By Michelle Barker

It’s a show about what happens before the show can happen.  17 dancers stand on a white line downstage and wait anxiously to be told whether or not they’ve made the cut.

I’m going to be honest, I went into the Lower Ossington Theatre tonight without ever having seen A Chorus Line and expecting to hate it.  I don’t love musical theatre.  I’ve noted it before and I’ll probably note it again… it’s not my thing.  And the way my roommate, Rodney (a dancer himself), described the show, I thought I would be forced to hide eye rolls for the duration of its two-hour running time. Continue reading Review: A Chorus Line (Toronto Youth Theatre) →

By Wayne Leung

Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Company premiered its newest production, The Fantasticks, on Valentine’s Day.

If you were asked to guess what the longest-running show in American history was you’d likely go with a safe bet like Cats, A Chorus Line, The Phantom of The Opera, Les Misérables or some other similar big-production musical.

In fact, with an uninterrupted Off-Broadway run of 17,162 performances across 42 years, the distinction belongs to a simple yet charming little musical, The Fantasticks. It’s not hard to see why Soulpepper chose to open their 2011 Family Series with a new production of this winsome show.

Continue reading Review: The Fantasticks (Soulpepper) →

By Dorianne Emmerton

Theatre Brouhaha has an admirable mandate: to “combine the primacy of story with the rapid pace of the Information Age to create relevant theatre for the next generation of theatre audiences.”

I love work that is set in the contemporary world and where the content fully engages with the technology at our disposal, particularly the internet. The internet changed the world, it changed business and romance and socializing and marketing. There’s a wealth of issues to be explored so why are so many plays set in the past, or in a present that contrives to ignore the massive effect the internet has on our lives? Continue reading Review: LoveSexMoney (Theatre Brouhaha) →

By Sam Mooney

Wonderful, whimsical, warm-hearted, wacky, wayward, wry… Floating – now playing as part of World Stage at Harbourfront – is all of that and more.  Hugh Hughes and Sioned Rowlands have created a joyful 90 minutes of theatre.

Floating tells the story of the time that the Welsh island of Anglesy broke away from the bridge connecting it to the mainland and went floating around the Atlantic. The story really doesn’t matter, it’s an excuse for Hugh and Sioned to present the most low-tech multimedia show I’ve ever seen.  Other than a couple of PowerPoint slides the whole thing could have been done in the ’50s.

Floating is funny – I giggled, chortled, tittered and guffawed my way through the show.  Some of the humour is gentle, almost kind, some of it has an edge buried deep, and some of it is just weird.

Continue reading Review: Floating (Hoipolloi and World Stage) →

By Crystal Wood

Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show, playing at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, offers a great chance for Torontonians to see what life is like for Canadians in other parts of the country.

The show brings attention to a timely environmental issue too.  It’s hard to open a newspaper (or click on a news site, I guess) without hearing about the Alberta Oil Sands, but I’ll admit to not really thinking much about the people who call that region home.  When we sat down in our seats, my friend Sarah and I both thought that we would be in for a heavy-handed political play.  Instead, what we got was a fast-paced, humourous piece of theatre that talks about a heavy issue in a light and accessible fashion. Continue reading Review: Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show (Architect Theatre) →