The political satire musical, Jason Kenney’s Hot Boy Summer is coming to Grande Prairie later this week.
Donovan Workun, who plays Kenney describes it as an amazing two-act musical that is fun for everybody.
“It’s like Animal House and really a frat-boy comedy. Jason Kenney is running for Student Union President against Rachel Notley at Alberta University in the 1980s. He stuffs a few ballots in his direction and wins. To get back at him, Notley manages to cause an outbreak of mono,” he explains.
“It’s basically a constant power struggle between Notley, who wants to be Student Union President, and Kenney, who is just trying to party, have fun, and get people to like him.”
Workun says that once the script was written and the members of the cast came together, that’s when things really took off for the act.
“After the script was finished in September of 2021, we began rehearsing the next month and we’ve running since November. We’ve done about 55 to 60 shows since then,” he says.
Workun says that he, the writers, and cast members have received a lot of great feedback from people working in politics.
“We’ve had a number of notable people come out, including Daren Bilous, Rachel Notley, Sarah Hoffman, and the list goes on and on. We’ve had a couple of UCP Ministers see the show and a ton of staff from the Alberta Legislature. They all want a picture with me and they always like to tell me little bits of information and their story of how the Legislature works,” he says.
Workun says he’s been to Grande Prairie many times and always enjoys visiting.
“I love Grande Prairie. I’ve done lots of shows there. Some of the shows I did when starting my career were at bars and nightclubs, like the old Trumpeter Inn. I’ve also done shows at the college. What I like is every time I go up there I can see how much more construction is done on the hospital, so that’s been a pretty exciting ten years,” he laughed.
There are three shows at the Douglas J Cardinal Theatre, with the first being on April 15th at 7 p.m The last two are on April 16th, at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased at the Bonnetts Energy Centre website, or box office.