Lungs filled with doom in dark comedy
The Shadow Theatre production of Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs was supposed to open on March 13. But then the production blew up, losing its Montreal-based director and two local stars. When we finally got to see the show on Friday March 22, the directing credit was split between the assistant director Emma Houghton and Shadow Artistic […]
MATILDA: It’s the adults that are revolting in delightful Citadel musical
What a joyful, merry, nasty, chaotic and thoroughly enjoyable romp is this adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical, currently settling in for three more weeks at the Citadel Theatre. The much-awarded winning musical is still playing in London’s West End. It was a big hit on Broadway, and it was there that Citadel artistic […]
REVIEW: Arizona road trip shows depth and heart
Think of Mesa, the new production from the Varscona Theatre Ensemble, as a road show. In fact, it is much like the current movie hit Green Book, where two widely different characters find themselves stuck together on a long auto journey. These characters learn a great deal about each other – and about themselves. At […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Mother Mother thrills, challenges Edmonton in sold out show
There’s no logical reason why Mother Mother should prosper in a cookie-cutter music industry bent on presenting the Next Best Thing, only to dupe listeners with yet another derivative result of generic engineering. But then, this Vancouver quintet has been clogging the cogs of the starmaker machinery for the last 15 years with an eclectic […]
WHO NAMED THE BAND: King of Foxes fierce and fragile
Olivia Street decided to come up with a band name rather than use her own as a way to “protect the art” – and also to avoid the stigma of the singer-songwriter. It’s there. Sorry about that. King of Foxes is a good band name. It works on many levels. “Fox” is slang for a […]
REVIEW: Here she comes! Miss Teen a magical family comedy
Vancouver playwright Michele Riml is best known for her Sexy Laundry, a spirited comedy in which a middle-aged couple check into a posh hotel to rejuvenate their flagging 25 year marriage. A while back, the play was given a very funny mounting by director John Hudson for Shadow Theatre. This week at the Varscona Theatre […]
REVIEW: Blue collar drama a play for our times at the Citadel
With her Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat, playwright Lynn Nottage has created a gritty work that dramatically captures the tensions and pervasive feelings of anger and despair that have gripped middle America. This is a play for our times – an insightful work based on the lives of real people – putting a human face on […]
REVIEW: Tenacious D gets a C minus in Edmonton
As a rock star, Jack Black makes a pretty good actor – and that’s exactly what he’s doing in his band Tenacious D. He’s pretending to be a rock star. He’s as believable on a concert stage as he is in his movies, which are all exactly the same: Rollicking wholesome family blockbusters where the […]
REVIEW: Ed the Sock getting game back
Yes, Children of the ‘80s, it’s true – we’re old. But if we are at all like Ed the Sock was on Wednesday night at Union Hall, maybe, just maybe, we are still relevant – not to mention all these years later able to appreciate good, honest comedy. As part of Ed’s current “War on […]
Office comedy sparkles with gung-ho MacEwan cast
9 to 5 was not a great movie when it was released in 1980 – but it tapped into slumbering feminist passions that were just stirring at the time. It also featured terrific performances from three powerhouse stars, Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin. It was a big hit. The inevitable Broadway musical followed […]
REVIEW: On the Verge lost in the underbrush
In the 1800s, heroic (male) explorers set out from Mother England to tame and colonize the unruly dark lands beyond the British border. What history failed to note was that Mary Baltimore, Fanny Cranberry and Alex Cafuffle decked out in proper Victorian long dresses, pith helmets and brollies, and as intrepid as any male explorers, […]
Hannah Moscovitch birth control drama a wrenching reality show
The title of What a Young Wife Ought to Know may read like one of those bogus pseudo-righteous early 20th Century self-help pamphlets given to prospective brides. In the hands of playwright Hannah Moscovitch, the latest Theatre Network play is anything but a tract against “unnatural means” (read: birth control) to prevent having babies. It […]
