Twelfth Night At The Stratford Festival Seana McKenna, one of the Stratford Festival’s great leading ladies, is directing her first play by William Shakespeare on the Festival’s formidable main stage. Her stripped down production of Twelfth Night dispenses with the visual distractions that directors frequently slather on so she can
Paul And Linda Plan A Threesome At Here For Now Theatre Once again, Here For Now Theatre is performing in an outdoor tent at the rear of the Stratford-Perth Museum, and once again it is opening its season (its fifth) with an uproarious comedy. This year it’s the world premiere
The House That Will Not Stand At The Shaw Festival The House That Will Not Stand, an ambitious work by Marcus Gardley, now receiving a sturdy production at the Shaw Festival’s Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre, opens a fascinating window on a little-known period of American history. In the early decades
Saving Graceland At The Blyth Festival Artistic director Gil Garratt’s new play, Saving Graceland, is a quiet triumph for the Blyth Festival, a perfect example what Blyth does best – tell stories about real people that have not just relevance but resonance with its audience. On the surface, Saving Graceland
The Secret Garden At The Shaw Festival The Shaw Festival’s production of The Secret Garden is often lovely to look at. It boasts some arresting stage pictures, beautiful fantasy costumes (Judith Bowden), and inventive stagecraft. It has a clever set (Beyata Hackborn), effective lighting (Kevin Lamotte), and a solid cast.
One Man, Two Guvnors At The Shaw Festival In 2012, One Man, Two Guvnors, Richard Bean’s anarchic adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s 1746 Servant of Two Masters, a British import, exploded on Broadway, took New York by storm, and made an international star of James Corden. Now director Chris Abraham has
The 12 At Goodspeed Musicals The 12, the new musical at Goodspeed Musicals by Robert Schenkkan and Neil Berg, about the twelve apostles minus Judas (yes, those guys) looks terrific. The set designer John Doyle, who also directs, has created a surprisingly attractive dump of an abandoned industrial site. It’s
Wish You Were Here At Yale Rep Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here, now playing at New Haven’s Yale Rep, is a well-intentioned disappointment. Wish You Were Here charts the gradually unravelling relationships among a tight-knit group of five female friends in Karaj, Iran, during a tumultuous period. The decade
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
Gypsy at Goodspeed Musicals Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam, Connecticut, known to us old-timers as the Goodspeed Opera House, is mounting a workmanlike production of the Arthur Laurents/Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim classic, Gypsy, directed by Jenn Thompson. The production tries mightily to do justice to what many critics and historians of
The Ripple, The Wave At Yale Rep Playwright Christina Anderson’s earnest The Ripple, The Wave That Carried Me Home makes great use of water as metaphor. The 90-minute play, performed without intermission at the Yale Rep, strives for poetry as it tells the tale of segregated swimming pools in the
Ain’t Misbehavin’ at Westport Country Playhouse The Westport Country Playhouse is presenting a middling revival of Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show. Conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Murray Horwitz, it wowed Broadway (and me) back in 1978. For this outing, a co-production with Barrington Stage and Geva Theatre
The 2024 Season – Part Two To the extent that Americans are aware of the theatrical riches of Ontario’s summer “festival” season at all, they are probably familiar with The Stratford Festival and The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I discussed the 2024 season at these august institutions, along with my
The 2024 Season – Part One As Christmas approaches what better way to escape the crass commercialism of the holiday season than to toss another log on the fire, settle back with your single malt, and savor the crass commercialism of the 2024 theatrical season in southwestern Ontario! By now
Shaw’s best seats Back in the days when I was writing guidebooks to Orlando’s many theme parks, I would include a section in my descriptions of various attractions called “the best seats in the house,” wherein I would attempt to guide readers to the best locations from which to maximize
Reflections on the 2023 Season It’s not a horserace, it’s not a competition, and there are a lot of apples vs. oranges considerations when it comes to discussing the very different theatre companies that call southwestern Ontario home. And yet . . . Now that the 2023 season is more
Is This The Stratford Festival’s Best Kept Secret? Looking for a nice quiet light lunch or dinner before the show? Or maybe you’d just like to have lunch in a quiet environment in which you can actually hear your companion. Let me introduce you to the Tom Pat cafe, located
A New Slings and Arrows Podcast Debuts Slings and Arrows fans rejoice. A “kind of official” podcast devoted to the cult favorite is now available and it’s a great way to mark the show’s twentieth anniversary year. Outrageous Fortune, as the podcast is dubbed, promises to be a gold mine
