I was honored and blessed to review a senior project a few weekends ago at Brandeis University. tick, tick . . . BOOM! is not an uncommon choice for a senior theatre project or thesis; Jackie Theoharis makes her senior project uncommon by focusing on the character Susan in unique and interesting ways. Aided by […]
Season Ranking: #4 When Globe & Mail critic J. Kelly Nestruck reviewed The Shaw Festival’s current production of W. Somerset Maugham’s 1915 comedy Our Betters, he somewhat dismissively declared it outdated and a negative representation of women. This led to a mild hullabaloo as its big name director Morris Panych took the comment too harshly, […]
I didn’t know what to expect when I agreed to review Bridge Repertory Theater of Boston’s The Libertine. I rarely review new companies, after making that mistake much earlier in my reviewing career; now, I wait until they have established themselves for a season or at least I know a few reputable actors. Here, I […]
In live theatre, you know that anything can happen – props don’t work, actors skip a couple of lines, or segue into ad libs. It is what makes it exciting and fresh. When the live theatre is outdoors, the elements of chance are higher, from planes overhead drowning out lines to picnicking (drunken) audience members […]
Bad Habit Productions has proven to produce some of My Theatre staff’s favorites (Arcadia and Much Ado . . . With a Twist just to name a few). They are known for their willingness to take chances and succeed. Rooms: A Rock Romance fell a little flat for me, and I am still struggling to […]
Some of the best reviews are the hardest to write. When the lights rose after the curtain call of Reagle Music Theatre’s Les Misérables, I didn’t know whether to clap or cry. Disclaimer: Despite a few attempts to see this show in the last five or six years, I have avoided it because of a […]
Season Ranking: #1 Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is a genius text written by a genius about geniuses. It gets better every single time I read or see it and The Shaw Festival’s 2013 production easily continued that trend. The play is complicated and rewarding but also fun and diverting. It’s filled with scholarly concepts the full […]
Onwards and upwards I go along the string of shows I encountered at this year’s SummerWorks theatre festival in Toronto. I’m now in the middle section of my crescendo of impressions on the seven different shows I witnessed. I certainly didn’t soft-pedal my thoughts about the plays that impressed the least, as featured in Part […]