Category Archives: Dance, theatre & musicals

If you build it will they come…?

Tonight I saw the opening of Guild Festival Theatre, an ambitious company taking the stage in The Greek Theatre in Guildwood Park. This is the former site of the Guild Inn,  in Guildwood Village.  There really was a “guild” at … Continue reading

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Codex Nocturno

I suspect this is going to be a long review, so for those of you who need the executive summary up front, yes I liked it.  Go see Codex Nocturno!!   I will make an effort to see it again before … Continue reading

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Lion Taymor

I knew I was going to use a punny headline of some sort, this was perhaps the least offensive among my options.  I saw The Lion King tonight, admittedly years after its opening, and awhile after its first appearance in … Continue reading

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Woody & Frankie’s Bullet for Adolf

There came a moment when I discovered just how sincere and authentic Woody Harrelson & Frankie Hyman are about their new play Bullet for Adolf. Tonight was the first preview in Toronto at Hart House Theatre, and afterwards they held … Continue reading

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David Greig’s Cosmonaut

Chances are that when a play has a fifteen word title, neither the work nor its review will be short.  David Greig’s The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union has been given … Continue reading

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Crimp’s Treatment

Who is Martin Crimp and where has he been hiding all these years?  Maybe as you read this, you’re thinking “he’s not new to ME”.  Congratulations if you’re able to say that I just saw my first Crimp play tonight, … Continue reading

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Neither dirty nor rotten

I saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels last night.  No, not the Steve Martin/Michael Caine film, but the musical, presented at Hart House Theatre. Let me say first off that I love adaptations.  Whenever I hear someone complain that the original was … Continue reading

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Assassins and history

Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins is a musical with history.  The play happens in an abstract space where characters from different centuries meet one another, converse, sing and dance together.  At first glance it resembles a review, a series of numbers where … Continue reading

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Studies in Motion decidedly Electric

The presentation of Electric Company Theatre’s Studies in Motion is superficially important as part of the reinvention of the Canadian Stage brand in Toronto.  I’m grateful to CanStage for giving us another look at one of the important companies working … Continue reading

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Mamma Mia! from Glee Across the Universe to Rock of Ages

That was not an attempt to jam as many titles into one sentence as possible.  Okay, maybe I was playing a bit but that’s not all I was attempting… I am sitting watching Glee as I write this.  When the … Continue reading

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