TORONTO (Reuters) - In case anyone's missed Toronto Mayor
Rob Ford's scandalous confessions, expletive-laden videos and Jimmy
Kimmel appearances over the past year, a new theatrical production
is bringing his honor's story to the musical stage.
"Rob Ford the Musical: Birth of a Ford Nation" held auditions
in Toronto on Monday for a show expected to open in
mid-September, just ahead of October's mayoral election. Ford,
who has entered rehab for substance abuse, is currently taking a
break from his reelection campaign.
By early afternoon, a few dozen would-be Fords had taken a turn
for the show's creators, and several men with the mayor's
heavyset build and close-cropped hair wandered the halls at the
downtown theater school where the open curtain call was held.
Geoff Stone, 32, a singer-songwriter from Ottawa, arrived in
full costume, sporting dyed-blonde hair with a shaved bald spot.
A glass pipe protruding from his jacket pocket completed the
look.
"A lot of my friends kind of liken him to Chris Farley, so I've
been tapping into that a bit," said Stone, referring to the late
film and "Saturday Night Live" actor often noted for his
likeness to Ford.
Ford went on leave from both his job and his re-election
campaign last month to seek treatment for alcohol abuse. That
decision followed months of denials that he had a substance
problem. He has admitted that he has smoked crack cocaine.
Even before taking leave, Ford had been performing only some of the
duties of mayor. City council stripped him of much of his power late
last year and gave it to Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly.
"This story of Rob Ford has taken everyone by storm," Anthony
Bastianon, who wrote the music for the production, told Reuters.
He said the play would not be a simple send-up of Ford, and that he
would seek to expand the mayor into a three-dimensional character
from the public view of him as two-dimensional.
"It's going to be fun, but we're also trying to show a lot of
different sides of the story."
Ford is expected to return to public life in early July.
(Reporting by Cameron French; Editing by Frank McGurty; and Peter
Galloway)
