Mahabharata At The Shaw Festival – A Review
Mahabharata At The Shaw Festival Mahabharata, a joint production of the Shaw Festival and Toronto’s Why Not Theatre, has major event written all over it. A sumptuous physical production, spell-binding original music, a splendid operatic interlude, a feverish dance number by an actor representing Shiva, the god of destruction, a five-and-a-half-hour running time (divided into […]
The Gig At Theatre Aquarius – A Review
The Gig at Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton Playwright Mark Crawford has always mixed social commentary with his deceptively light comedies. Bed and Breakfast explored changing attitudes toward the love that dare not speak its name in the strange, straight world outside Toronto; The New Canadian Curling Club dealt with anti-immigrant prejudice. His latest play, The Gig, […]
Peter’s Final Flight At The Elgin, Toronto – A Review
Peter’s Final Flight at the Elgin Theatre Ross Petty is a Canadian institution, and for devotees of the theatrical form known, somewhat inaccurately, as pantomime, his production of Peter’s Final Flight at Toronto’s magnificent Elgin Theatre is not to be missed. (Canadian readers can take a break here, as the next several paragraphs are for […]
Elf The Musical At The Grand Theatre – A Review
Elf, The Musical at the Grand Theatre I kinda liked Elf, the 2003 film starring Will Ferrell, but I absolutely loved Elf, the Musical, now receiving a perfectly delightful production at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario, under the masterful direction of artistic director Dennis Garnhum. Elf, for those who don’t know, tells the tale […]
White Christmas At The Shaw Festival – A Review
White Christmas at the Shaw Festival Did someone walk into a staff meeting at the Shaw Festival and say, “Hey, here’s an idea: What say we sink all our money into tap dancing lessons?” If so, the investment has paid off handsomely. Kate Hennig’s tap-alicious production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is a knockout and […]
Grand Ghosts at The Grand Theatre – A Review
Grand Ghosts at The Grand Theatre Grand Ghosts, now premiering at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario, was a grand notion. Too bad it didn’t work out. The idea behind Grand Ghosts, as I understand it, was to celebrate the reopening of the renovated theatre with a fun frolic of a show about the ghosts […]
Driving Miss Daisy At St Jacobs Country Playhouse – A Review
Driving Miss Daisy at St Jacobs Country Playhouse I wonder if Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy, a minor classic of late twentieth century American theatre, is weathering the test of time, or like its title character becoming progressively weaker. The play is receiving a respectful, low key revival at Drayton Entertainment’s comfy St Jacobs Country […]
The Shark Is Broken At The Royal Alexandra – A Review
The Shark Is Broken At The Royal Alexandra The Shark Is Broken, Ian Shaw’s heartfelt homage to the memory of a father he hardly knew, is receiving a sterling production at Mirvish’s Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. Shaw and co-writer Joseph Nixon imagine the frictions and frustrations experienced by actors Robert Shaw (Ian Shaw), Roy […]
Singin’ In The Rain At The Princess of Wales – A Review
Singin’ In The Rain at The Princess of Wales No, the Mirvish production of Singin’ in the Rain, currently packing them in at Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre does not come close to matching the razzle dazzle of the 1952 MGM screen classic starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds. But I don’t think […]
Hamlet-911 At The Stratford Festival – A Review
Hamlet-911 at The Stratford Festival If you’re not feeling sufficiently woke, hie thee to Hamlet-911, Ann-Marie MacDonald’s cheerfully anarchic mishmash of a play now receiving it’s much-delayed world premiere at the Stratford Festival’s Studio Theatre. Hamlet-911 is a satiric comedy about white male privilege in the theatre, specifically the Stratford Festival, and the exclusion of […]