Stage Becomes Final Frontier In Campy Musical

With a musical mix of Shakespeare and space, a local theatre company’s collaboration is lifting off.

Mashing up different genres, Korda Artistic Productions has teamed up with Walkerville Centre for the Creative Arts (WCCA) to stage Return to the Forbidden Planet. Adapting William Shakespeare’s The Tempest as a sci-fi jukebox musical in space, the show will open at Walkerville Collegiate Institute (located at 2100 Richmond Street) on April 25.

Being staged around the world for decades already, it’s a show familiar to Korda’s resident director.

“I first learned about the show when I saw a poster for it in a theatre lobby in Toronto,” said Jeff Marontate. “Being a sci fi fan, the cartoon image of a spaceman saving a heroine from a big green snarling monster caught by attention and made me look into the show. A few years later, I needed a small-cast musical to stage in a short period of time at Massey Secondary School and decided on Return to the Forbidden Planet. That was more than 20 years ago with a tiny budget, three-piece band and was a great success at Massey. Since then I have wanted to give it another try.”

Being asked by Roger Wellington to direct WCCA’s 2025 musical as Korda’s co-President, Marontate knew the show would be a perfect fit. Combining golden oldies from the 60’s and a wild premise, it would serve the flexible cast and Korda’s mandate to include at least one campy play per season.

Incorporating plot points from B-movie Forbidden Planet, the play starts with a spacecraft’s routine flight before the ship crash lands onto planet D’Illyria . Inhabited by sinister scientist Dr. Prospero, his daughter Miranda, faithful robot on roller skates Ariel and an uncontrollable monster, it isn’t long before calamity ensues. With many twists and turns along the way, the comedic play also features plenty of classic songs audiences will recognize.

Revolving around such an imaginative concept, part of making the production work was a continued collaboration with the Stratford Off The Wall (OTW) workshops. Attending one for the first time in 2010, Marontate has gone onto take part in over a dozen more. Learning invaluable lessons each time, the director thinks they’re the best theatre arts teachers around.

Sharing knowledge and skills, it was through these connections that Marontate brought bigger elements of many plays to Windsor as well.

“Most summers [OTW] offer a course called Setting the Scene, which builds the set and props for a specific production,” he said. “In 2017, the chair Michele Boniface asked if either WCCA or Korda would be interested in being the group chosen for that year’s Setting the Scene. Of course, I said yes. As they had a Canada 150 Grant, they wanted a Canadian play and I had already decided to stage Gwendolyn MacEwen’s version of The Trojan Woman at Walkerville. Jump ahead to 2023, when I joined the board at Off the Wall and became its Chair. A year later, Michele asked if I’d like to partner with Off the Wall again, either with Korda or WCCA. This time, I was able to include both groups on a co-present.”

As he’d done previously, Marontate hired David Court and Matt Burgess as designers. This let students from WCCA work with OTW to create the set and props with professional grade production values.

With their collaboration solidified, auditions opened to Walkerville students last November. Ensuring a balanced cast that could act, dance and sing, roles were chosen by Marontate, music director Sarah Preney and dance teacher Roger Wellington.

From there, rehearsals began before the winter break and continued throughout 2025. With several elements to incorporate, one day was spent on dance, another on music and three more were focused on acting every week.

Featuring language repurposed from Shakespeare, quotes and misquotes in the jukebox musical are lifted from his many plays. Wanting his cast to do their own homework, the director encouraged them to look up any vocabulary that might be new to them. Not finding it difficult to understand, they were able to grasp the script quickly and deliver their dialogue as with any other production. It’s a testament to their overall dedication, allowing music and dance choreography to be integrated seamlessly as well.

Fuelled by a soundtrack of 60’s classics including Good Vibrations, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, Great Balls Of Fire and Gloria, these oldies bring their own personality to the play. Creating unique moments as the story unfolds, their inclusion will keep crowds entertained and engaged.

Not shoehorned in, these songs also help advance the plot and give audiences a window into each character.

“The show integrates ’60’s rock classics into a sci-fi story, allowing the lyrics to comment on the characters and actions,” said Marontate. “For instance, when Miranda finds herself falling for the aloof Captain Tempest, she sings Why Must I Be A Teenager in Love and I want a robot man to call  my own later in the play. Dr Prospero describes the emergence of the Monster from the Id by singing Monster Mash.”

Mainly rehearsing with original recordings, some practice was done with another highlight of the upcoming shows as well.

“Our [live] band is WCCA’s house rock band, Lunatics, Lovers and Poets, a  name taken from A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” said the director. “The band was formed for the production of Midsummer we staged in 2016. That was supposed to be my last WCCA show as I retired that June, but [Wellington] keeps inviting me back. The band sounds fantastic with nine talented and high-energy musicians.”

While other activities sometimes conflicted with rehearsals, Marontate was impressed with how students stepped up to take part in extra sessions on weekends and holidays. It resulted in a more polished show and better understanding of its musical numbers.

Aside from the cast’s’ hard work, perhaps the most impressive part of production is the stage however. Requiring a 26 foot truck to bring in from Stratford, the massive structure was a challenge as it also needed somewhere to be stored from October until April. With the show relying on videotape footage projected on a view screen, creating puppets, small versions of spaceships and planets was necessary as well.

Including some local talent, this is where help from OTW came in handy.

“The whole show takes place on the bridge of a space ship,” said Marontate. “That set needed to be impressive and visually interesting. [Court’s] design is incredible — 13 feet tall, 40 feet wide, with areas to accommodate the onstage band and still lots of room for dancing. [Burgess’] work on the show is beautiful too. He designed our robot costume, the big space monster and oversaw the construction of space ships, potions and ray guns. [He’s] a WCCA grad himself and his theatre work began with us at Korda. We sponsored him to take an Off the Wall course and I hired [Burgess] later to design props & masks for WCCA’s first Off the Wall Setting the Scene project, The Trojan Women. That exposure helped Matt get a job in the Stratford Festival prop shop.”

Putting so many resources and different genres into one production though, it’s all about providing a fun time for everyone to enjoy.

“The audience will have had a good laugh and will go home humming these great old songs,” said Marontate. “The plot is simplified and purposely over-acted, making the story really easy to follow. At the same time, it will give Shakespeare lovers a fun time of trying to identify which lines come from which plays. It’s always fun to see a classic story retooled and retold.”

Performances of Return to the Forbidden Planet will take place at Walkerville Collegiate on April 25, 26, 27, May 1, 2 and 3. All shows start at 7 p.m. except for a 2 p.m. matinee on April 27. Tickets are $25 for general admission or $20 for seniors and students. Special pricing is also available on May 1 as all tickets are discounted by $5 for this one date only. Those looking to attend can do so by purchasing online or at the door (cash and debit only.)

For more information on Korda Productions and Return to the Forbidden Planet, those interested can visit their website.