I just learned today from a friend on Facebook that the composer Galt MacDermott died two days ago. Most people will know him from “Hair” and maybe “Two Gentlemen of Verona” but it is also worth remembering the important role he played in fostering the Canadian arts world.
In the late 50s, he and several friends produced an original musical at McGill called “My Fur Lady” that had a far reach at a time when the Canadian arts scene was almost non-existent. It was a satire about Princess Aurora Borealis of the territory of “Mukluko” and her attempts to find a husband so she could preserve the independence of her realm. The love interest is the governor-general (I told you it was satire). It is a light piece, in many ways, but it is also a touchstone of Canada as it was in 1957-58 and it was enormously successful, playing across Canada, including at the Stratford Festival. It was produced at a time when Canada was just beginning to expand into the Arctic in a big way, and in the run-up to Expo 67, when Canadians were beginning to think that they needed to develop more of a national identity. The song embedded below plays on that. An identity had to include an indigenous arts scene, not just what could be borrowed from Britain or the States and McDermott was not the only of its producer to go on to success in the arts, though the rest stayed closer to home. James Domville developed the National Theatre School and ran the National Film Board (It was under his tenure that “If you Love this Planet” was produced. I remember being trouped into the reception room in high school where we all watched it to see how the crazy man running the States was going to kill us all). Don McSween was the administrator for the National Arts Center. Tim Porteous worked for Pierre Trudeau for many years and also ran the Canada Council for the Arts, a grant-giving organization, itself founded in 1957.
And then there’s my Dad. My Dad was the stage manager for the production and as a result of spending all his time on that, flunked out of McGill. He ended up okay though.
