Johnny Rotten comes to Edmonton in Jesus Christ Superstar
So you are the Christ, you’re the great Jesus Christ. Prove to me that you’re divine, change my water into wine … and God save the queen’s fascist regime! Is that how it goes? How’s this for a masterpiece of casting: Johnny Rotten, aka John Lydon, will be playing the role of King Herod in […]
Madama Butterfly goes Back to the Future
A team from Edmonton Opera saw a time-travelling version of Madama Butterfly in England and liked it so much they decided to stage it in Edmonton for the company’s 50th anniversary. It opens Saturday, April 5 at the Jubilee Auditorium (also running April 8 and 10). That’s right, there’s a time machine. Time machines weren’t […]
SkirtsAfire to burn glass ceiling
Whatever you think of grouping artists by gender first and by their art second, consider the all-female SkirtsAfire “herArts” festival – playing March 6-9 at venues around Alberta Avenue – as “theatrical affirmative action.” The stats on theatrical sexual equality in Canada are “grim,” says festival director Annette Loiselle, citing a 2008 study done by […]
Young Frankenstein the Musical a no brainer
Can anything be made into a musical? The short answer is yes. The more difficult question is why. You don’t have to dig far to see that musical theatre has wormed its way into all orifices of popular culture. When rock stars and the guys from South Park and Family Guy and Disney start getting […]
Young Drunk Punk has Edmonton roots
Before Bruce McCulloch became a dad who wears pyjamas in the daytime and lives in the Hollywood Hills, before he became a comedy star in Kids in the Hall, he was a young drunk punk in Edmonton. There’s the perfect title of the one-man show he’s bringing to the Arden Theatre on Jan. 27: Young […]
The Book of Mormon comes to Edmonton
The Book of Mormon – the musical – is coming to Edmonton, but fans of the popular Broadway show written and produced by the creators of South Park will have to wait more than year to see it. Part of Broadway Across Canada’s next touring season announced this week, the Book of Mormon will play […]
THEATRE: A joyful surprise that shouldn’t be a surprise
Developmentally disabled people are usually defined by what they can’t do – so it sure is nice when someone comes along who focuses on what they CAN do. Turns out they can act. They put on a show. They can be entertainers. That’s the word from veteran local theatre impresario Gerry Potter, artistic producer of […]
THEATRE: Director takes risks in Northern Light opener
“Steampunk” is a forbidden word in the presence of local theatre director Trevor Schmidt – he calls it the “S-word” – but when you’re presenting a play set in the late 1800s that may involve a time machine, even a dedicated contrarian can’t avoid it. Bitches & Money 1878, a tale dealing with Victorian criminals […]
DANCE: From Metallica to Brian Webb and Beethoven
You don’t often see “metal chicks” in the world of contemporary dance – or vice versa – at least not until the very real possibility that bands like Metallica will get a house gig in Las Vegas. Oh, it’s going to happen, you wait. And they need dancers for these things. Nancy Sandercock, who appears […]
War Horse a masterful display of equine puppetry
The fake horse was so real that even the real horses were fooled. They wouldn’t get near the thing. And these were trained military steeds from the Strathcona Mounted Troop, no less, a bit freaked out during Tuesday’s photo op for “War Horse,” leading to the play’s run through Sept. 22 at the Jubilee Auditorium. […]
SOAP-A-THON: Inside the Improvisers Studio
When Die-Nasty workshop leader Patti Stiles asked if there was anybody who had never improvised, I was the only one who raised my hand. Everyone else applauded! Some 30 actors, many of them professional, gathered on the Varscona Theatre stage Tuesday night for the first of two preparatory “workshops” leading into this weekend’s 21st annual […]
Kaleido balloons into major Edmonton festival
If you were driving down 118th Avenue on Monday afternoon, you might have spotted clowns, mimes and tin foil robots, a Renaissance flautist in full regalia, along with Ukrainian dancers and Cuban dancers and belly dancers and ballet dancers and God knows what else. It could be only one thing, of course: The annual media […]
