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
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
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
Heartbreak House At The Shaw Festival Tim Carroll’s production of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House boasts a stellar cast. Why then does it fall so flat? A major reason, I think, is that a very important character is missing – Heartbreak House. Not the play but the physical location. Shaw
Jeeves & Wooster At The Shaw Festival I have a vague suspish that Robert and David Goodale must have seen The 39 Steps or Stones In His Pockets and thought, “Jolly good fun! How hard can it be?” And so, taking the inimitable P. G. Wodehouse stories of the amiable,
The Long Weekend At The Foster Festival When the first line of a play is “This weekend is going to make a colonoscopy seem like a lighthearted treasure hunt,” you sense that it’s going to be a bumpy ride. So it is with the revival of Norm Foster’s 1994 hit,
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
Othello At The Royal Shakespeare Company Tim Carroll is taking a bit of a sabbatical from his duties as Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival in Canada’s Niagara-on-the-Lake to direct William Shakespeare’s Othello at the Royal Shakespeare Company in England’s Stratford-upon-Avon. I’ve seen four Shakespeares directed by Carroll, at The
The Lehman Trilogy In The West End “Give ‘em the old razzle-dazzle,” from Chicago, kept going through my mind as I watched Sam Mendes’ astonishing production of The Lehman Trilogy, now being revived on London’s West End at the spacious yet intimate Gillian Lynne Theatre. Adapted by Ben Power from
Safe House At The Abbey Theatre I haven’t had much luck with the Irish avant garde. I have vague memories of a wordless Grotowsi-esque rendition of the Great Hunger that came to New York some decades ago. Now there’s Safe House, the new 90-minute whatchamacallit by Enda Walsh and Anna
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
Last season, Drayton Entertainment revived Norm Foster’s Halfway There at their namesake venue in Drayton and I absolutely adored it. So when I learned they were bringing it back this season, this time at their very stylish Cambridge location, I was quick to book tickets and bring friends along. The
