Review of 2023 Reviewed and corrected | A well-seasoned vintage

The turbulent years have the advantage of providing us with fertile material for end-of-year reviews. It is perhaps this little extra in the news – which nevertheless made us very anxious – which gives this 18^e vintage of Reviewed and corrected a little more spicy than usual.

Against the backdrop of the climate crisis and the progression of artificial intelligence (AI), the creators of the popular theatrical revue tackled a multitude of subjects, from the fall in popularity of the CAQ to the problems experienced by the REM, in including drag, the teachers’ and health workers’ strike, and so on!

The five performers – Pierre Brassard, Benoît Paquette, Monika Pilon, Marie-Ève ​​Sansfaçon and Marc St-Martin – opened the year’s review in a beautiful way with a musical number which aimed precisely to highlight the ever-increasing presence of AI in our lives. They sang about their bias for “human” while the technical errors multiplied!

The rest of this review directed by Natalie Lecompte was a rollercoaster of sketches both on stage and on screen, with numerous sung numbers, it should be noted.

Special mention to Marie-Ève ​​Sansfaçon, who played with virtuosity Ginette Reno, singing in the aisles of a Jean Coutu, but also Ariane Moffatt and Mélanie Boulay (with Monika Pilon, who played her sister Stéphanie) in a hilarious duet where the Boulay sisters sang (twice) depressing Christmas tunes.

In the end, it was Diane Dufresne that Marie-Ève ​​played brilliantly, while Monika Pilon gave a stirring interpretation of Marjo.

In the political arena, in addition to the – effective – sketch of Prime Minister François Legault (Pierre Brassard), who relies on ChatGPT to relaunch the third link, we were entitled to a running gag with repeated appearances of Bernard Drainville (Benoit Paquette), who tries to recruit teachers from the public. Our Minister of Education even threatened to sing if no one came forward.

Other moments of happiness: the Quebec government ad on the decline of French, with the famous peregrine falcon – which could have been broadcast as is – enriched by nicely absurd scenes. But also this quest to find a fax, way Impossible missionin order to send a document to a hospital center.

On the television side, some shows have been parodied or gently excoriated, such as Martin Matte live, whose ratings have dropped by half since its launch. Here, Martin Matte (Pierre Brassard) is consoled by Christian Bégin (Benoit Paquette) who suggests that he do acting exercises to improve. Quite an entertaining moment.

We are also entitled to parodies of The little life, A boy a girl, Survivor And Indefensiblewhich welcomes a Donald Trump rejoicing at the accumulating lawsuits.

International news is perhaps the poor child of this otherwise quite successful end-of-year review. Besides this parenthesis on Trump and a gag on Mr. Niet, featuring Vladimir Putin who erases his opponents one by one, not a word on the Israel-Hamas war (the elephant in the room) or on the election of the far-right ultraliberal Javier Milei in Argentina, for example.

It’s impossible to tell you about all the gags or vignettes that fly by – there are really a lot of them, and not always of equal quality.

The team of the Review still made a nice tribute to the Cowboys Fringants in the last third of the show by singing a piece of five to the tune of America cries by rewriting the lyrics. A nice little breather in a review which moves at great speed, which resumes immediately afterwards, and which concludes with a medley where popular singers pass the baton to each other, before singing Oxygenby Diane Dufresne, in an apotheotic finale.

2023 Revised and corrected

With: Pierre Brassard, Benoit Paquette, Monika Pilon, Marie-Ève ​​Sansfaçon and Marc St-Martin. Director: Natalie Lecompte.

At the Green CurtainUntil January 7, 2024

7.5/10