth and Howard St., call (415) 749-2228, or visit www.act-sf.org.