Casting is everything in Bowtie Productions’ ambitious stab at John Cameron Mitchell’s iconic rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It’s a deceptively difficult piece, the smallness of its two-actor/one-act structure placing immense pressure on the performers who have to carry exceptionally dense material with relentless energy and barely a few moments, if any, offstage. […]
Thousand Islands Playhouse in Gananoque has just about the best programming strategy I’ve seen for a small company, especially one serving a remote community without a ton of access to live theatre. Managing Artistic Director Brett Christopher smartly programs all the big fun musicals you’d expect, crowd-pleasers that never fail to slap (this season has […]
We’re still physical media devotees round these parts with lots of room in our hearts and on our shelves for DVDs, Blu-rays, and even the occasional VHS (an old beat up copy of The Truman Show and our trusty VCR recently rescued a social event when rain ruined our outdoor screening). In that spirit, we’re […]
Coming off of last year’s superb 4-0 record for their Shakespeare work, Stratford’s 2024 season is quite a bit shakier. There are only three Shakespeare plays on the docket this year and it’s clear that they’re where the company is hoping to spare a few dollars on design as they all feature far less in […]
This season’s Shaw Festival programming on the Royal George Theatre’s iconic proscenium stage showcases a strong assortment of styles and themes ranging from trademark execution of a Shaw classic, to a freshly adapted childhood favourite, hyper-stylized Chinese fable, and a noir vision of a twisty whodunnit. As current Artistic Director Tim Carroll continues to […]
Two wild and silly musicals form the the extravagant core of an overall scaled back Stratford Festival season. Frustratingly, directorial issues mar the more substantive of the two and flimsy material limits how far the better production can soar. Something Rotten!, a 2015 Renaissance comedy by John O’Farrell and Karey & Wayne Kirkpatrick, represents […]
Staged for a small (but packed) audience in a tent outside the Stratford Perth Museum, 12 Dinners is an intimate and humble piece of hyper-personal storytelling produced six minutes down the road from the Avon Theatre where stalwart character actor Steve Ross is having the run of his career as the sparkling lead of the […]
A light style and dark material sets the contrasting tone for the Capitol’s blockbuster musical of the summer. The Full Monty vibes like silly fun but the story is packed with simmering sadness, overwhelming stress, and dark gender norms. Striking that balance is a tricky proposition but director Julie Tomaino smartly keeps the action […]
