PLAYBILL: Shumka keeps it real
The Ukrainian Shumka Dancers have turned down an offer to participate in an all-Shumka parody of West Side Story to tell the tale of Edmonton’s two sides – North Side Story. We were told Shumka’s core subscribers probably wouldn’t go for it (based on a comic by Chad Huculak). Just as well. Keep it real. […]
PLAYBILL: Robin Hood flower
In a world premiere mix-up of the classic tale, Robin Hood is a woman, the story is by the acclaimed Edmonton playwright Mieko Ouchi, there’s music by the great Canadian songsmith Hawksley Workman, and the performers are doing aerial acrobatics. Also, Citadel Theatre artistic director Daryl Cloran is directing the show himself. It’s hard to […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: From one Sloan to another
Here’s a tonsorial shocker: One of the guys in Sloan – Patrick Pentland – has gone full-on Greg Keelor. The guitarist’s suddenly hairy visage contrasts sharply with the rest of the guys (Chris Murphy, Jay Ferguson and Andrew Scott), and with the image of the freshly-scrubbed college pop-sters they used to be when they released […]
PLAYBILL: Can’t go wrong with Elvis
One of the things the Mayfield Dinner Theatre does very well is the dependable “jukebox musical.” This is due mainly to artistic director Van Wilmott – a hardcore music and gear geek, songwriter, performer, arranger and producer who’s been active in Edmonton’s music scene for at least 40 years, many of them working hard at […]
WHO NAMED THE BAND: Scenic Route to Alaska beautiful and mysterious
With their abundant talent, deep Alberta roots, strong work ethic and a career on the rise, Scenic Route to Alaska is the perfect subject for Who Named the Band – an ongoing series of essays in which much more than just the unusual or ridiculous band name is examined. Scenic Route to Alaska plays the […]
PLAYBILL: Women rule Edmonton theatre
The only thing that’s missing from the new interactive murder mystery at the Citadel Theatre is the murder. Spoiler: It’s not a real murder. Also missing is any notion that the improvisational crime thriller Undercover (A Spontaneous Theatre Creation) is going to be your usual audience-interactive murder mystery – because in the hands of the […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Geoff Berner stays on message
Rachel Notley is on the record for being a “huge” fan of Geoff Berner. “I love his sense of humour, his angles on issues, he’s very cutting, he’s very witty,” the Premier of Alberta told GigCity in 2016. And Geoff Berner – the klezmer-loving accordion-squeezing political folksinger from B.C. – is on the record for […]
PLAYBILL: A new kind of high school drama
If you consider the arts a bellwether for society’s cultural disruptions, it makes perfect sense we’re lately seeing more stories about transgendered people. It is not a coincidence. It’s not an epidemic. What was hidden is now being explored. Times are changing, acceptance is the way forward, and the best method to combat ignorance and […]
PLAYBILL: A real Cinderella story
There must be something compelling about the Cinderella story that it keeps being told again and again and in so many ways – more than 2,000 years after it was written. Following the first example of a tale of a slave girl who marries an Egyptian prince through a series of improbable events, Alberta Ballet […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: The Heat is on!
There was a seminal moment in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll, in some garage somewhere, where rockabilly musicians decided to play punk rock – or maybe it was the other way around. There may have been a fist fight. Hey, what if I used this upright bass to play Black Flag songs? How dare […]
PLAYBILL: Northern Light shines on Catholic sexual politics
The only girl in a Catholic family longs to be an “altar boy” in the latest offering from Northern Light Theatre – the second of three plays this season exploring the sexual identities of women set against Christian culture. The last one was heavy: The Testament of Mary, wherein long after the events that took […]
REVIEW: Santana parties like it’s 1969
It’s been 50 years, or close enough for rock ‘n’ roll, since Carlos Santana played Woodstock – and you get the feeling it’s just been one long glorious guitar solo ever since. This 70-year-old Latin-rock legend still likes to have fun. It sure looked like Santana and his stellar band were having a blast at […]
