More Aaron Rand speculation

While my most recent blog, based on information from very reliable sources, floated rumours that Aaron Rand will join CJAD in September as the host of a new 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. program weeknights, an industry insider called today to speculate on another theory.

"In radio, the real money is made during the daytime," the insider told me. "This is why I believe if CJAD signs Aaron Rand they will put him in the afternoon."

The insider also pointed out that young Dan Delmar has been attracting a strong following since taking on the evening shift.

Before Rand joined The Q 92.5 FM some 26 years ago, he hosted a fabulous afternoon show with Paul "Tasso" Zakaib on the old CFCF Radio. There was no music and the entire show consisted of skits and talk. It was absolutely hilarious.

Is Aaron Rand headed to CJAD?

Aaron Rand was on Mitch Melnick's TEAM 990 tribute show to Ted Tevan this week, during which time he said that he will have an announcement in two weeks about his return to Montreal radio.

Rand, of course, left The Q 92.5 FM as morning show host a few months ago after the station indicated they would not renew his contract which officially expires on September 1.

While the early betting had Rand going to Mike FM 105.1, sources tell me that Rand could in fact be headed to CJAD.

No, he will not be the morning man. Andrew Carter is doing a fine job there. Word has it that Rand will in fact be CJAD's secret weapon to make up for the loss of Montreal Canadiens broadcasts to THE TEAM 990. This means stepping into a completely new situation as the 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. host, apparently replacing Dan Delmar (who has been excellent by the way and would undoubtedly find himself on the air in another capacity).

Here is why this makes sense. The man in charge of programming at CJAD is Chris Bury. He spent years in the same building as Rand, first as the news director at the old 940 News and then as the producer of Rand's morning show on The Q. You need only look at the present CJAD on air lineup to see the likes of former 940/Q personalities Suzanne Desautels, Barry Morgan, Margo Edwards and Luciano Pipia.

Would Rand bring Paul "Tasso" Zakaib on the air with him at this time? Would Desautels, whom he has so much chemistry with, play a role? What type of format would he follow?

It should be very interesting to see how this all unfolds.

My personal memories of Ted Tevan

Funeral services were held today for sports talk show host legend Ted Tevan, who died last week at the age of 78. From Earl "The Pearl" Zukerman's wonderful obituary in The Gazette to Mitch Melnick's superb tribute show Tuesday on THE TEAM 990, I appreciated every anecdote these folks came up with it. I am only sorry that before he left us, someone did not have some kind of event to honour Ted - an event in which he could have made an acceptance speech.

When Ted was in his glory days in the 1970s, I attended Wagar High School in Côte Saint-Luc. As lawyer and one-time talk show host himself, Mitch Garber, quite correctly shared with Melnick this week, if you were a sports fan you did not go to school each day without having listened to Tevan the evening before. On the old CFCF Radio he was on the air from 10 p.m. until midnight and it was "must listen to" radio. My brother Chuckie and I shared a room in those days and we would have the radio on low, listening to Ted and his cast of characters. There was his producer Dan McGarrity. We all loved it when Tevan would shout, "McGarrity, get me a Dr. Pepper." His commercials for restaurants like Chenoy's ("Mort the Sport and Nicholas the Great"), the South Seas, Dorion Suit and Unitaxi were classics. He loved Blue Bonnets Raceway, the local boxing scene and of course the Expos. Chuckie and I always looked forward to Ted broadcasting a pretend World Series parade down St. Catherine Street or the days when he would travel to Hawaii and report back on the baseball winter meetings.

My dad, Lawrence Frederick Cohen (better known as Larry Fredericks), goes back with Ted to the beginning of their respective careers. Larry spent decades in the pressbox, so we felt very fortunate as pre-teens to meet Ted in person. Chuckie and I would often call Ted on the air, writing down our questions and praying he would not give us the "machine gun" and tell us "you're gone!"

In the early 1980s my dad started to bring me in the pressbox as his assistant. I got to see Ted at every baseball, hockey and football game, plus boxing and at Blue Bonnets. When I joined the now defunct Sunday Express Newspaper in 1982, at the time a very well read publication in the city, I often wrote about Ted and he appreciated it. I was going through my clippings this week and found an '82 story in which Ted was hired by CJAD to do colour commentary for the Montreal Alouettes. This was 30 years ago and sadly, his glory days were already behind him. For the last three decades he moved from station to station - CJAD, CFMB, CIQC and finally THE TEAM 990. He found a home at the latter for a while, but eventually retired for good.

My dad and I tried very hard to get Ted to appear at the annual Sports Celebrity Breakfast we organize in the Jewish community. A few years ago he agreed, calling back a few days later to say he had second thoughts and did not feel comfortable making a public appearance.

Off the air, Ted Tevan was a puppy dog - a wonderful and thoughtful human being who always had a kind word to say. There will never be anyone like him.

Rest in peace Ted!

An extraordinary Lion King experience in Montreal

Evenko sure knows how to present a premiere. Two days after its eagerly anticipated debut in Montreal at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts, Disney's The Lion King was showcased for the media and VIP guests.

I have been attending Broadway classics at Place des Arts for nearly two decades. For a certain period of time we would get three to four a year, never for more than a week. The Lion King is here for an exclusive one month engagement, concluding September 4. If Evenko wanted to generated a buzz, they press all of the right buttons on Thursday night.

Media and VIPs walked across a red carpet to get in, had their photos taken in front of a Lion King backdrop and mingled for cocktails after which a little gift bag was presented complete with a CD/DVD and a classic program book. There was a good representation from the English and French media. My pals Mark Bergman and Cousin Vinny from Virgin Radio and Patrick Charles and Sharman Yarnelle were there from CJAD and the still drop dead gorgeous Mitsou Gelinas, a one-time teen pop star and now French radio personality, were among those spotted. Cousin Vinny could not stop clapping.

As it begins its 14th year The Lion King remains ascendant, continuing to reign as a cultural phenomenon and one of the most popular stage musicals in the world. Since its 1997 Broadway premiere, 18 global productions have been seen by more than 55 million people, grossed over $4.3 billion to date and have cumulatively run 83 years. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions (under the direction of Thomas Schumacher), The Lion King is the seventh longest-running musical in Broadway history and one of only five productions in theatre history to play for 10 years or more, both on Broadway and in the West End. Translated into seven different languages (Japanese, German, Korean, French, Dutch, Mandarin, Spanish), the show has been performed in 14 different countries on five continents. The Lion King can currently be seen on Broadway (its flagship production), on stages across North America, and in Las Vegas, London’s West End, Hamburg, Tokyo and Singapore. In October, the first Spanish production will bow in Madrid.

The Lion King won six 1998 Tony® Awards: Best Musical, Best Scenic Design (Richard Hudson), Best Costume Design (Julie Taymor), Best Lighting Design (Donald Holder), Best Choreography (Garth Fagan) and Best Direction of a Musical, making Taymor the first woman in theatrical history bestowed with the honor. THE LION KING has also earned more than 70 major arts awards including the 1998 NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, the 1999 Grammy® for Best Musical Show Album, the 1999 Evening Standard Award for Theatrical Event of the Year and the 1999 Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Choreography and Best Costume Design.

On stage, Taymor’s creative vision blends elements of African art and Broadway artisanship to depict anthropomorphic animal characters. Taymor, along with designer Michael Curry, has created hundreds of masks and puppets . The book has been adapted by Roger Allers, who co-directed The Lion King animated feature, and Irene Mecchi, who co-wrote the film’s screenplay. The resulting sound of the show is a fusion of Western popular music and the distinctive sounds and rhythms of Africa, ranging from the Academy® Award-winning song “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” to the haunting ballad “Shadowland.”

I do not think I have ever seen a more spectacular opening than what occurred at the Lion King.
The masks and puppets are beyond extraordinary. For instance, the actor who plays the giraffe is walking on stilts and undertaking a talented bit of puppetry to have the trunk move.

Mark David Kaplan's portrayal of the prim and proper hornbilled bird “Zazu” is hilarious. Ben Lipitz, as the carefree warthog “Pumbaa,” and Nick Cordileone as the wisecracking meerkat “Timon ” make you forget at times that their real faces are not hidden behind their puppetry manoevered costumes.

This is, if course, the story of Simba, the lion prince born to be king. Even though most of us know the storyline, we still get a warm and fuzzy feeling at the end.

In order to reach out to the francophone audience, all of the dialogue is neatly translated on two screens on each side of the stage. Zazu evens singles the song "Alouetta." I was anxiously awaiting to see if Mitsou would jump on stage and belt out "Bye Bye Le Cowboy."

Woonkuo Soon (pictured), the Lion King orchestra's concertmaster, is really enjoying this run. I profiled him in the July 29 Local Suburban . You can read the full story here on pages 34 and 35. While Soon travels year-round with the production, he decided to immigrate to Canada a few years ago and actually considers Montreal his base. He even bought a home here, which he gets to live i n very infrequently - except this month that is.

"The Montreal audience is wild and very enthusiastic," he said when I asked for his feedback on the debut. "They cheer like no other. I am also enjoying the bike ride to work and I am busy being in town, with lots of housework and chores to do. I finally finished all the final touches of my kitchen as I was in the process of building it.

Tickets are still available at the Place des Arts Box Office; by phone: 514- 842-2112 or 1 866 842-2112; or online at www.pda.qc.ca or www.evenko.ca Ticket prices range from $39.14$ to $159.14$ (service charges and taxes included).

Dalai Lama Montreal bound

As reported in my Suburban Newspaper column a few months ago, the Canada Tibet Committee (CTB) has confirmed that it will host a public talk by the Dalai Lama on September 7 at Montreal's Uniprix Stadium. He will speak on "Global Citizenship through Universal Responsibility," a theme chosen to honour last year's decision by the Canadian government to welcome 1,000 displaced-Tibetans living in Arunachal Pradesh, India to Canada over the next five years.

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is both the head of state and the spiritual leader of Tibet. He was born on July 6, 1935, to a farming family, in a small hamlet located in Taktser, Amdo, northeastern Tibet. At the age of two the child, who was named Lhamo Dhondup at that time, was recognized as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. The Dalai Lamas are believed to be manifestations of Avalokiteshvara or Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and patron saint of Tibet. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth in order to serve humanity.

Tickets for the Public Talk go on sale on Friday, August 5 at www.admission.com or by calling 1.800.361.4595. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. and the Public Talk will start at 1:00 p.m. Simultaneous interpretation into French will be available. According to Dermod Travis who heads the CTC, ticket prices are being kept to an absolute minimum ranging from $30 to $85 as per the wishes of the Dalai Lama.

Proceeds from the talk will be donated to Project Tibet Society, which is overseeing the implementation of the immigration program to help resettle Tibetans living in Arunachal Pradesh to Canada. To facilitate security at the Talk, the CTC is asking that attendees refrain from bringing shopping bags or knapsacks. Click here for more details.

Why Cesar Corrales left Billy Elliot The Musical

In my Wednesday Suburban Newspaper column July 25 (see page 4), I told readers about Cesar Corrales, who gave up his lead role in Billy Elliot the Musical in Toronto in May and returned to Montreal to continue his ballet training.

While my earlier attempts to interview Cesar were unsuccessful, after my column appeared I was contacted by his mother Taina Morales. She told me that both she and her husband Jesus decided to pull Cesar from the show so he could focus his full attention on classical ballet.

Prior to Toronto, he spent eight months as part of the Chicago tour as one of four boys rotating in the role of Billy. The family now lives in Côte des Neiges. Taina works for Les Grands Ballet Canadien. Her husband Jesus Corrales, is a former principal dancer from Cuba RWB and Les Grands Ballets. The couple have been home schooling Cesar, 14.

“There is a reason why I had Cesar stop the show,” Taina said. “Cesar performing this role was an amazing surprise when I brought him to audition. I really did not expect he would get the part. It was a dream. Like most boys mention in their interview, it was a beautiful and amazing and as parents we couldn’t be more proud to see how far Cesar went, so I can’t ever thank the producers enough for giving Cesar this opportunity.

“We always belived that Cesar could have a career as a ballet dancer,and we had the obligation to be careful about the time he would perform in a musical so we had to make a decision for him to stop the show and to return to a serious classical ballet training. Cesar understood and that is why he delivered 100 percent in every show ,because he knew he would not be in Billy Elliot for long.”

Taina said the decision to pull Cesar came six months after the show premiered in Chicago. “But the producers wanted to keep him and we felt that after all of the training they provided the boys it would be kind of selfish to leave. To be fair we arranged for Cesar to continue with the show in Toronto until April as he had been invited to a competition in Havana, Cuba where we are from. Once again the show asked us to stay longer because some of the other boys needed more time. So we stayed until the beginning of May.”

Billy Elliot the Musical continues in Toronto until September 3. I recently saw the show and it was absolutely superb. Go to www.mirvish.com for ticket information.

Experiencing So You Think You Can Dance Canada live

During the years when Canadian Idol was broadcast on CTV, I would take my family to Toronto each summer where we would watch the performance and results shows live in studio. It was a great experience. We became friendly with host Ben Mulroney and two of the judges, Jake Gold and Zack Werner. When Idol went on hiatus a few years ago, our exciting summer adventure came to an end.

CTV has a terrific media relations department and as Idol was winding down its run, they began communicating with me to promote their other entertainment reality show, So You Think You Can Dance Canada. I was paired up with Quebec judge and former international ballroom dance champion Jean-Marc Genereux for regular telephone interviews. When Quebec dancers did well, phone conversations were arranged. After Montrealer Nico Archambault captured season one, CTV had him on the phone for me the next morning.

Because Idol filmed during my summer holiday, it was always easy to get away for a few days. Dance really only got going in September, so catching some live episodes was pretty much out of the question. This season, happily, they began airing in June and basically took the old Canadian Idol slot. With the American version of Dance on Wednesday and Thursdays, slotting Canada on Monday and Tuesdays made a lot of sense.

Last week we did indeed experience the Dance performance and results shows, recorded before a packed studio audience at Showline Studios downtown. Tickets are actually free, but hard to get. People get in line early to get a space in the pit beneath the stage and the select few spots above. There are limited seats available.

The performance show, at this stage of the game, is two hours with commercials. Everyone is loaded into the studio early as the charismatic Josh warms the crowd up, brings some people on stage to do a little dance and sets out the rules and guidelines – when to clap and when not to etc. Josh also pops up during commercial breaks.

Leah Miller, the gorgeous host of the show, appears on the tower above the stage for the opening sequence. There is excitement in the air as the director gets the show rolling and the judges and performers are introduced.

The show we attended featured the top 18 performers, including four Quebecers - St. Laurent’s JP Dubé, Laval’s Denitsa Ikonomova, Montreal’s Christian Millette and François Pruneau of Trois-Rivières. They all did very well. After the taping, a CTV publicist brought us to the judges table where we met with Genereux and the other judges. Nico was a special guest judge on this evening and I was happy to finally meet him in person. When one of the CTV publicists asked if I`d like to interview a dancer, I inquired whether I could do so with one of the Quebecers. Imagine my surprise as she brought all four Quebecers out. You can read my exclusive interview with them on pages 38 and 39 of The Local Suburban.

I was happy to see the Quebecers all survive the cuts and remain in contention for this week. Christian and Denitsa, I believe, have a good chance of going to the top four.

Now a little bit more about Genereux. He began dancing at age 10 with his partner, and now wife, France Mousseau. Within six years the pair had won every regional and State çhampionship. In the early 1980’s they began dancing the International style of ballroom dance and won multiple competitions and all the major championships in North America, participating in 10 world championships as the first representatives for Canada.

Genereux and Mousseau turned professional in 1987 and danced in every major city around the world from Asia and Australia to Europe and America. In 12 years they won over 200 competitions. Genereux and Mousseau retired from the competitive scene in 1998; however, the two still travel all over the world to judge and choreograph for elite competitors.

Genereux performed in the motion picture Dance With Me, featuring Vanessa L. Williams, and the motion picture Shall We Dance, with Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere.

In 2006, Genereux joined the cast of the American version of So You Think You Can Dance as a choreographer, and is back for the show’s current season. Genereux has created choreography for The Rachel Ray Show and is now a permanent judge on Dancing With the Stars France.

Genereux was also the lead choreographer for the motion picture Funkytown, and appeared in the tenth season of DEGRASSI as a dance teacher. Genereux is one of the organizers behind the Rocky Mountain Dancesport Grand Prix in Calgary, AB this coming fall, and recently started his own line of dance shoes through the company Dance Import International.

An avid artist and painter, Genereux has become well-loved by viewers as the judge who speaks from the heart and isn’t afraid to show emotion, but dancers have to work hard to earn a spot on his VID (very insane dancer) list.

To see what a special person Genereux is and how he and his wife care for their special needs child, read the profile which appeared in the last edition of Inspirations Newspaper.