Episode Three - The Craft

May 3rd, Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton. Mary Francis Moore walks jD right up to the wings and stops, because of a rule he didn't know about.

Mary Francis directs "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken," and the tour so far has been the design studio, the stage management office, and the green room where the cast can watch the stage between scenes. Then the wings. That's as far as jD goes. (Nobody wants to be the guy who breaks the magic.)

That's day three of It's A Good Life, five episodes, one a day, all week, from The Tragically Hip Podcast Series. Yesterday was the cast. The Craft is everybody you don't see - the director, the choreographer, the guy who built the world on the stage, and the guy who lights it. jD went in braced for gear talk, cues, rigging, and words he'd have to look up later (he still couldn't tell you what a fly gallery does, and Mary Francis showed him one). There's a little of that. Mostly there's one word, from almost everyone he talked to. Trust.

Scott Penner had to hand in his set drawings with half a script and no ending, working from a brief for "something specifically ambiguous." Then one photograph turned up in a pile of 90s street art and photo collages, and it got two words from across the table. Jason Hand spends the first third of rehearsals not thinking about lighting at all, then goes looking for the colour of a sandstorm. Marc Kimelman films himself dancing to every song, works from one idea of Gord Downie's, and once got himself to the front row of a music video shoot for The Hip and kept thinking up questions until they called cut. Jesse LaVercombe calls himself a fountain of bad ideas, and he has the receipts: a script of about 75 pages, and a document of cuts that runs to 546.

Then the room itself. A final song swapped out days before the first preview, and how the new one was ready by Sunday. A rehearsal that was one show at ten o'clock and a different show by lunch. A producer who will tell you exactly how he is during tech (not at his best, his words). And for every fan who gets nervous about The Tragically Hip in a musical at all, somebody on the team who walked in on day one feeling the same way, and what he'd say to you now.

WHAT ELSE IS IN HERE

• Mary Francis Moore on more than a decade of shorthand with Bob Foster, and meeting Marc for the first time.

• Michael Rubinoff and Mary Francis on saying no to each other, and why the best idea wins.

• The song Marc calls his hardest to choreograph, and why it's a fever dream.

• Ahmed Moneka on checking in with Ali Momen along the way, and Ali on carrying every song that came before into the one he's singing.

• What's hiding in the paint once the first reveal settles, some of it in Arabic.

"You'll never see in this show where my work begins or ends." - Marc Kimelman, choreographer

WHO YOU HEAR

• Mary Francis Moore, director, and artistic director of Theatre Aquarius.

• Michael Rubinoff, producer.

• Scott Penner, set designer.

• Jason Hand, lighting designer.

• Marc Kimelman, choreographer.

• Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe, who wrote the book.

• Plus Ali Momen and Talia Schlanger from the cast.

Big thanks to Mary Francis, Michael, Scott, Jason, Marc, Jesse, and Ahmed for letting a fan with a microphone stand in the wings and ask questions. What jD found back there wasn't everybody agreeing. It was a room full of people willing to say no in the dark until the right idea showed up, and nobody keeping score of whose it was. He's seen the show at least six times and still can't find the seams. So there's that. Tomorrow on It's A Good Life: The Music, with Bob Foster, and what it takes to make songs by The Tragically Hip that were never written for a stage sing on one.

"IT'S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON'T WEAKEN" - KINGSTON

The Thousand Islands Playhouse brings the musical to the Kingston Grand Theatre, in association with Theatre Aquarius. First preview Thursday, October 22, and it runs to November 8. Opening night, Friday, October 23, is already sold out. Tickets: kingstongrand.ca/events/TIP2026

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ALBUM COUNTDOWN

A new show for 2027, and you set the order. Rate all fifteen records by The Hip before November 30, and the countdown starts Monday, January 4, at 8pm ET on YouTube. Ballot: forms.gle/KdMfMuApxGb4Nf5w7

THE TIP JAR

Editing is hard. Help keep the battery charged. Tips, never donations: buymeacoffee.com/tthtop40

FIND US

Home: home.tthpods.com

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MORE FROM THE TRAGICALLY HIP PODCAST SERIES

It's A Good Life - Setting the Scene and The Players: days one and two, right before this one in the feed.

Yer Hipstories - Hamilton: https://redcircle.com/shows/a01e8de3-1a04-4a44-ab9c-8fc6e3cb7474/ep/fae76ee3-738f-4007-80c8-7140729bb295

Creative team credits via the Thousand Islands Playhouse and Stage Door. Run dates via the Kingston Grand Theatre and the Thousand Islands Playhouse.

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