The Miser at the Stratford Festival Intermittent hilarity and a bravura central performance manage to salvage the Stratford Festival’s uneven production of Moliere’s The Miser, one in which high comedy style at times verges on desperation. In Ranjit Bolt’s new version of the 1668 comedy, the miser Harpagon becomes despicable
(Image: Here For Now Theatre) Spit at Here For Now Theatre Here For Now Theatre continues its admirable run of plays by and about women with Irish playwright Noelle Brown’s brief (just an hour) but powerful Spit, which with admirable economy lays bare the shame of Ireland’s infamous Mother and
(Image: Shaw Festival) Just To Get Married at the Shaw Festival One of the hallmarks of Jackie Maxwell’s tenure as Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival was the revival of forgotten comedies from the “mandate period” (Shaw’s lengthy lifespan), and they proved to be some of the most enjoyable plays
(Image: The Shaw Festival) The Doctor’s Dilemma at the Shaw Festival There’s a bit of bait and switch going on at the Shaw Festival. Since I’d never seen George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma, I looked forward to the Shaw’s production, helmed by Diana Donnelly. I still haven’t seen George
(Image: Shaw Festival) Gem Of The Ocean at the Shaw Festival August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, the first installment in his ten-play “Century Cycle” (although the ninth to be written), is receiving a powerful, even explosive production in the intimate confines of the Shaw Festival’s Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre
(Image: Here For Now Theatre) Take Care At Here For Now Take Care by Ellen Denny, now at Here For Now Theatre, strikes me as an earnest effort to depict a woman at a crisis point in her life. But a game cast and some deft direction failed to make
Angels in America at KC Rep Tony Kushner’s two-part Angels in America is receiving a sturdy revival at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s downtown Copaken Stage. This sprawling two-part epic, subtitled A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, is at turns surreal, whimsical, hallucinatory, bitchily funny, poetic, brutally blunt, and ultimately
Absinthe in Las Vegas LAS VEGAS, NV – Everyone loves acrobats but not everyone will have a tolerance for the non-stop, filthy, vile, obscene, and often very funny patter that accompanies them in this sui generis offering on the Vegas Strip. Absinthe is housed in what looks like a temporary
‘Love,’ Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles Show LAS VEGAS, NV – I entered with high expectations but, alas, I found myself merely in like with Love, Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show. Cirque du Soleil’s high-powered homage to the Fab Four is chock full of Cirque’s trademark glitz and over-the-top surreal creativity
Craving For Travel Off Broadway There are plenty of laughs for everyone in Craving For Travel, the delightful comedy at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater on New York’s Theater Row, but travel agents will take special delight in the savvy inside jokes that lay bare the hidden aspects of the
Richard III and Twelfth Night on Broadway At the Belasco Theatre, New Yorkers are being treated to an all-too-rare opportunity to see William Shakespeare’s Richard III and Twelfth Night performed under the “original practices” rubric favored at the reconstructed Globe Theatre in London. All costumes are authentically Elizabethan, meaning no
The Nance On Broadway Broadway used to be awash in larger than life comic talent – Danny Kaye, Phil Silvers, Zero Mostel, the list goes on. Today we have Nathan Lane in The Nance on Broadway and we should be grateful we do. Mr. Lane’s considerable talents are being lavished
List of Sites that Review Theatre in Ontario Canada You don’t have to take my word for it. I often find myself in a minority when it comes to opinions on plays and films, for reasons that are more fully explained on the About This Site page. It’s a phenomenon
Shakespeare On Stage This evening (June 15), I will be attending the book launch for Shakespeare On Stage and Off, a collection of essays on the Bard, at the Stratford Festival’s Meighen Forum in the new Tom Patterson Theatre. So curiosity took me to the book’s Amazon page where the
My ever so polite “rant” about programme policies at Ontario theatres has been posted at Stratford Festival Reviews. I encourage you to not only read it but to share your thoughts in the comments. Not mentioned in the article is the fact that the minuscule Foster Festival, which one might
Maurine Watkins, The Woman Behind ‘Chicago’ My article about Maurine Watkins, the woman who wrote the “blasphemous” play, Chicago, in 1926 has been posted on the Stratford Festival Reviews website. I hope you’ll give it a read. It’s a fascinating story, if I do say so myself. And I do!
The Complete Wingfield Farms Cycle at Stratford-Perth Museum In what some aficionados will no doubt consider the theatrical event of the season, the Stratford-Perth Museum will be presenting the entire Wingfield Farms canon, all seven plays, starring Rod Beattie, on seven consecutive Sundays from July 3 to August 14. The
Donna Feore Has Competition As we await the reviews for the Stratford Festival’s production of Donna Feore’s Chicago, there’s this . . .
Ship To Shaw – Robinsong B&B It was no big secret that prices in the hospitality industry were on the rise after two and a half years of pandemic. Even so, the cost of lodging in Niagara-on-the-Lake’s posh bed and breakfast establishments came as something of a shock. Even nearby
