A string of hits

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This article was published 16/07/2022 (1567 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fringe theatre fans across North America have long known about Chase Padgett and his guitar licks, singing and his knack at telling a good tale.

It appears some of Canada’s top theatre executives have also gotten the memo.

Mirvish Productions, Canada’s largest theatre company, has signed up Padgett and his storytelling musical 6 Guitars for an eight-show run Aug. 2-7 at the CAA Theatre in Toronto.

”I’m really hoping to knock it out of the park,” says the 38-year-old Padgett, who is performing a new one-man musical, Chase Padgett: Lucky Break, at Prairie Theatre Exchange during the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, which continues until July 24.

To prepare for the Toronto shows, Padgett, an American whose new home base is Vancouver, has lined up three performances of a beefed-up 6 Guitars at the Park Theatre July 27 and 28.

“Before COVID, I always had a dream of adding a drummer and a bass player and really trying to up the production value of the show,” he says. “With another level of solid punch to it, it can be even more impactful without sacrificing the intimacy.”

The Mirvish move was initially planned for 2020 — 6 Guitars was going to run alongside Broadway blockbusters such as Hamilton and Come From Away, he says — but like almost every other event that required large public gatherings, the COVID-19 pandemic shelved Padgett’s big break.

“It’s been a rough road, I’m not going to lie,” he says of the pandemic pause. “The whole time during the pandemic, I thought, ‘Am I going to get to do this show again? I don’t know what’s going to happen to the industry of my life.’”

The content of 6 Guitars remains the same, Padgett says, but he has had to rearrange the music to fit his guitar with the bass and drums.

Padgett’s vocals should be improved after appearances on the Fox talent show Alter Ego. His experiences on the series that mixed his vocals with an animated avatar are a large part of Lucky Break.

“I’ve always wondered: if I’m in a room full of talented, top-notch L.A. folks, am I able to compete and compare in a room like that. And the experience on Alter Ego says, ‘Yeah, I can,’” Padgett says. “It was the first time I ever got voice lessons. I learned the value of warming up before a show and ways to think about the voice I never thought of before, because my music degree was in guitar, not voice.”

Fringe festivals can often be a hit-or-miss experience for theatre fans — not knowing what a show will be like is part of the event’s thrill. But Padgett has become one of several fringe performers who have become bankable commodities for Winnipeg theatre-goers every July.

Prior the COVID-19 pandemic, 6 Guitars and Nashville Hurricane, another Padgett production, were among the toughest tickets for fringe-goers to score, right up there with Mike Delamont’s God is a Scottish Drag Queen, which is getting a four-show run of its own in Toronto from July 29-31 with Mirvish Productions.

This year’s Winnipeg fringe got off to a slow start sales wise — a “small but mighty” crowd were on hand for Padgett’s debut of Lucky Break Wednesday night at the PTE — but he remains hopeful.

“I think that ticket sales for the festival as a whole, for everybody including myself, are going to be down from the previous year.” he says. “It’s a rebuilding year. It’s kind of like the [NBA’s Cleveland] Cavaliers after LeBron [James] left.”

Padgett says he is in fine health and up for the Toronto challenge. He suffered a heart attack prior the pandemic, which he detailed in a 2019 fringe show Chase Padgett: Heart Attacks & Other Blessings.

In Lucky Break, he describes COVID-19’s harsh symptoms after he contracted the virus in January 2021, prior to receiving vaccinations.

“I was pretty fortunate in that I just felt old and creaky. Luckily I’ve got no long-term COVID symptoms, which is great,” he says. “I have had no heart issues. I have remained without marijuana and alcohol, I eat really cleanly. I’ve never been better.”

Padgett had been working in theme parks in Orlando prior to coming up with 6 Guitars in 2010, and he’s stunned how the show (which he has performed more than 700 times and counting) as well as his performing career have maintained their staying power.

“I did not think it would change my life,” he says of 6 Guitars, which he calls an old friend. “I really just wanted to do something that was scary, and I couldn’t think of anything scarier than a one-man show. I’m blown away I still get to do it.

“If you had said ‘you’re still going to be doing this, growing, changing and evolving, 10 years down the road’ I would have never believed you. I would have thought you were a crazy person. Yet here we are, 10 years later, still growing, still changing, still evolving.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall