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 […]

Incredibly acted and written in a way that is both engaging and unique, Obsidian Theatre Company and Tarragon Theatre showcase an honest, vulnerable, funny, painful and real look at relationships.   Relationships are hard. I know, what a revelation, right? But it is true and that work can make or break people. It can create […]

A Fear And Loathing-esque road trip journey is elevated and driven by powerful and heartfelt performances for a story about friendship, history, love, and regret.   D. Halpern’s story starts off with a return to nostalgia through camcorder video tapes. Well edited and shot by designer Seamus Easton, the beginning montage evokes feelings of past […]

The National Ballet of Canada’s 2025/26 season is off to a strong start with a pair of contrasting productions that showcase the company’s range and up-and-coming stable of talent, though one is far more inspiring than the other.   First at bat was what’s sure to be the season MVP (I saw it the night […]

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, to deal with isolation and lack of live theatre, we started gathering some of our favourite people every Tuesday & Saturday night to read scripts over Zoom. We read all 38 Shakespeare plays in six months. Then we kept going. We decided to create mini-seasons featuring highlights from the canons of […]

 

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 Musical Stage Company’s Uncovered series is a staple on Toronto stages. Each instalment of the theatre-y concert/concert-y theatre fundraiser famously reinterprets a different massive artist (or artists)’s songbook with the help of big name and up-and-coming talent. The central recipe still works: great singers (at least a couple each year who are too big […]

Dissonant Species (written by Michel Gordon Spence and Heather Marie Annis) sings a story about trying to understand. Trying to understand music, trying to understand sound, trying to understand people. Like a jumbled up music sheet with various timings and key changes and sounds with no set patterns. It is a piece that drums an […]