Whit’s End At The Foster Festival Norm Foster is back in form with the world premiere of Whit’s End at the Foster Festival’s new digs in the commodious Mandeville Theatre at Ridley College, a prep school for the over-privileged in St. Catherines. As I become more familiar with the oeuvre
Resort To Murder At The Blyth Festival Murder mystery plays like Resort To Murder are part of a grand theatrical tradition that dates back at least to Mary Roberts Reinhart’s creaky 1920 murder mystery, The Bat, and that includes such old chestnuts as Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap of 1952, which
12 Dinners At Here For Now Theatre Longtime Stratford Festival star Steve Ross, now wowing audiences as Albin in La Cage Aux Folles, has reunited with director Jan Alexandra Smith to bring us 12 Dinners at Here For Now Theatre’s intimate tent at the back of the Stratford Perth Museum.
Halfway There At Drayton Entertainment Drayton Entertainment is doing southwestern Ontario a favour this summer by mounting two of Norm Foster’s best plays, Doris and Ivy in the Home at St Jacobs and now Halfway There at their eponymous playhouse in tiny Drayton, Ontario. Halfway There is Foster at his
The Golden Anniversaries At The Blyth Festival Following up on Saving Graceland, the Blyth Festival has another hit on its hands with Mark Crawford’s dark – very dark – comedy, The Golden Anniversaries. Crawford seems to go from strength to strength. The Golden Anniversaries may be his most accomplished work
Those Movies At The Foster Festival Those Movies, the latest Norm Foster play, is receiving its world premiere at the Foster Festival’s spiffy new venue at Ridley College in St. Catherines. It is Foster in a distinctly minor key. Foster has hung this short on laughs comedy on the slender
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
Mojada At Yale Rep The play’s title is Mojada, which literally means “wet” in Spanish, the feminine form of the Mexican slur for “wetback.” The play’s subtitle is A Medea in Los Angeles, so you know things aren’t going to end well. And I’m not talking about the traffic on
Sound Of The Underground at The Royal Court Those coming to Travis Alabanza’s Sound of the Underground at London’s Royal Court Theatre expecting the sort of cheerful, glamorous drag show popularized by La Cage Aux Folles and Ru Paul’s Drag Race will likely be disappointed. Those who can handle some
Vodka With Stalin [Full Disclosure: I am a long-time friend of the playwright.] Francis Beckett is a prominent English historian of twentieth century left-wing British politics who writes the occasional play. In Vodka With Stalin, now enjoying a brief run at Upstairs at the Gatehouse, in Highgate, London, he has
Pride And Prejudice At Kentucky Shakespeare Jane Austen purists may be horrified by Kate Hamill’s rollicking, anything-for-a-laugh 2017 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. They would be well advised to put their high standards aside for an evening and enjoy the often hilarious romp being presented by Kentucky Shakespeare in the
Christmas in Connecticut at Goodspeed Opera House Christmas in Connecticut, the 1945 Warner brothers film, is a sappy, sentimental, but nonetheless highly enjoyable rom-com (to use a turn of phrase not yet then coined). Its success is due largely to the chemistry between stars Barbara Stanwyck and the now largely
Here For Now Theatre Announces 2023 Season [From their press release.] On Monday, March 1st, HERE FOR NOW THEATRE announced their exciting 2023 SEASON of SIX CANADIAN ONE ACTS to be presented June 28th– September 23rd, in Stratford Ontario at a BRAND NEW beautiful outdoor venue behind the STRATFORD PERTHMUSEUM.
Donna Feore Comes To Connecticut Great news! Donna Feore is slated to direct and choreograph Summer Stock at Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, CT, from July 7 to August 27, 2023. This world premiere is inspired by the 1950 film of the same name that starred Judy Garland and
Here For Now Theatre has announced new digs for its 2023 season – a canopy on the grounds of the Stratford Perth Museum on the western fringe of Stratford. It’s a return to the roots of this plucky little troupe, now entering its fourth season. The first two Here
Girls & Boys Moves To Crow’s Theatre In my review of Girls & Boys, presented by Here For Now Theatre last summer in Stratford, I fretted that there was precious little time left in its short run to allow those who stumbled on my review to see it – and
The 2022 OntarioStage Awards What they lack in prestige, they more than make up for in pointlessness.™ I’m not a major theatre critic, but I do play one on this website. 2022 marked the first year I made a serious attempt at reviewing all the plays I see, something I
Blyth and Foster Festivals Announce Their 2023 Seasons The Blyth Festival and the Foster Festival have both announced their 2023 seasons and the auguries are all positive. Blyth will be producing a grand total of seven plays next year. On its outdoor Harvest Stage will unfold a trilogy about the
