STAGE LIGHTS: Expect plenty of laughs in Drury Lane production of The Last Resort

Drury Lane’s next featured play is The Last Resort, written by Norm Foster and Leslie Arden.

Norm Foster has become Canada’s most produced playwright, and The Last Resort was his first attempt at a musical. It is a murder mystery musical comedy, quite a packful of genres in one, and it is a favourite with Drury Lane members – it’s the second time it’s been produced at Drury Lane and it’s full of good songs and big laughs.

There are many heartfelt stories about how success came to popular figures because they didn’t quit when things got rough, but that’s not Foster’s story

Instead, he found something that interested him, tried his hand at it, found out he had a talent and pursued it to its natural course of success. No doubt, writing dozens of plays over the years entailed hard work, but success has had an easiness to it nevertheless.

Foster says he “stumbled into playwrighting by accident.” He was a radio show host in New Brunswick, and one day, was asked by a friend to join him in auditioning for Harvey, a play many of us know for its film version starring Jimmy Stewart.

Foster  landed the lead in his first audition and got the play bug – as many community theatre actors experience.

“I started writing after that," said Foster. "It didn’t take long to get published.”

Less than five years later, Foster felt he was catching on as a playwright: “I first realized I was successful when The Melville Boys took off. That was about 1986. It was in demand in theatres everywhere.”

The Melville Boys is still the play he is best known for, according to Foster.

Still, he says, he kept his day job in broadcasting until 1998, “long after I became the most produced playwright in Canada.”

In 1997, The Last Resort premiered at Theatre Orangeville. A mutual friend had introduced Foster to Leslie Arden, and it was a tremendous learning experience for Foster, who found an easy-going, smooth collaboration with Arden.

“The Last Resort was played strictly for laughs," he said. " It was fun writing that show and Leslie’s music was wonderful.”

Foster calls the humour in The Last Resort “uncomplicated.” One thing is certain: the jokes may be uncomplicated, but they are very funny.

Foster continued to act in many of the premiere performances of his plays until just last year. “I now concentrate on the writing,” he says.

When asked who his favourite writers are, Foster's response was surprising: “I don’t read. At all.”

Norm Foster may not read much, but he sure can write, and continues to come up with new ideas for plays that have entertained and made audiences laugh and laugh and laugh for going on 40 years.

Drury Lane’s production of The Last Resort promises more of those laughs, great songs, and a who-done-it to boot.

Foster’s plays can be seen most often at The Foster Festival in St. Catharines every summer, and his newest play, A Pack of Thieves, will premiere at the Lighthouse Theatre in Port Dover this summer.

The Last Resort opens at Drury Lane Friday, May 5. Performances continue every Friday and Saturday in May, as well as Sunday matinees on all weekends except May 7 . There is also one Thursday evening performance on May 18.