This was the year that the Stratford Shakespeare Festival finally saw their ingénues grow up.   Sara Topham, now in older and sturdier roles, is still smattering her characters with a think layer of affected fairy dust, but for the most part the young women of this year’s company are bringing intelligence and guts to […]

We Love You Neil, Congratulations
 

The How I Met Your Mother star gets his star on the sketchy part of The Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 

One of the worst promoted shows of the new fall TV season is Free Agents, a silly-looking, offensively marketed story about a workplace hookup. But even with a poster that “cleverly” hints a storeroom blowjobs, Free Agents snagged me with the promise of a weekly dose of the endlessly awesome Hank Azaria. The charmingly neurotic […]

 

One of the best productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival this year is the gruesome early revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus. Director Darko Tresnjak’s enthralling production features strong performances from the likes of Amanda Lisman, John Vickery and Bruce Godfree. But much of the play’s success rests on the shoulders of one of my favourite actors, […]

Spartacus: Blood and Sand leading man Andy Whitfield died last night in his home in Sydney after battling non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for the last year (he was originally diagnosed in March 2010 then declared to be in remission in May, after two months of treatment). His role in the Starz series having been recast for season two […]

 

The film adaptation of the truly wonderful book One Day, predictably, leaves much to be desired. While the presence of the always sensational Patricia Clarkson (perfectly cast in the pivotal role of Dexter’s idealized mother) certainly helped the film along, the incredible miscasting of the story’s leading lady proved devastating to the adaptation. So much […]

 

The film adaptation of the truly wonderful book One Day, predictably, leaves much to be desired. While the presence of the always sensational Patricia Clarkson (perfectly cast in the pivotal role of Dexter’s idealized mother) certainly helped the film along, the incredible miscasting of the story’s leading lady proved devastating to the adaptation. So much of […]

 

Company, is a masterpiece in Sondheim’s body of work. The simple story is so nuanced and steeped in human reality that it is actually one of the composer’s most complex works. So when the NY Philharmonic announced that they’d be assembling an all-star cast to take on all the “Sorry/Grateful” contradictions of the piece, I […]