The past few weeks in Toronto theatre featured a range of works that at their core all touched on similar themes despite their vast superficial differences. In tense, inflationary times, these four pieces examined how financial pressures can bring out the best and worst in all of us.   Most explicit on this topic was […]

Based on the book by Melly Magrath, Not a Cult: The Musical explores the various ways we can get sucked into culty behaviour without even realizing it. This Small but Mighty production brings us into the world of Joy (Bebe Brunjes) and her adult camp that purports to be about ‘fun’ but slowly reveals the […]

The National Ballet of Canada’s 2024/25 season is off to a strong start with a varied and ambitious mixed bill that showcases the strength and diversity of the company’s up and coming talent while honouring the legacy of their iconic leading man as he enters his final season.   The evening kicks off with Body […]

 

Interior Design (Tarragon Theatre) The first play in this week’s roundup features the most complicated exploration of the myriad ways we terrorize each other as it centers on a quartet of friends who presumably (reportedly, ultimately) do love each other. Rosa Laborde’s script about four old friends fighting (or not) to stay friends is a […]

Conceived, adapted, and directed by Daryl Cloran originally for Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach, this joyful and zany adaptation of As You Like It uses the Beatles’ sprawling songbook to sculpt Shakespeare’s “play with music” into a full tilt musical. Currently onstage at the Grand Theatre in London, the imperfect but polished production is a […]

 

Toronto kicked off its 2024/2025 season with a stellar month of opera performance this October.   Beginning with Verdi’s lush and complex Nabucco and topped with a bold new production of Charles Gounod’s Faust, the Canadian Opera Company is currently having their best rep season in years. Led by a sublime Mary Elizabeth Williams who […]

From a 4K Limited Collector’s Edition to upcoming theatrical re-release, Interstellar’s tenth anniversary has brought about a flurry of activity. One of the more unique permutations of renewed interest and celebration is organist Roger Sayer’s Interstellar 10 Concert Tour, presented in Canada by the Royal Canadian College of Organists.   As the organist featured on […]

The closing performance of Nick Green’s Dinner with the Duchess on September 28th was a major moment for Stratford’s small but mighty Here For Now Theatre. In front of an audience quietly packed with some of Canadian theatre’s biggest stars, the low-key company closed out their 2024 season with a truly superb performance of a […]