The Shaw Festival’s mainstage programming this year runs the full gamut from the best in the biz to completely disappointing.

At the top of the heap, the most reliable man in Canadian Theatre- Crow’s Theatre artistic director Chris Abraham- takes on the ridiculous farce of One Man, Two Guvnors. It’s a nonsense script full of fat jokes and slapstick pitched to the Shaw by it leading man Peter Fernandes who is right in his assessment that it’s the perfect role for his particular set of skills (big charm, wild comedy, the unique ability to sell high stakes in an relatively low stakes situation). In the hands of anyone else (including Tony winner James Corden who made his name in the role), One Man, Two Guvnors is a unique form of personalized hell for my taste. It’s therefore a brilliant test case for my unwavering faith in Abraham and the Shaw Festival. Abraham makes smart decision after smart decision in his version of Richard Bean’s zany play. The key hire is Matt Alfano, a dancer familiar to audiences from Stratford and pretty much every other company that employs dancers in Canada. As skilled a physical performer as you’ll ever find, Alfano gives the production its acrobatic comedy and wildest gags with such precision that the farce element is perfectly fulfilled without needing a full cast of pratfallers. This opens up the rest of the roles to some of the Shaw’s most reliable players, including Martin Happer at his hammy best, Fiona Byrne in a delightful dual role, and Tom Rooney in a toupée for the ages. One Man, Two Guvnors is silly nonsense but it’s executed by the very best talent out there and they’re able to elevate it into one of the best productions of the year.

The season’s big musical falls somewhere in the middle. Co-directed by Tim Carroll and Kimberley Rampersad with not quite a big enough ensemble, the production feels scant and slow with low energy and poor pacing. The great Tom Rooney is a little dull in act one but proves why you hire an actor of his gravitas when Higgins comes to his more substantial material in act two (the “Without You” scene is particularly moving). When I saw the show, usual leading lady Kristi Frank was temporarily replaced by her understudy Jacqueline Thair but it was a treat to see Thair shine in a role that’s actually quite well suited to her. Her Eliza is vibrant and elegant, her endearing gawkiness even post-transformation serving as a nice reminder that she’ll always be the same person. She’s fabulously angry when she needs to be and, though not all the top notes are quite there for her, her voice sounds lovely on Frederick Loewe’s classic score. The strangely over-interpreted ending adds to the confusion of this up and down production but the highs are high.

Suffering from similar problems of clunkiness, the third instalment of Shaw’s Sherlock Trilogy is the season’s weakest mainstage production. The adaptation falls the furthest from the source material, which makes for a self-conscious and somewhat aimless mystery without the usual satisfaction of clues coming together perfectly. Every bit of subtext is stated as plain text and even the charming Sherlock/Watson/Hudson trio who so delighted in 2018’s Hound of the Baskervilles feels underdeveloped in their third appearance. Long set changes and overly broad supporting performances further point out how off the mark this production is, especially in contrast to its mainstage counterpart that does far more with far less.