Michael Healey’s new adaptation of the much-adapted 1928 Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur newspaper farce starts with boredom. It starts with a bunch of sloppy newsmen and a single newly incorporated newswoman (Michelle Giroux, right at home) just sitting around waiting for something to happen. As a purposeful contrast to the madcap zip of the […]

The Merry Wives of Windsor is an obtrusively fat play in many senses. With about 472 disparate characters and plot threads, it’s in desperate need of trimming. It also packs in more fat jokes than a fratty comic on twitter. It’s a gruesome, empty bit of silliness redeemable only by its surprisingly wily female characters […]

 

Every season there are a few shows that diligent theatre-goers know not to miss. They come in various forms- remounts of proven hits, highly anticipated new works, sometimes a rarely produced text, or just a really well-cast classic- but they bring with them a sense of anticipation and a boatload of sky-high expectations. Right now […]

 

The Music Man The best production at the Stratford Festival this year is an incredibly dated musical with a couple good (not great) songs and a story made of truly silly stuff. But there’s a reason Stratford asks so much of Donna Feore every season- basically handing her their full musical slate and saying “go, […]

 

Coriolanus The Avon Theatre is lucky to have this big splashy Robert Lepage hit because it’s the only particularly good thing in the space this year. And even then, it underwhelms at least a little. Lepage brings what one could expect Lepage to bring- inventive use of video, ambitious aesthetics, a filmic approach to transitions […]

 

Paradise Lost Lucy Peacock is a fabulous spotlight-stealing supernova as Satan in this excellent new adaptation by Erin Shields. She wears fabulous clothes, says fabulous lines, directly addresses the audience, and just generally swags the place up. But the really compelling stuff comes from Qasim Khan and Amelia Sargisson as Adam and Eve. They’re a […]

Before we announce the winners of the 2017 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual…

Before we announce the winners of the 2017 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series.   I would not get a lot of pushback if I were to say that Tom Rooney is the best stage actor currently working in Canada. Obviously that’s a subjective assertion, but it’s awfully hard […]