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, […]
FALLEN ANGELS: Varscona Farceurs Scandalize Citizenry with Lascivious Hijinks
Back in the Spring of 1925, that young theatrical turk Noel Coward was at it again. He wrote four plays that year – but the one that had the bluestocking brigade most up in arms was Fallen Angels. It featured two young wives, typical Coward creations, pampered, pretty and flighty, admitting to premarital sex – […]
Take off, eh – to the Mayfield’s best, most Canadian jukebox musical!
Be prepared for a warm bath in nostalgia – and Canadian nostalgia at that. The Mayfield Dinner Theatre has achieved notable success with its jukebox musicals – at least judging from its unending Niagara of tribute shows. Over the years they have mounted British Invasions, various appreciations of Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, pop […]
Carole King musical a thrilling spectacle of sheer talent
Beautiful is a jukebox musical unlike any you have ever seen – and from Buddy to Mamma Mia you’ve probably seen a lot of them. The show opened in San Francisco in 2013 and proved to be such an immediate success that it was transferred, almost whole, to Broadway a year later. The much-praised Carole […]
Foote in the Door tackles con game musical with mixed results
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a thoroughly delightful film released in 1988, starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine. It was a throwback to the Hollywood of the ‘30s and ‘40s with goofy but marvelous performances and a clever plot. In short, it was a property just calling out to be a musical. The result was a […]
TONIGHT, I HUNT: Myth and reality fuse in powerful Redpatch
Early in World War 1, the British High Command had difficulties in distinguishing the Canucks (considered inferior) from the Brits in the ranks. So, at the Battle of The Somme, a single red patch was attached to the Canadians’ uniforms. Some of those soldiers were First Nation and Metis. In fact, some 4,000 volunteered to […]
The Bone House will scare you out of your skin
In the dying days of Vaudeville, I attended a traveling production that scared the living daylights out of me – it lingers even now some 70 years later. A virtuoso storyteller told us of the terrors of the night that inhabit our world. As he talked, we realized that they were drawing near. Suddenly, the […]
The Comedy Company balances hilarity with horror
Neil Grahn is a very funny fellow. We first realized that when, with three other jovial people calling themselves Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, Grahn helped solidify the Fringe in its very earliest days. Grahn has been around making us laugh in various ways ever since. (Full disclosure: We worked on a number of […]
Blood: a Scientific Romance marred by gothic melodrama
The Maggie Tree is a small feisty local company that dedicates itself to theatrical projects initiated by women. Under that rubric they have given us a series of well-produced plays that have spoken to a wide audience of theatre-goers. Perhaps the best known was Nancy McAlear’s disquieting mounting of Belinda Cornish’s anti-animal testing Category E […]
Origin of the Species shows it’s time for women to take over
The first thing you notice on entering the intimate Northern Light Theatre space is Trevor Schmidt’s remarkable set. It’s an eccentric collection – all sorts of objects, gadgets, small sculptures, bottles, knick-knacks, doodads and doohickeys. And clocks. Many clocks. At the Arts Barns’ Studio Theatre until Oct. 27, it’s a fitting setting for a play […]
BREAKING VLAD: Lenin’s Embalmers a dark riot
The story of ancient Egypt’s effort to preserve the earthy remains of their citizens is well known – through endless television documentaries, learned books and “B” grade Universal Studio horrors. But the 2600 B.C. Egyptian necromancers are pikers compared to the Soviets. That revered father of the revolution, Vladimir Lenin, who died in 1924, lies […]
