Almost Famous is famous for a lot of things.
It’s a seminal work by filmmaker Cameron Crowe.
It showcases the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his most deliciously nuanced roles (as jaded underground music journalist Lester Bangs), and a bewigged Jimmy Fallon in an odd but weirdly appropriate one.
And it’s okay, you can admit it: just thinking about that Tiny Dancer sing-along on the tour bus brings a smile to your lips.
But even though the cast contains some remarkable actresses – including Kate Hudson, who as groupie Penny Lane reveals that she’s capable of so much more than rom-com fare – Almost Famous is driven and dominated by men, specifically the brilliant teen outcast struggling to break into music journalism, and the long-haired rockers who whisk him along on tour and catapult him into grown-up territory.
So how would the dude-driven Almost Famous change if its words were read entirely by women? Would it still rock? Would it rock even harder? Would it rock in new and unexpected ways?
If these are questions you’ve asked yourself – or even if they aren’t – the answers will be explored to the nth degree on Monday at the Rio Theatre, when Almost Famous is performed as part of Feminist Live Reads.
The brainchild of Toronto writer-director Chandler Levack, Feminist Live Reads aims to draw attention to gender inequality in the film and television industry, namely the fact that there just aren’t as many interesting and nuanced roles for women as there are for men.
Levack staged two Feminist Live Reads performances in Toronto last year: one of the Entourage pilot, and one of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.
“They were both super-hilarious, but there was also this very interesting sense of discomfort in the audiences,” says Levack. “[With Entourage], it was such a misogynistic script, and then all of the sudden you have women saying the dialogue that’s supposed to be directed to other women, and it’s really fascinating. It’s funny, but then there’s this other layer of, 'it’s making me feel weird and I don’t know why.' For me, that’s really interesting and powerful.”
The Vancouver reading is co-produced by Vancouver actress Ali Liebert (Bomb Girls, Strange Empire).
Liebert learned about Feminist Live Reads last summer, when Sook-Yin Lee – who directed Liebert in Year of the Carnivore – started posting photos on social media from the Reservoir Dogs reading, in which she appeared as Mr. White.
“I saw the photos, and I was like, A, I wish I could see it, and B, I want to be in it,” says Liebert.
Levack and Liebert met on social media and were soon planning the inaugural West Coast edition with Almost Famous – Levack’s favourite film of all time – as the script playground.
The cast list reads like a who’s who of the Vancouver acting scene: Kristin Lehman (Motive), Sara Canning (Eadweard), Diana Bang (The Interview), Julia Sarah Stone (TIFF Rising Star ’14), Katharine Isabelle, Erica Carroll, Marci T. House, Enid-Raye Adams, Mayumi Yoshida, Roseanne Supernault, Ashleigh Ball, Caitlin Howden, Kimberley Sustad, Finn Wolfhard, Tony Massil, Tess Degenstein, Colleen Rennison, Luey McQuaid, and Liebert.
Although locking down all of these working actresses proved challenging (the film and television biz is notoriously last-minute when it comes to scheduling, so some otherwise enthusiastic actresses had to drop out due to filming commitments), the act of finding actresses willing to take part in the reading was pretty easy, says Liebert.
“We’re stoked about the cast,” says Liebert. “I’m getting emails from so many incredible women being, ‘I want to be in it, Liebert!’ And I have to say, ‘Ah! We’ve already cast so many people.’ There are so many talented people in Vancouver,” says Liebert. “We are going to do more.”
For Liebert, this live reading comes at the tail end of pilot season, when “only 20 or 30 per cent [of the 40 scripts she read] had the female as the leading character.”
“It’s not only troubling to me as an actress in my life and what I get to play, but it’s even more disturbing to me because I know that girls and women are looking to media to see themselves represented, and when they don’t see themselves represented, they feel like they don’t have a place,” says Liebert.
But Liebert is hopeful. Talk about representation is in the zeitgeist. “I think people are really aware of it, and they’re really interested in it because there are a lot of Hollywood actresses and women of influence who are speaking about the gender disparity and the inequality of roles,” says Liebert.
Liebert expects that audiences will experience a range of reactions when they hear Crowe’s screenplay read by this stellar cast of local actresses (who, incidentally, will be hearing each other read it for the first time that very night; there’s no full cast rehearsal beforehand).
“It might make people uncomfortable, but in a humorous way,” says Liebert. “With Almost Famous, the rock and roll industry is such a boys’ club, so I think it’s interesting in terms of having women voice these characters and be in a world where they weren’t heard. That will be the interesting, provocative element.”
FRANKIE Band will also perform. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Girls Rock Camp Vancouver.
Feminist Live Reads’ Almost Famous takes place April 11 at the Rio Theatre. Tickets at https://riotheatretickets.ca/events/3950-feminist-live-reads-west-coast-edition.
