Prolific Toronto musical theatre writer Andrew Seok has a signature style- all heart, total sincerity, soaring ballads with big ensemble harmonies. Your mileage may vary. The unrelenting prettiness of his work is a pro for me, though it can get repetitive, so it’s nice to see him stretch a bit with his latest piece. […]
Next to Normal is a polarizing show that beautifully humanizes and trickily simplifies mental illness. Tom Kitt’s rock score demands big vocals and complex harmonies with extremely careful dynamic calibration as the characters lash out and collapse inward. These thematic musical extremeties lead to some really distracting sound balance issues in the intimate Aki Studio […]
A clear feeling of community joy permeated the packed lobby of Toronto’s historic Elgin Theatre this week as the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company’s latest production opened with great fanfare. The ambitious undertaking is a transplant of National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s hit New York staging using a Yiddish translation of Fiddler on the Roof that […]
The musical version of the seminal Jim Steinman/Meat Loaf album Bat Out Of Hell is a marvel of ridiculousness. The book (Steinman), direction (Jay Scheib), and design (Jon Bausor & Meentje Nielsen with tour updates to the set by Ed Pierce) are some of the worst in the history of the form but, dammnit, the […]
If you missed Some Like It Hot, there’s another Prohibition-era musical currently playing at Theatre Passe Muraille—and it might be even hotter. Long before Canada’s Come From Away achieved international acclaim, The Drowsy Chaperone (book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, score by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison) began as a 1999 Toronto Fringe hit, […]
Toronto is lucky to have Barrie-based Talk is Free Theatre producing work in the city and taking on ambitious projects like Sondheim’s Company. An amorphous narrative where lots is said and basically nothing happens, Company is a swirl of barely defined characters and extremely sophisticated ideas wrapped in some of the legendary composer’s most irresistible […]
I’m picky when it comes to holiday traditions- the market is too crowded, turkey is dry, and I really think George Bailey needs to learn to control his temper. But I very quickly attached to the tradition of the Shaw Festival’s Christmas Carol + festive musical two-show day. Throw in a stroll down Niagara-on-the-Lake’s picturesque […]
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 […]