The Last Timbit At The Elgin Theatre Toronto Happy Birthday Tim Hortons! Tim Hortons, Canada’s phenomenally successful home-grown donut and coffee chain, is 60 years old. What will their future look like? Well, Hortons’ senior management must have seen Something Rotten because they decided that the future is MYOO-sicals! Specifically
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.
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
The Brightest Thing In The World At Yale Rep As Leah Nanako Winkler’s The Brightest Thing in the World opens, two attractive young women, Steph (Michele Selene Ang) and Lane (Katherine Romans), meet cute in a Lexington, Kentucky, coffee shop. And meet. And meet. And meet. Over the course of
Kimberly Akimbo on Broadway Kimberly Akimbo may be the weirdest show to ever worm its way into the hearts of a Broadway audience. But that is precisely what this musical by David Lindsay-Abaire (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music) is doing at New York’s Booth Theatre. Kimberly is a
March 31 – April 23, 2022 Yale University has a long and distinguished vocal tradition. There are the undergraduate Whiffenpoofs, of course, and the School of Music confers advanced degrees in choral conducting. So it’s perhaps not too surprising to find that Choir Boy features one of the greatest small
Dream Hou$e at Long Wharf Theatre Playwright Eliana Pipes has furnished her new play Dream Hou$e (as it is styled in the program) with an abundance of themes in a variety of styles. The overall effect is striking but cluttered. The Castillo sisters are trying to sell their recently deceased
I Am My Own Wife at Long Wharf Theatre The Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, is giving Doug Wright’s Pulitzer prize-winning one-person play, I Am My Own Wife, a respectful if ultimately disappointing revival starring a very talented young actor, Mason Alexander Park. The play revolves around
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
R+J Streaming On Stratfest@Home R+J, which I streamed on Stratfest@Home, is a gloss on Shakespeare, the initials indicating, I assume, that what we are going to see is not the Bard’s beloved play Romeo and Juliet but something altogether new. As this short but nonetheless interminable production wore on, I
Drayton Entertainment Announces 2023 Season Drayton Entertainment has announced their line up for 19 shows, playing across their 7 locations for the 2023 season. At this point there is no information about cast or directors. But just the bare bones list of titles reinforces my opinions about why Drayton is
The 2023 Guide to Stratford and the Stratford Festival After a Covid-induced hiatus, I have resurrected my annual Guide to Stratford Ontario and the Stratford Festival, completely updated for 2023. It is now available in e-book format on Amazon’s Kindle Store. The guide began as a labour of love, created
The Shaw Festival Is Canada’s Great Theatre Bargain After sharpening my pencil and doing some calculations, I have decided that the Shaw Festival, in drop-dead-gorgeous Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, is the greatest theatre bargain in Canada. I have booked tickets for the missus and myself for the entire 2023 season at the
(Image: New YorkTimes) Gimme A Break! This review in the New York Times made me want to open a vein and slide into a warm tub. Why on earth do people like director Thomas Ostermeier insist on grafting their gawdawful “visions” onto Shakespeare, instead of creating their own works that
