Mike was that kid who walked into the high school stage crew booth, saw the lighting board, and went ooooooooooooh. Now that he’s (mostly) all grown up, Mike keeps his foot in the door as a community-theatre producer, stage manager and administrator. In the audience, he’s a tremendous sucker for satire and parody, for improvisational and sketch-driven comedy, for farce and pantomime, and for cabaret of all types. His happiest Toronto theatrical memory is (re) Birth: E. E. Cummings in Song.
Toronto’s Lower Ossington Theatre brings Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic Evita to the stage
Evita (playing the Lower Ossington Theatre) has always wobbled slightly. From the very beginning, opponents have criticized it for misrepresenting the life of its subject, presenting her as an aggressive — and heavily corrupt — political operator: an opportunist, an embezzler, an apologist for fascism, and a woman who relied upon “the parts in between her thighs” to make her way in life, all of which have been brought into question by subsequent research. After she’d left the show, having scored her first Tony award, Patti LuPone dished that playing Evita was “the worst experience of my life […] a part that could only have been written by a man who hates women”.
The LOT does not embrace these criticisms: their production is straight and faithful, with very few moments of ambiguity or self-reflection. And while the show’s fun to watch — the songs include some of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s best — the way that director Heather Braaten approached the story reminded me of a student reading a book report of a novel he didn’t particularly enjoy. The plot points are mentioned; the songs are in the right places; but this felt like a recitation, rather than a retelling from someone who’d actually engaged with the material.
Toronto’s Hart House Theatre tackles Oscar Wilde’s comedy of manners The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde’s best-known comedy of manners — “a serious comedy for trivial people”, or is it the other way ’round? — roasts Victorian manners and stuffiness, with a series of twists and convolutions which will tickle even a post-Seinfeld audience. Several of the roles are veritable gifts to actors, and while some of the language has begun to creak, many of Wilde’s observations have become even more trenchant over time. Earnest is exactly the kind of show that Hart House does extremely well, but while the text still sparkles and gleams, I found this production to be more mixed.
No folding chairs; no patio furniture. (An exception may be made if your show is literally on a patio.)
If the show runs longer than 90 minutes, it must have an intermission.
If the show runs longer than 120 minutes, try for two. (And add an intermission for each additional 45 minutes.)
If the show runs longer than 180 minutes, it better be the best thing anyone’s put on a stage since Olivier did Hamlet.
If you’re holding the curtain longer than 5 minutes, tell the audience and give us an estimate of when we’ll kick off. (A vague message about “technical difficulties” is just fine.) Don’t make us sit there wondering whether someone’s died.
Always end your show before 1 AM. (If only so people can catch the subway home.)
Warn your audience in advance — about everything. Warn us about gunshots; wheelchair inaccessibility; audience participation; lack of parking near the venue; strobe lights; graphic sexuality; cigarette smoke; “splash zones”; anything; everything.
These warnings should be on your website, on your social media presence, on a poster outside your venue, and anywhere else it makes sense to include them. It should be impossible to buy a ticket in a state of obliviousness.
Functional, sanitary, well-maintained and accessible washrooms, inside the venue. Don’t make us cross the street to Starbucks.
The venue will have some indication that it is a venue; at least tape a poster to the front window. Don’t make us tug on anonymous doors hoping we’ve found the right place.
Unless it’s opening night, closing night or a fundraiser, curtain speeches are to be capped at 2 minutes; aim for 90 seconds. If the speaker hits 3 minutes, just start the show and play him off-stage.
Latecomers will be seated in sensibly-located aisle-facing house seats near the doors, not wedged into the middles of rows.
Lower Ossington’s Hair is an “Outstanding Tribute”
Hair may be the best artifact we have of the late 1960s: other shows sing love letters to the period, but few of them capture the feeling of being inside the hippy movement at this unique moment in our history, when a generation’s blistering anger and outrage suddenly gave way to an outpouring of optimism, love and understanding. The Lower Ossington Theatre’s production (which plays off-site at the Randolph Theatre) takes that task seriously: they aren’t just delivering a good time, they represent and embody one of the most important and radical social movements our culture has ever produced — something never seen before or since.
Cirque du Soleil opens their new steampunk-inspired show Kurios – Cabinet of Curiosities in Toronto
Arriving at Kurios – Cabinet of Curiosities (staged at the Toronto Port Lands) is like walking into a block party. A local ska band is blasting Pharrell out of a sousaphone; stilt-walkers and guests in improbable hats pose for photographs; children rush about, full of energy and excitement; and the enormous blue and yellow tent — one of Cirque du Soleil’s trademark Grand Chapiteaux — looms above it all.
The action inside the tent is typical Cirque: acrobatics, clowning, balancing, aerialism and contortion, all of the highest quality. But this show still felt like something bigger and better than usual — even our Managing Editor Wayne Leung, who has seen nearly 30 Cirque shows, came away with a sense that this is an exceptional show.
