Class of ’63 chews up groovy bubblegum at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre
The first sprig of Christmas greenery to appear this year is courtesy of the Mayfield Dinner Theatre. For many years now, it has been their seasonal tradition to unleash another of their large-scale, lavishly-produced musical extravaganzas that have proven to be great crowd pleasers – and to generate lots of Christmas cheer at the box […]
REVIEW: The Beast is BACK!
The current production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast comes from our spunky local musical theatre production company, Foote in the Door. The troupe began when a group of graduates of the Citadel’s Foote Theatre School, having tasted the magical waters of musical theatre, decided to found a platform for their continuing obsession. Earlier productions […]
Formula for a brilliant Citadel hit: 6 wives of Henry VIII, + Spice Girls + #MeToo
The spirited new musical SIX has catapulted onto the mainstage of the Citadel, pausing here on its way to an official opening next year on Broadway (where the theatre is already booked). SIX began its life in the midst of a poetry class at Cambridge in 2017. Toby Marlow had just been awarded a spot […]
REVIEW: Workshop West drama exposes dark underbelly of Edmonton
Back in 1978, Workshop West was just a gleam in Gerry Potter’s eye. He founded the company to give Alberta playwrights a shot at seeing their works actually produced on a stage. Since then, many plays have graced its various stages. In 2014, playwright Vern Thiessen returned from New York, changed the name of the […]
REVIEW: The Odd Couple meets Breaking Bad in Shadow Theatre production
The Roommate at first glance plays like a re-imagining of The Odd Couple – but it’s much more than that. Jen Silverman’s new comedy-drama, which comes to Edmonton for a Shadow Theatre show after a successful run at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, strikes off in its own subversive directions. It plays at the Varscona Theatre until […]
REVIEW: E-Day a frenzied political comedy – just in time for the real election!
In the political circus to the South and the attendant carnival in Canada, Edmonton’s adventurous independent company The Serial Collective has chosen to look backward at a time of political ferment in Alberta. E-Day is a comedy based on playwright Jason Chinn’s time as a volunteer with the NDP during those heady days of their […]
REVIEW: Baroness Bianka’s Bloodsongs a Delightfully Grisly Comedy
One always approaches Northern Light Theatre Artistic Director Trevor Schmidt’s new seasons with a sense of wonder. Where does he find these plays? He must spend a lot of time scouring dusty scripts from all over the world because he inevitably finds hidden treasures and spins them into theatrical gold. Perhaps it’s not the plays […]
REVIEW: Richard III feels like Trump I
If ever a play was written for our times it is Shakespeare’s Richard III – even if it was penned in 1593. Now is a time when global politics seems to be sliding deeper into cynicism and gaslighting. “Don’t believe what you’re seeing and hearing – just believe ME!” This production is another in a […]
REVIEW: Silent Sky Showcases Struggles of the Sisters of Science
They even have a name for it. It’s called the “Matilda Effect” – coined in 2013 in a report stating that scientific research papers by men were regarded as stronger than those by women. The long, sad story of women in science who were ignored, had their findings stolen by others (physicist Lise Meitner) or […]
REVIEW: The Color Purple gets superb treatment it deserves at the Citadel
When I first saw the Broadway production of The Color Purple adapted from Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning best seller, I was unimpressed. As is often the way with Broadway, when they get their hands on an intimate story they produce the living daylights out of it. Walker’s tale is certainly a decade-spanning epic but […]
REVIEW: Boatload of blarney, great music in new Newfoundland musical
With the astounding success of Come From Away – a musical about Newfoundlanders who took care of stranded travelers after 9-11 – it was just a question of time before another Newfoundland musical should heave into sight. The new work, with its sights set on Broadway (say the producers), has settled in for a four […]
REVIEW: Million Dollar Quartet a superb show from the supergroup that never was
On December 4, 1956, four great rockabilly artists met in Sam Phillips’ primitive Sun Recording Studios in Memphis. Two of the four, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, were there laying down a recording under Phillips’ direction. Johnny Cash dropped in, as did Elvis, who by that time was becoming one of the top acts […]
