August 16, 2024

SOCK IT TO ME! TIMBERBEAST TOUTS GRAVENHURST AS NEXT MUSICAL, ARTS STRATFORD

GRAVENHURST — “Down by the Bay ….”

It was music of the ’60s and ’70s for a 60s and 70s crowd last night.

Cockburn Square was “hummin’” along with an oldies set as the Timberbeast Productions wrapped up a two-week run of musical highlights at the Muskoka Wharf.

From the dusk of the “Age of Aquarius” to CCR, Aretha Franklin, Etta James and the Beatles it was all about R-E-S-P-E-C-T for the arts, said organizer Autumn Smith in one of a dozen musical puns on the night as more than 60 happy hippies sang, tapped and snapped.

Many of the songs were theatre takes of classic rock hits.

Smith backed up star singer Gillian Robinson and her amazing voice — along with guitarist and singer Marci Lucicuk and keyboard player Ethan Rotenberg — in a campfire sing-along that was her second season Music for Muskoka Nights summer series.

Can Gravenhurst be the next Muskoka-on-the-Lake theatre arts community? Smith thinks so.

She told Rotarians yesterday afternoon — at their Gull Lake Rotary Park — that she envisions turning Gravenhurst in to another Niagara-on-the-Lake or Stratford.

At their weekly meeting in the Rotary Gazebo, she was enthusiastic, saying there is so much potential for local storytelling and the arts in Muskoka.

And that she’d like explore the idea more.

It’s not a new idea and has been done before, but one worth exploring again.

Meanwhile, she’s also promoting this winter’s second “Christmas Carol Walk,” which she said was a big success last year.

Could this be the site of the next Muskoka Stratford. Wednesday night’s Timberbeast Productions concert at Cockburn Square was the second last of their second season at the Muskoka Wharf. Autumn Smith would like to see a full season of music and the arts again in Muskoka.

Gillian Robinson was a star in a night filled with stars overhead headlining eight nights of incredible singing that has led to her getting an audition in New York City. She said she can’t believe she’s working with Muskoka Lake as a stage backdrop. She was especially riveting with her soaring rendition of Aretha Franklin’s RESPECT.

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