07 October 2020
Friar Lawrence: Friend/Priest/Confidant/Killer?
By Alexander Franks // Theatre
Content warning: This piece contains mentions of emotional/psychological manipulation, trauma, and suicide…
03 September 2019
2019 at the Shaw Festival
By Kelly Bedard // Theatre
After I saw Brigadoon, the Shaw Festival’s magical staging of a reimagined classic musical, I right away sat down to write about the experience. At least for me, the night …
04 July 2018
Why We Have a Wizard: Wicked in 2018
By Kelly Bedard // Theatre (Toronto)
15 years ago, Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman adapted for the stage a novel by Gregory Maguire that was itself an adaptation, or perhaps more accurately a revision, of The …
13 September 2017
The Second City Toronto’s Party People
By Kelly Bedard // Theatre (Toronto)
Party Today (Panic Tomorrow) is an apt name for The Second City Toronto’s silliest and least political mainstage show in a few cycles. There are moments when the bold political …
02 July 2017
Behind the Doras
By Kelly Bedard // Theatre
The 2017 Dora Awards were handed out on Monday night at the beautiful Elgin theatre on Yonge Street, complete with a VIP cocktail reception and sprawling after party that took …
12 February 2017
Critical Consensus & Company Theatre’s John
By Kelly Bedard // Theatre (Toronto)
This is not a review. The Company Theatre’s production of John– a dense, complex, hilarious personal epic by celebrated playwright Annie Baker- is extraordinary on a hundred different levels and …
05 December 2016
The Unbearable Whiteness of Blonde
By Vyasar Ganesan // Theatre
*spoiler alerts for those of you who haven’t seen the musical, but I haven’t even seen the movie* To start, I understand that Legally Blonde is a comedy. Much of …
03 August 2016
Looking Into Bright Lights
By Kelly Bedard // Theatre (Toronto)
This year’s Toronto Fringe Festival was lauded as one of the best in recent memory. There were dozens of good shows and more than a couple great ones. Favourites like …
24 November 2015
Personal Essay: Kings & Sons
By Vyasar Ganesan // Theatre (New York)
I don’t much care for Shakespeare, but I wonder what my father thinks of King Lear. There was a magnificent (and free) production of the tragedy in Central Park in …
10 August 2015
Calling out Tech-Dependent Audience Members
By Fabiana Cabral // Theatre
Originally published on July 13, 2015 on Fabiana’s personal blog The Educated Procrastinator … Don Aucoin of the Boston Globe wrote a piece thunderously applauding Patti LuPone’s recent stage antics: …
11 June 2015
The Tony Awards 2015
By Theresa Perkins // Theatre (New York)
After a few days of recovery (and work), it is time to share some thoughts on the spectacle that was the 2015 Tony Awards. For the first time in years, …
28 February 2015
Inside the Howland Reading Group
By Kelly Bedard // Theatre (Toronto)
Before The Howland Company was The Howland Company- long before they were a producing theatre company at all- they were a reading group. It all began back in late 2012 …
27 December 2014
2015 Broadway Preview
By Theresa Perkins // Theatre (New York)
For theatre fans, the holiday season means more in New York than jam-packed stores, high-kicking Rockettes, and the dreaded SantaCon. The new year brings with it the uplifting promise of …
15 December 2014
The Risky Virtue of Interpretation
By Kelly Bedard // Theatre (Toronto)
Purists will hate this Macbeth. The theatrically skeptical will find it heady and ridiculous but, mostly, it’s the purists who will hate it. Director Sophie Ann Rooney takes huge, ambitious …
Connect
