With Christmas coming soon, the pickings are sparse this week on Toronto’s stages. Our editor Samantha is here to choose her most anticipated shows (in red). Check them out below the cut:
Continue reading Playlistings in Toronto for the week of December 18th
Mirvish brings all-ages magic show to the Toronto stageWith all the marketing around The Illusionists as a great show for the whole family, I was pleased but not surprised to see lots of kids hopping eagerly up the stairs with their grownups at the Princess of Wales Theatre on Friday evening. My seven-year-old companion was similarly irrepressible with anticipation for all the excitement that awaited, which – – mostly — delivered on its promise.
Continue reading Review: The Illusionists (Mirvish) Kid +1 Review
Take a road trip across Canada in this new play, now on stage in TorontoOn Saturday, I saw The Tale of a Town – Canada at Theatre Passe Muraille. It was a relaxed performance, the first one I’ve been to. More about that later.
In 2014, husband and wife team Lisa Marie DiLiberto and Charles Ketchabaw set off on a series of road trips with their Storymobile (a portable recording studio) to visit all 10 provinces and three territories. Along the way, they interviewed around 3000 people about their towns and their memories. The Tale of a Town – Canada is the result. Continue reading Review – The Tale of a Town – Canada (FIXT POINT)
Enchanting Peter Pan musical takes flight over the Toronto stageFly out of the nursery and into an exciting world of adventure in Soulpepper’s current production: an adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s famous 1904 play, Peter Pan. The Dora award-winning production premiered by Bad Hats Theatre in 2015 was adapted by cast members Fiona Sauder (Peter Pan) and Reanne Sptizer (Mrs. Darling/Tinkerbell). The script appeared to be relatively faithful to the 1904 text, with the notable exclusion of Peter Pan’s adventures with “Indian” princess Tiger Lily. The music by cast member Landon Doak is fresh and new. I took my five-year-old son and we were both delighted by the songs and dances. Continue reading Review: Peter Pan (Soulpepper/Bad Hats Theatre)
Million Dollar Quartet brings musical legends together, now playing on the Toronto stageDrayton Entertainment’s production of Million Dollar Quartet at the newly-renamed CAA Theatre is a fictionalized jukebox musical about a real once-in-a-lifetime jam session. On December 4, 1956, four men gathered in a room in a meeting that would never be replicated. The recording studio at Sam Phillips’ Sun Records was largely responsible for the birth of rock and roll, and the independent shop still had the sound bigger record companies wanted to emulate (or steal) at all costs. Past, present, and future Sun Records stars Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis would play there together for the first and last time.
More of a concert with a whisper-thin plot than even a jukebox musical, Million Dollar Quartet knows and embraces what it is: an easy and assured crowd-pleaser squarely aimed at the demographic that can at least vaguely remember 1956 (or the decade thereafter). If you like the music, you will have a good time. If you don’t, why are you there in the first place?
Continue reading Review: Million Dollar Quartet (Drayton Entertainment)