Cawrk Theatrical Productions is back with their first production in five years. Last seen directing and starring in the company’s My Theatre Award-nominated production of The Glass Menagerie, Cawrk founding members Matthew Yipchuck and Cat Bernardi have moved on as artists and become specialists in different fields. For the company’s return to the Toronto stage, they’ve smartly […]

Our Shaw Festival coverage this season is brought to you by the wonderful Highgrove Bed & Breakfast in Niagara-on-the-Lake. A rare affordable option a short walk from the central Queen Street (15 minutes or less depending on the pace of your meander), this charming house named after Prince Charles’ residence is presided over by the […]

Katy Perry’s music is very theatrical and generally rooted in storytelling, two qualities that pretty much guarantee that one day we will see her songbook turned into a Broadway show. That Broadway show will be a commercial blockbuster production and she will be paid millions of dollars for the rights to the hit songs around […]

This 2015 Revival of The Elephant Man is an average production of a bland play with competent actors. It tells the story John Merrick (played by Bradley Cooper), a disfigured Victorian who is saved from the life of a circus sideshow by surgeon Frederick Treves (Alessandro Nivola). Treves teaches John the ways of the upper […]

 

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, I saw nearly all of the nominated shows (and numerous shows that failed to make the American Theatre Wing’s list of nominees), so I stepped […]

 

Mad world, mad kings, mad composition, mad play. King John, as a text, is a mess. The plot casually advances from war to marriage to war and then to death in a literary frenzy. The king is barely a character for most of it (Falconbridge seems to be given the most to say) and we […]

Bridge Repertory Theater lured audiences into a small hall at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion to revive a classic story of political conspiracy and personal betrayal. Their distilled production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, directed by Olivia D’Ambrosio, captured the essence of the play while (mostly) avoiding gimmicks. The result was a fleet and energetic show packed […]

One of the most intriguing aspects of our fascination with the lives of the members of Britain’s Royal Family is how little we really know about them. Although perhaps one of our most public institutions, it is striking that we know only snippets of their ambitions, their disappointments, their hopes and dreams. Indeed, behind the […]