August is here, the weather in Toronto has finally started to catch up to the calendar, and the line outside Bang Bang refuses to die down; it’s officially time for SummerWorks. Made dramatically less awesome this year by the loss of the performance bar but revelling in the convenience and beauty of the new Theatre […]
The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s most difficult plays to stage. The action is fairly simple and the characters generally pretty accessible but there’s magic, a monster, a spirit, multiple apparitions and a big on-stage storm. A big budget, a brilliant directorial brain or, ideally, both is required to pull it off without things looking […]
The New York Yankees have been a thorn in the side for the Toronto Blue Jay’s for quite some time. This past weekend the Jay’s overcame the drought with a 2-1 series. While just a mid season game, the team had even more cause to celebrate the hard-earned win. August 29, 2012 marked the start […]
StageWorks Toronto is an incredibly ambitious company, especially when you consider that they’re really a community theatre organization (mixing new theatre grads with part-time performers, I’m pretty sure all un-paid). Year after year they choose an interesting, contemporary and thematically challenging musical and mount a full-scale production, never shying away from a hard vocal score. […]
No Chance in Hell (A) Did I see all the Fringe musicals this year? I at the very least came very close to seeing all the Fringe musicals this year and, at least of the ones I saw (which I think was all of them), No Chance in Hell is far and away the best. […]
I Think Therefore I’m Graham (A) Like most shows in the Tarragon Solo Room, Graham Clark’s Fringe show is essentially stand-up comedy and, like most shows in the Tarragon Solo Room, it lives or dies by the charm and wit of the lone performer. Luckily for I Think Therefore I’m Graham, Graham Clark is among […]
The Legend of White Woman Creek (B+) This show should cut its framing device. At the heart of Katie Hartman & Nick Ryan’s no-frills musical drama is a stirring story about love and hate in the burgeoning American west. Alone on stage with just her guitar and her atmospheric and strong (though sometimes a little […]
Redheaded Stepchild (A+) It’s the queer I, Claudia; an earnest story of a 12-year-old boy’s navigation of his parents divorce, his six grade bully, his ‘different’ sexual and scholastic leanings, and, of course, his red hair. Redheaded Stepchild is a one-man show written and performed by Johnnie Walker. In it, Walker plays a young boy, […]