Frog Song At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
Frog Song At Here For Now Theatre In a delightful change of pace, Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre is presenting Frog Song, an opera – yes, an opera! – for children and never has its tent theatre and its bucolic setting seemed more magical. With a book by Taylor Marie Graham and music by William […]
Summer Stock At Goodspeed Musicals – A Review
Summer Stock At Goodspeed Musicals Summer Stock, the horribly dated 1950 film starring Gene Kelly and a fading Judy Garland, has been transformed into a “new musical comedy” at Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam, CT. The big question for anyone who remembers the film is “Why bother?” There are two answers to that question: Cheri […]
The St. Nicholas Hotel At The Blyth Festival – A Review
The St. Nicholas Hotel At The Blyth Festival The saga of southwest Ontario’s ill-fated Donnelly clan continues in The St. Nicholas Hotel, the second installment of The Donnelly’s: A Trilogy at the Blyth Festival. The others in the series are Sticks and Stones and Handcuffs. After the broad overview of the legend of the Donnellys […]
Wedding Band At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Wedding Band At The Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival has another triumph on its hands in the form of Sam White’s searing production of the 1962 Alice Childress masterpiece, Wedding Band. Except for a mention in the author bio, the programme omits the play’s telling subtitle, A Love/Hate Story in Black and White, but it […]
Margaret Reid At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
Margaret Reid At Here For Now Theatre What’s real? Who can you trust? Do we create our own truth or are we at the mercy of the truth of others? Margaret Reid, Madeleine Brown’s anarchic, surrealistic, and meta-theatrical examination of these existential questions may not answer them, but she sure gives us a lot to […]
The Apple Cart At The Shaw Festival – A Review
The Apple Cart At The Shaw Festival I can only assume that the reason that George Bernard Shaw’s The Apple Cart is not as well known and as frequently revived as some of his other works is because it deals with politics with a capital P. I dare say that, being one of those dreaded […]
Blithe Spirit At The Shaw Festival – A Review
Blithe Spirit At The Shaw Festival Noël Coward occupies a small but beloved niche in twentieth century theatre and his Blithe Spirit from 1941 is perhaps the most popular of his comedies. Director Mike Payette is giving it an enjoyable, if occasionally puzzling, revival at the Shaw Festival’s Festival Theatre. The plot is no doubt […]
Playboy Of The Western World At The Shaw Festival – A Review
Playboy Of The Western World At The Shaw Festival Tá bearna mhór idir scéal gallda agus gníomhas salach. J. M. Synge The Shaw Festival is giving J. M. Synge’s groundbreaking 1907 play, Playboy of the Western World, a sturdy production under the direction of Jackie Maxwell in the Studio Theatre that bears her name. Maxwell […]
Village Wooing At The Shaw Festival – A Review
Village Wooing At The Shaw Festival Each season, at the Royal George Theatre, the Shaw Festival presents a short one-act play at lunchtime. This year it’s George Bernard Shaw’s rather slight two-hander, Village Wooing. Village Wooing is a trifling piece – Shaw called it a “comedietta.” It is receiving a puzzling and egregiously over-produced rendition […]
Myth Of The Ostrich At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
Myth Of The Ostrich at Here For Now Theatre When I saw Liars at a Funeral at the Blyth Festival, I thought I had seen the funniest show of the 2023 season. Matt Murray’s 2014 comedy Myth of the Ostrich, in a dream of a production at Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre, is giving it […]