Shrek the Musical (Young People’s Theatre) Young People’s Theatre’s production of Shrek the Musical is lean, green, and utterly joyful. It’s one of the biggest productions in the company’s 60-year history and that investment pays off with a strong ensemble, William Layton’s vibrant set design, and an overall high standard of production that could easily […]
The trouble with adapting most children’s books is that they are very light on plot. Niagara’s Carousel Players’ two-person production of Where the Wild Things Are (originally adapted for the stage by TAG Theatre in Glasgow) suffers from this problem- it’s only 65 minutes long and still feels like they’re filling for time. What felt […]
This much-maligned production I think gets a bad rap that’s only partially deserved. There’s a lot that it gets right, it’s just that what it gets wrong it gets very wrong and those things are super distracting (and unhelpfully weighted towards the end, making them more memorable). I’ve long been a fan of the […]
I’ve technically put the theatre review side of this site on hiatus while I take maternity leave but the prospect of completely missing out on Toronto Fringe made me too sad so I made myself a one-day sample platter of shows taking place in and around the new festival hub at Soulpepper’s distillery district venue. […]
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, […]
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 […]
Click Here to read all our reviews from Toronto Fringe 2024. Rooted: A Musical Poem (A) Ambitious, substantive, and memorable, this full-scale musical is one of the most polished pieces at the Fringe and definitely deserves a bigger run in a larger theatre. Jewelle Blackman’s book is a bittersweet and deceptively mature Giving-Tree-esque coming of age […]
Click Here to read all our reviews from Toronto Fringe 2024. Rat Academy (A) Crystal clear dramaturgy, impeccable character work, and impressive technical skill mark this clown duet about endangered Albertan rats as a can’t-miss oddity. Honouring the heart of clown tradition with a classic White/Auguste pairing, Katie Yoner and Dayna Lea Hoffmann’s Fingers […]