The Grand Theatre in London, Ontario never fails to impress. While I’d love to see them use their secondary stage a bit more to really challenge their audiences with intimate counter-programming, their mainstage blockbusters at the beautiful Spriet theatre reflect diversity of tone and style within the “must sell well” demands of maintaining such a […]
Though Karen Kain, Christopher Stowell, & Robert Binet’s choreography (after Erik Bruhn, Lev Ivanov, and Marius Petipa) is challenging and technical throughout the whole of the National Ballet’s overall excellent update of Swan Lake, the indoor passages lag with slow storytelling and traditional bow breaks that pause the action and break the fourth wall. It’s […]
Before we announce the winners of our 2024 Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. If you consider their Artist of the Year nomination as acknowledgement of both Dandelion Theatre/William Shakespeare & Friends Collective’s Timon of Athens and Soup Can Theatre/Three Ships Collective’s Christmas Carol (which you should, that’s the intention), […]
Before we announce the winners of our 2024 Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. In Doctor Bird Productions’ concert staging of Jekyll & Hyde, Outstanding Performance in a Musical nominee Emma Bergin stole our hearts with her complex and impeccably sung performance as Lucy. We caught up with her to […]
Created and originally performed by some of Soulpepper’s most legendary Academy graduates-turned-resident artists, Alligator Pie will always be a testament to the company’s multi-disciplinary strength, spirit of invention, and dedication to fun. A wild romp of a non-linear kids show adapted from Dennis Lee’s beloved book of poems, Alligator Pie has made its long-awaited return […]
The past few weeks in Toronto theatre featured a range of works that at their core all touched on similar themes despite their vast superficial differences. In tense, inflationary times, these four pieces examined how financial pressures can bring out the best and worst in all of us. Most explicit on this topic was […]
Conceived, adapted, and directed by Daryl Cloran originally for Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach, this joyful and zany adaptation of As You Like It uses the Beatles’ sprawling songbook to sculpt Shakespeare’s “play with music” into a full tilt musical. Currently onstage at the Grand Theatre in London, the imperfect but polished production is a […]
I loved Verne Thiessen & Yvette Nolan’s adaptation of the Margaret Laurence novel The Diviners, creatively and energetically directed by Krista Jackson with Geneviève Pelletier, but the rest of the straight plays in the 2024 Stratford season left me somewhere on a sliding scale of cold. The remaining plays (meaning not Shakespeare, not musicals, […]