THEATRE REVIEW

NOVEMBER 2026 | Volume 269

 

Meadows of Stone is a pocket musical – two performers and a piano player – about a couple of Canadians in World War One. In its format it shares some resemblances with Billy Bishop Goes to War. The main character/primary singer is also its narrator, and the two actors play multiple roles. In other ways the two shows are worlds apart. Meadows lacks most of the novelty and power that made Billy Bishop such a classic and lodestone of Canadian musical theatre.

But Meadows has its own virtues and its own charms, many of both.

The playwright, Amy Lee Newman, plays Vallance Maguire, who travels to France during the war to become a nurse. Her motivation is to try to find her brother, a soldier in the Canadian forces who has gone missing in action. In France she meets Capt. Gabriel Arnott (Brendan Bailey), a fellow Canuck serving as bandmaster for musicians entertaining the soldiers. He, too, has suffered a loss: his son, killed in action. The two hit it off, and when Arnott learns that Maguire can sing, they begin to perform together. Meanwhile, he helps her search for her brother.

The two actors also take on additional roles and costumes. Newman plays a Frenchman and the strict matron who runs the field hospital, Bailey a variety of soldiers. Both have fine voices andnice vocal chemistry when singing together. Newman does the bulk of the singing in a variety of genres and registers. She’s also a very good actor, not just in her multiple characterizations but in the narrative segments inserted into and between the songs: the “carnage” which so shocks Maguire when she begins nursing, the horror of the influenza epidemic on the battlefront.

As solid as the stories and performances are, they’re mostly familiar. What really stands out for me is pianist Jim Hodgkinson, who also wrote the music and lyrics. He plays his keyboards onstage in low light, not just accompanying the singers but also playing the music Capt. Arnott mimes as he sits behind an upright piano which hides his hands from the audience.

Hodgkinson is a remarkably fluid pianist with a physical flair that shows even through the low light. His music is lively and complex. It would be a pleasure to hear him play the show’s score even without the singing.I was less impressed by the lyrics, which often serve the practical function of filling out the narrative. The title song and “The ‘Yes Matron’ Rag” are standouts. But the songs sometimes felt like they went on too long; I found myself losing the drift of the talessome of them told. I thought Newman’s book had a couple of false endings as well.

But my complaints are minor ones. Meadows of Stone is the kind of story that can’t be told too often, especially as Remembrance Day approaches. Newman, Hodgkinson, Bailey and director Larisse Campbell have created a charming vehicle for remembering the virtues of selflessness and sacrifice that never grow old.

 

 

 

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