REVIEW: City Theatre's '2 Pianos 4 Hands' hits all the right notes

Pop quiz: Name a Canadian playwright.

Drawing a blank?

Then head to City Theatre, where you'll encounter the work of not one, but two playwrights from the Great White North — Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt.

They're the creators of “2 Pianos 4 Hands,” which is arguably the most successful and widely performed Canadian play. The work is based on the writers' experiences as piano prodigies.

Since its debut in Toronto in 1996, the work has played to 2 million people on five continents. It's only a matter of time until it reaches South America, if not Antarctica.

It's a small but amiable saga of two aspiring concert pianists as they progress from 7-year-olds to adulthood.

We follow their evolution from reluctant children to young adulthood not just through dialogue but a succession of snippets and longer segments of increasingly complex music that they perform at two grand pianos — as solos or works created for two performers.

The works vary from simple pieces for beginners — “The Birch Canoe” and Hoagy Carmichael's “Heart and Soul” — to the final piece, the first movement of Bach's “Concerto in D Minor.”

Interspersed among the list of 22 pieces are bits of some popular works — Billy Joel's “Piano Man” and “My Funny Valentine.” But classical predominates, such as Chopin's “Rondo for Two Pianos, Four Hands in C Major” and Beethoven's “Sonatina No. 6 in F Major.”

As you might expect, “2 Pianos 4 Hands” has some special casting requirements.

The actors who play Ted and Richard, as well as the supporting characters of teachers, parents — also need to be proficient classical pianists.

At least to my ears, Bob Stillman (Ted) and Christopher Tocco (Richard) surmount that challenge with ease.

Stillman and Tocco may sometimes be a little too cute when portraying the characters as awkward youngsters. But they become more comfortable and believable as the characters mature. Their final scene packs a bittersweet power.

Eavesdropping on preshow and intermission conversations at Sunday's matinee confirmed that the audience contained a handful of piano teachers and parents with young piano students in tow.

But the show is more than a slim story wrapped around piano pieces.

The music is a device to advance the story and underscore the pleasures and frustrations of tackling and mastering difficult tasks and coping with ever more complex challenges.

At its heart is a story about childhood dreams of greatness and coming to terms with the reality of what that takes.

Classical music fans and those who struggled through music lessons will enjoy the extra delight of insider jokes and references.

But “2 Pianos 4 Hands” should also strike a harmonious chord with those who never advanced beyond “Chopsticks” and think pizzicato is an Italian appetizer.

Alice T. Carter is the theater critic for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-320-7808 or acarter@tribweb.com.