Theatre review: East Van Panto: West Van Story serves up a so-Vancouver villain for the ages
Dawn Petten’s megadeveloper slays in a show with pumped-up song-and-dance numbers, subversive satire, and standout performances
East Van Panto: West Van Story. Photo by Emily Cooper
The Cultch presents Theatre Replacement’s East Van Panto: West Van Story at the Historic Theatre, now extended to January 11, 2026
THE BAR HAS BEEN set insanely high for the villains in the East Van Panto, with bad guys often overshadowing icons like Robin Hood, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood. Think Andrew McNee’s Big Bad Wolf, Allan Zinyk’s pink-beehived wicked Stepmother, or Mark Chavez’s gothy-fascist Skunk King. And so it’s really saying something that Dawn Petten, as this year’s deliciously warped baddie, exceeds expectations in West Van Story as Boberta Rainy, a megadeveloper bent on levelling the East Side to erect condo towers.
The East Van Panto veteran stalks the stage in a powder-blue power suit with a matching cape that screams “evil Disney queen”, her face frozen in a perma-grin straight off a real-estate billboard. The character mispronounces “Commer-seeall Drive”, pontificates on the “robust social safety net” that will catch all the people being evicted, and openly abhors children (especially Boberta’s own). Petten’s prissy property shark is a study in physical comedy, stepping around discarded DownLow takeout bags like they’re doggie doo, and trying—but failing hilariously—to bust a move for a number set to Wet Leg’s deadpan-rhythmic “Chaise Longue”. (Props once again to amazing composer and musical director Veda Hille for having her finger on the pulse.)
This 13th edition of Theatre Replacement’s annual holiday tradition, written by Marcus Youssef and Pedro Chamale, uses its riff on both Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story to play hard with East-West rivalries in these parts. And because we always like a little sugar with our vinegar: as evil as Boberta is, the character is offset by Tom Pickett’s Evie, an anthropomorphized East Van Cross who’s pure, lovable goodness. Boberta immediately marks him as a “merchandizable symbol” for “Sim City Tower” marketing materials.
Cue enthusiastic play on class war—and even a dog named Karl Barx. Don’t worry if you live left of Main or over the Lions Gate: Youssef and Chamale don’t just bash all things upper-crust, but save some of their best barbs for a Drive that’s becoming more and more West Fourth-y. The story imagines Boberta’s daughter, West Van curler Holly (Ivy Charles), falling for East Van bowler Joes (Ben Brown); all the members of his East Van Pets team are named for disappeared Drive landmarks. Newcomers Charles and Brown bring the top-notch singing that the mix of Broadway and radio hits demands. A special shout-out also goes to powerhouse singer Meaghan Chenosky, who finds full vocal and comedic-acting range as she doubles up as both Boberta’s desperate-to-please son Burn and West Van dollar-sign mascot Dolly.
Ben Brown and Ivy Charles in East Van Panto: West Van Story. Photo by Emily Cooper
The source material this time out means the musical sendups are plentiful, punctuated by a few sequences of faux Shakespearean text (with Hille switching to Baroque mode at the keyboard). (A running joke is Evie frantically warning the characters to stop being so Shakespearean or people are going to die.) The West Side Story influence also allows even more song-and-dance business than usual, with choreographer Amanda Testini going to town in numbers that draw fluidly on Jerome Robbins’s iconic jazz moves. An absolute highlight is the West Side Story medley that opens Act 2 (complete with a finger-snapping “When you’re a Pet…you’re in debt”). There’s also an inspired song-and-dance sequence set amid the infamous truck corridor on Clark Drive—familiar to anyone who’s tried to cross that street with an 18-wheeler barrelling at them.
First-time Panto director Chelsea Haberlin keeps it all tearing along at a feverish clip. Hyperlocal references include the ubiquitousness of Browns and the mysterious, hypnotic allure of DownLow Chicken Sandos.
Tunes by the likes of Sly Stallone and ABBA give way to not one but two “Abracadabra”s (one Lady Gaga’s, the other Steve Miller’s, with drummer Kate Johnson showing mad skills alongside Hille). Care of set designer Shizuka Kai, not only do we travel to a pastel vision of East Side landmark Grandview Lanes, but we also journey to a weird mall on the “Way of Kings”.
Almost sold-out, but rumoured to be adding more dates, this Panto excels at chaotically grand musical numbers, undercut with biting satire, shameless kid-friendly silliness, and adult-friendly subversive politics.
And here in “Sim City”, where a real-estate crisis rages and fighting the development machine often feels futile, booing the villain onstage offers much-needed catharsis—no matter how gleefully Petten’s Boberta Rainy laps it up. 
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