This has been a bit of a rough repertory period for the Canadian Opera Company- the full-length Offenbach they presented earlier this month was obnoxiously long and unforgivably dull and their double feature of Zemlinksy & Puccini one-acts contains one dreary dud and one brilliant success (the Puccini, predictably). With only 52 minutes of greatness […]
Rick Miller’s wackado Macbeth retelling, currently masquerading as a fourth Shakespeare production at the Stratford Festival, uses a comprehensive cast of voices from one of TV’s most successful crazy experiments, The Simpsons. When this silly one act was appearing at fringe and comedy festivals, or when it played at The Factory Theatre last September, it […]
My friends always laugh at me when I tell them Bring it On is about race relations. Because, you know, it’s about cheerleaders. But it actually IS about race relations. That iconic 2000 film was a quotable, hilarious, rip-roaring exploration of urban race relations, gender roles and outsider assimilation conflict. It Was! Screenwriters of massive […]
Okay guys, here’s a truth you were never expecting to hear- I really like the American Pie franchise. I mean, I don’t like it like I like the Mighty Duck franchise, but I really do like it (and let’s face it, I don’t like much like I like the Might Duck franchise). I started with […]
*spoiler alert* I was sure, going into the Parks & Rec finale last night, that Leslie Knope would lose the election. All TV characters lose elections because no one likes to move a sitcom forward. But Parks & Rec couldn’t care less about rules like that (other rules they discard: Sam & Diane, cast […]
Michel Tremblay has mommy issues. The more of his work that I see, the more I recognize the loving but fraught tension that drives young writers to write about their mothers. In the beautiful, hopeful and inventive For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, Tremblay recreates his mother in exuberant, true, and positive detail. In […]
If you were to do a search of the most commonly used phrases on this website, one of the top hits would undoubtedly be “mixed bag”. I use the term constantly, mostly because I insist that a review include at least one criticism and one compliment for every production. But, really, most things lean to […]
I’m very fond of Encore Entertainment. Their heartfelt production of The Laramie Project was sweetly affecting, and their theatrical concert Song in the Key of Stephen was chock full of fantastic performers, clever song choice and thoughtful production. Their latest effort, the comic two hander Wrong for Each Other, however, was a far cry from […]