Amadeus At The Shaw Festival – A Review
Amadeus At The Shaw Festival Amadeus, the 1979 hit by Peter Shaffer, is receiving a workmanlike revival under the direction of Shaw’s Artistic Director Tim Carroll. One wonders why. Amadeus tells the wildly ahistorical tale of the rivalry between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Michael Therriault) and Antonio Salieri (Tom Rooney) in late eighteenth century Vienna. Fun […]
Euchre Night At The Foster Festival – A Review
Euchre Night At The Foster Festival Playwright Norm Foster’s gift for creating fully rounded and psychologically acute female characters is on ample display in his Euchre Night now enjoying its world premiere at the Foster Festival, at the Mandeville Theatre in St Catherines. By the way, if you (like me) have no idea what euchre […]
Early Genius At Here For Now Theatre – A Review
Early Genius At Here For Now Theatre Early Genius, the thoroughly delightful new play by Steve Ross, receiving its world premiere at Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre is, according to their website, sold out for its entire run. So what’s the point of writing this rave review? Well, you can always hang out at the […]
The Last Mayor Of Rusty River At The Blyth Festival – A Review
The Last Mayor Of Rusty River At The Blyth Festival Small town politics receives the Blyth Festival treatment in the delightful The Last Mayor of Rusty River, a broad comedy by David Scott and Blyth Artistic Director Gil Garratt, with original songs by John Powers. The action takes place in the council chambers of the […]
The Odyssey And The Oddity
The Odyssey And The Oddity I took a break from theatre to go see Christopher Nolan’s bladder-busting three-hour blockbuster The Odyssey. I can confidently report that it’s okay. I won’t presume to “review” it. Film criticism is above my pay grade, but I will permit myself some observations. It seems that, in addition to inventing […]
A Stratford (and Shaw) Travelogue
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Bob Krist, retired photographer for National Geographic magazine, who is now sharing his professional know-how along with a growing collection of travel videos on YouTube. Like me, he has a life-long love of theatre so a pilgrimage to Canada’s two major festivals was a natural for […]
Schoolhouse At 4th Line Theatre – A Review
Schoolhouse At 4th Line Theatre Schoolhouse, a memory play by Leanna Brodie, is getting a spirited revival under the inventive direction of Monica Dottor at the rural – very rural – 4th Line Theatre. Developed at 4th Line and premiered at the Blyth Festival in 2006, Schoolhouse takes us back to 1938, to SS #1 […]
Curveball At The Blyth Festival – A Review
Curveball At The Blyth Festival Following up on the success of Sisters of ’78, and with much the same cast, the Blyth Festival’s world premiere production of Curveball tells the story of Stratford’s Kroehler Girls. Like Sisters it is the tale of Canadian women struggling to make their mark in a world dominated by men […]
Funny Girl At The Shaw Festival – A Review
Funny Girl At The Shaw Festival Funny Girl, the bio-musical of Fanny Brice haunted by memories of the performance that shot Barbra Streisand to super-stardom, is being born anew at the Shaw Festival thanks to a luminous Sara Farb. With music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Bob Merrill, and a book by Isobel Lennart, Funny […]
One For The Pot At The Shaw Festival – A Review
One For The Pot At The Shaw Festival What to say about One For The Pot now at the Festival Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake other than “WTF!?” One For The Pot by Ray Cooney and Tony Hilton is one of the famous “Whitehall farces” that ruled the London stage in the 1950s and 60s. (Neil Barclay’s […]