Before we announce the winners of the 2016 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. The delightful Sheri Anne Godda has won the MyTheatre Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress before (in 2013 for the RESISTIBLE rise of arturo UI) and now she’s back in the same category for her chameleonic performance as “CB’s Sister” (aka teenage […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2016 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Anders Yates is one of my favourite improvisers in the city (or anywhere, really), so he’s predictably nominated for Outstanding Sketch/Improv Performance for his work with Bad Dog Theatre on the beautiful new show La Grande Jatte. But […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2016 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. One of Circlesnake Productions’ newly minted Artistic Producers, Mikaela Dyke deserves much of the credit for Outstanding Production nominee Slip‘s success, as part of the Outstanding New Work-nominated writing team and as the dead body on the floor that […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2016 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. We’re doing most of our interviews in person this year (as evidenced by the branded portraits). Talking in person means we get to adjust on the fly, ask follow-up questions, dive deeper and have more of a recognizable […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2016 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Nominated for Outstanding Sketch/Improv Performance for their 2016 run at the Toronto Fringe Festival, Songbuster is an improv troupe who creates a live original musical at every performance based on a suggestion from the audience. Click Here for […]
Toronto Fringe’s winter mini-fest Next Stage is in a tricky spot. It plays host to the first productions of every year in Toronto theatre; the audience full of hope and anticipation and ready to have the bar set for the year to come. Curated and titled as it is, it’s not hard to expect something […]
‘Til Death (Do Us Part), the penultimate play of the Filament Incubator’s ambitious inaugural season, is a sketch/improv/collaborative-scripted-project hybrid that’s part romantic comedy, part practical feminism manifesto, part dystopian horror story, part searing societal allegory. With its bar setting (the Monarch Tavern), intermittent improv, random dance breaks and generally casual vibe, ‘Til Death is the […]
Friday night, Bad Dog Theatre Company premiered the first two new formats in their fall season: Past Dark and La Grande Jatte. Because the improv company’s Bloor West theatre offers the best deal in town (see an additional show for only $5!), I stayed for the 11pm performance of fan favourite Network Notes as well. […]
Heraclitus famously opined that you can never step in the same river twice. If he spent more time attending theater than stepping into rivers, he may have said you can never attend the same improv show twice. On the Spot, an improvisational performance at the Broadway Comedy Club, produced by Nathan Armstrong and directed by […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews Everything Else Is Sold Out (A) Dame Judy Dench– the five-person sketch troupe made up of Second City Conservatory alums Claire Farmer, Jessica Greco, Shannon Lahaie, Chris Leveille and Gavin Pounds- is one of those rare sure-bet comedy teams. Everything Else is Sold Out […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews Cam Baby (A) Jessica Moss doesn’t live here anymore; she’s in New York and somehow I’m just now noticing how much I’ve missed her work in the Toronto theatre scene. Moss’ signature style of quick-witted dramedy with personal themes is shared with some of […]
Be sure to check out our Full List of Fringe Reviews ‘Ze’: Queer As Fuck (B) ‘Ze’: Queer As Fuck is written and performed by Michelle Lunicke, originally from Washington, but who moved to Australia and New Zealand by way of British Columbia. The show is a staging of Lunicke’s coming out story, a long […]
Living in a post-Rob Ford era, you could be forgiven for thinking that all the jokes about Canadians can and have been made. But what Second City does, they do very well – injecting new life and hilarity into jabs at Trudeaumania, Tim Hortons, and Drake. Indeed, The Hotline Always Blings Twice showcases some of […]
I had doubts about London improv: we lack institutions (the equivalent UCBs and ImprovOlympics)…
True Blue (Bad Dog Theatre Company- improv) I lied (“everybody lies” says the poster for this show). The title of this post is Comedy Tonight but the first piece I’m talking about is not a comedy. It’s full of people you’re used to seeing in comedies- Bad Dog regulars and funny people borrowed from VideoCab, […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2015 MyTheatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. Strictly speaking, Rebecca Northan‘s hilarious and affecting clown show Blind Date (which played at Tarragon this fall) is not really a “solo performance” as there are always at least two people on stage. But since we can’t possibly […]
There are six days left in The Toronto Fringe’s annual Next Stage Theatre Festival. See below for my thoughts on nine of the ten shows (the performance of Urban Myth I was scheduled to attend was cancelled because of a fire alarm) then Click Here to buy your pass and schedule your trip to the Factory […]
“You have a brave heart and a beautiful soul and it can be clearly seen by anyone who bothers to look closely” is (loosely paraphrased) one of the last things Rebecca Northan said to her co-star at Tuesday’s performance of Blind Date at Tarragon Theatre. I don’t know if she says that every time- the […]
Click Here for the Full List of our 2015 Toronto Fringe Reviews The Weaker Vessels: Public Displays of Narcissism (A-) The Weaker Vessels offer everything you could want from a sketch show. Smart, precise, and razor-sharp, the troupe skewers our narcissistic tendencies and self-absorbed culture. Standout sketches include an exasperated TTC conductor who can’t get […]
The totally goofy, very sitcom-y NBC spring sitcom Undateable is not the sort of show you really want to go to bat for when begging the networks not to cancel your favourite things (this year that’s The Mindy Project and About a Boy, both regular purveyors of honest to goodness human emotion) it is, nonetheless, […]
way·ward (wāwərd) adjective difficult to control or predict because of unusual or perverse behavior. “I’m so glad you’ve taken an interest in our farm,” director Becky Johnson exclaims in character at the top of Cult Wayward, the all-female improv show at the Bag Dog Theatre. This new addition in the Wayward series did not disappoint: […]
Improv is risky business for a theatre-goer. Sometimes the freshness, urgency and unfiltered, uninhibited whimsy that can be so thrilling results in not a lot more than broad havoc and jokes that could use a re-write. But when everything does come together just right, there’s nothing like it. In Toronto, the closest thing to a […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2014 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. A key member of ace improvisers Bad Dog Theatre Company (our reigning Honorary Award Winners), it was actually Colin Munch’s scripted performances that first caught our attention. We saw him in two non-improv shows in 2014 and […]
Before we announce the winners of the 2014 My Theatre Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series. The ensemble for Tarragon’s production of Sextet, the bittersweet new play by Morris Panych, was full of incredible talent including 3-time nominee Laura Condlln, 2-time nominee Jordan Pettle, last year’s Best Actor winner Damien Atkins and superstars […]
If you missed it at the Toronto Fringe, you can breathe easy. Toronto, I Love You, an unconventional, improvised love letter to the city of Toronto from the Bad Dog Repertory Players (BDRP), is back for a two-week stint at Bad Dog’s west end theatre. This unique, surprisingly intimate show fits perfectly in the wood-paneled […]
Read Thea’s Reviews and Lorenzo’s Reviews of the NSTF. Graham Clark Reads the Phonebook I loved comedian Graham Clark’s solo show at last summer’s Fringe Festival. So did everyone else, including Fringe head honcho Lucy Eveleigh. So Lucy invited him back for the Next Stage Festival. This, in theory, makes sense (especially considering they have […]