REVIEW: Kinky Boots a really good shoe
Back in 1983, a punk princess in goofy makeup, bargain basement wardrobe and disordered hairdo told the world that Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. The world listened. Cyndi Lauper’s music and fizzy personality was bright, happy and upbeat. She became the queen of the newly emerging MTV, went on to reign in every nook of […]
PLAYBILL: Fashionable Cinderella
Let’s face it: Most Cinderella stories do a bad job when it comes to the clothes. It’s usually set in medieval times, first of all, when muddy rags were all the rage. And trained magic birds can only do so much: Sewing her frumpy, froofy, glittery, totally unsexy gown in story after story. The pretty […]
INTERVIEW: Blue Rodeo careful with politics
Blue Rodeo might be too close to themselves to understand how interesting it is that they didn’t include their one-off protest song Stealin’ All Our Dreams on their new album, 1000 Arms. Maybe it’s a hidden secret bonus track? “It is?!” exclaims singer Jim Cuddy in a recent interview. No … what? It is? “No.” […]
PLAYBILL: Bang Stomp Bang
Shif-shif-shif-shif, ca-klap, baDOOM, a-boom, a-boom, a-boom, shif-shif, baDOOM! CLANG CLANG CLANG, baDOOM, ka-shif-shif-shif … ZZk ZZk ZZk ZZk, CLANG! baDOOM, crash, ow! Look out! Aieeeee! Been there, dented that – and still this Cirque du Percussionista show continues to merrily bang along. For those who haven’t seen the Robot Chicken sketch, Stomp! is 90-minutes of […]
WEEKLY PLAYBILL: ABBA cadabra!
November is a huge month for live theatre in Edmonton – almost a dozen openings, at last rough count. At the top of the list of the songs you can’t get out of your head this week is Mamma Mia, at the Jubilee Auditorium for five shows Nov. 11-13. Short run, big bang. What’s this […]
Turandot is one messed up love story
Puccini’s Turandot is a maddening, brilliant mess that goes against every shred of decency, logic and common sense – but that’s opera for you. It was a crazy old story seen at Edmonton Opera’s spectacular season opener Saturday night: A strong-willed princess whose best friend was murdered by a man takes revenge against an entire […]
Book of Mormon rings doorbell of your heart
They’re back – ringing doorbells and promoting The Word according to Joseph Smith. A pair of mismatched Mormon missionaries donned the official uniform of white shirt and black tie on Broadway five years ago in Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez’s smash hit musical The Book of Mormon. Parker and Stone are famous for […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Sonic Boom blows up genres
It’s really very simple: If you like listening to the alternative rock radio station Sonic 102.9, you’re going to love Sonic Boom. This last festival of summer is like listening to Sonic minus the commercials – plus being at the mercy of the elements, food that’s bad for you, there’s line-ups for everything, and you […]
Chris Cornell unplugs grunge at the Jube
It’s official: Generation X has entered middle age. No better proof could be found than the fact that one of its rock ‘n’ roll heroes was playing the Jubilee Auditorium on Saturday night. The Jube! Where Engelbert Humperdinck played. It turned out to be the perfect venue for Chris Cornell, the 52-year-old former frontman of […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Festival GO
There are sure to be plenty of Rattatas, Magikarps, Diglets, Zubats, Pidgeys, Jigglypuffs, and various Lickitungs lurking between Pokestops and Battle Gyms at Edmonton attractions this weekend. They’re everywhere, these Pokemon. Who knew? The best part of Pokemon Go isn’t the game itself – a long walk for a scavenger hunt – but the distractions […]
NEWSIES: Weak story, amazing dance
NEWSIES has certainly had a checkered career. It began its life as a Disney live action film in 1992 and immediately laid an egg, ranking as one of the lowest grossing films ever released by the company. But in its eternal attempts to mine its film canon after the astonishing stage success of Beauty and […]
Meat Loaf recovers from stage collapse in Edmonton
The audience thought it was part of the act – a theatrical rock legend laying on his back to perform his big encore – but it soon became horribly real. Meat Loaf had collapsed on stage at the Jubilee Auditorium Thursday night. UPDATE: He’s going to be OK. A statement released Friday morning said the […]
