Cabaret venue offers second theatre site for producer Vince Grittani.

 Muskoka Theatre Project, which stages summer musical productions at the Red Leaves Playhouse Tent on Lake Rosseau, is opening a second year-round venue at Resort Tapatoo on Otter Lake, just south of Parry Sound.

Resort Tapatoo has built an intimate 125-seat cabaret theatre, at which Vince Grittani’s award-winning production Wake Me When It’s Over opens this Saturday, Jan. 26.

Featuring original music by Rosalind Mills, this all-new staging, under the direction of Kerry Gage, (seen on CBC’s Triple Sensation) features hilarious performances by original cast members Suzette Araujo and Sweeney MacArthur, who later this spring goes on to star in the new Mirvish musical The Ha’Penny Bridge in Toronto.

MacArthur plays advertising creative director Roger Starky going through a midlife crisis. Araujo enters Roger’s imagination in an seemingly endless array of highly entertaining roles from his Grade 1, strap-happy teacher Sister Mary of the Compassionate and Merciful Christ (who is neither compassionate nor merciful) to his slightly insane neighbour, real estate agent and condo president wannabe Margo St. Clair.

Muskoka Theatre Project’s executive producer, playwright and broadcast personality Vince Grittani (Cottage Life and Weekend Guy TV), having witnessed the decline of Toronto’s small commercial theatre spaces like Theatre-in-the-Dell and Old Angelo’s, says his goal is to create a series of small and medium-sized performance spaces, “much like those that once flourished throughout New York’s Catskills.”

MTP’s permanent home will be in the lakeside village at the soon-to-open J.W. Marriott Red Leaves on Lake Rosseau.  

At Tapatoo, the Cabaret Theatre is adjacent to Seasons, the resort’s fine-dining restaurant. Seasons will be offering a special culinary experience to patrons choosing to dine before the show.

Wake Me When It’s Over opens Saturday, Jan. 26, at 8 p.m. in the licensed cabaret theatre and runs every Thursday, Friday and Saturday until March 15.

Dinner/theatre tickets begin at $49. Show only is $28. Group and weekend packages are available.

For tickets and more information call Resort Tapatoo at 705-378-2208, toll free 1-800-461-5410 or visit www.muskokatheatre.com.