A Niagara Christmas Carol At The Foster Festival It’s become quite the thing for regional theatre companies to create bespoke variations of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” The Foster Festival’s entry in the growing list, A Niagara Christmas Carol moves the action to the Niagara region during the construction of
Goblin:Oedipus At The Stratford Festival There once was a king named Oedipus Rex. You may have heard about his odd complex. His name appears in Freud’s index ’Cause he looooved
Bright Star At CAA Theatre Bright Star, the Steve Martin/Edie Brickell musical, was apparently not a hit on Broadway in 2016, running a mere 109 performances. In the hands of Garner Theatre Productions and their co-producers it is a substantial success at the Mirvish Company’s CAA theatre. Unfortunately, as part
Octet at Crow’s Theatre Octet, the a capella musical by Dave Malloy, now at Crow’s Theatre in Toronto under Chris Abraham’s direction, has received ecstatic reviews from all the critics. So why do I find myself neither shaken nor stirred? Octet is set in your typical church basement (nicely evoked
Misery At St Jacobs Country Playhouse I once described the fare offered by Drayton Entertainment as a welcome palate cleanser to the hoity-toity fare served up by august institutions like the Shaw and Stratford Festivals. Misery by William Goldman, adapting Steven King’s novel and movie of the same name, is
Tell Tale Harbour At The Royal Alexandra I think it’s fair to say that many people in Canada hoped that Tell Tale Harbour, the new musical featuring songs by Alan Doyle, co-founder and lead singer of the Newfoundland folk-rock group Great Big Sea would prove to be the next Come
Spunk at Yale Rep The Yale Rep in New Haven, Connecticut, has unearthed a treasure in Zora Neale Hurston’s exuberant 1935 play with music, Spunk. It was never produced and lay forgotten before being rediscovered in the Library of Congress in 1997. Refurbished and lovingly fleshed out with new songs
Make England Great Again Upstairs At The Gatehouse Scathing political satire seems to be in short supply on North American stages (if I’m wrong, please correct me in the Comments), but thanks to Francis Beckett’s perfectly timed Make England Great Again it’s alive and well in London. Make England Great
Mitridate Re Di Ponto at the Teatro Real When I was a lad of fourteen I had learned to do something kinda fun. At the same tender age, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had learned how to compose an opera. Mitridate, Re di Ponto, the opera in question, is being presented at
Eden At Yale Rep The Yale Rep kicks off the new year with a welcome revival of Steve Carter’s 1976 play, Eden. The first of Carter’s so-called Caribbean Trilogy, Eden won awards both in New York and Los Angeles, but as far as I can tell has been revived only
Orgasmos at Teatro Arlequin in Madrid Based on the title, one might expect that Orgasmos (Orgasms), which enjoyed a recent one-night stand – how appropriate! – at Madrid’s Teatro Arlequin Gran Via, was devised to lure in sad old men in greasy raincoats and Japanese tourists, rather like O Calcutta
Lucia Di Lammermoor At The Bayerische Staatsoper Before I get to Donizetti’s Lucia Di Lammermoor, and in the interest of full disclosure, let me begin by confessing my profound ignorance of classical music and all things operatic. Not only is it an art form for which I have no instinctive
Stratford Takes A Giant Step – Backward When the Stratford Festival began in 1953, it was helmed by a Brit, the legendary Tyrone Guthrie. The Festival continued to turn to the mother country for leadership for many years thereafter. Since Richard Monette became Artistic Director in 1994 the Festival has
Complete List Of Plays By Norm Foster I have become a huge fan of the plays of Norm Foster as regular readers of OntarioStage may have noticed. I am always eager to add to the number of Norm Foster plays that I have seen. Norm Foster is often described as
“On Canada’s Top Stage, Macbeth and Annie Are Talking to Americans” Jesse Green, lead critic for the New York Times, has written what amounts to a love letter to the Stratford Festival’s 2025 season. His gloss on the themes of the season thus far is spot on and well worth
Stratford Extends Its 2025 Season The Stratford Festival has announced that several shows will be extended well into the Fall. They are: Anne of Green Gables – now playing through November 16, 2025 Macbeth – now playing through November 22, 2025 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – now playing through November 23,
Abraham Out As Cimolino Successor It appears that Chris Abraham, once considered one of the top candidates to replace Antoni Cimolino as artistic director of the Stratford Festival is out of the running. From the Toronto Star: “The Stratford Festival’s search for a new artistic director, the most powerful and
Liars At A Funeral Is Back I saw Liars At A Funeral in 2023 at the Blyth Festival and raved about it. This season it is being revived by Drayton Entertainment at the St. Jacobs Country Playhouse. As is so often the case with plays and productions I love I
