Canadian Stage presents the premiere of Red Sky Performance’s new dance piece in Toronto

I only became aware of Red Sky Performance about a year ago when I saw them perform with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I became an instant fan not only because of the company’s unique Indigenous approach to contemporary dance but also because of the breathtaking artistry and sheer physicality of their performance. 

I’ve sought out their performances ever since so when I learned Canadian Stage was presenting the world premiere of the company’s new show Trace, I jumped at the opportunity to see it. Continue reading Review: Trace (Red Sky Performance/Canadian Stage) →

A new play about the internment of Japanese-Canadians during WWII is presented in Toronto

Canadians are often guilty of a kind of smug, exceptionalism when it comes to issues of diversity and inclusion, especially when we compare ourselves to the giant dumpster fire that is the US. Rarely do we acknowledge or critically examine our own dark history. 

Events like our government’s forced internment of thousands of Canadians of Japanese heritage during World War II remain untaught or under-taught in our high school history classes. That’s why works like Japanese Problem are so vital if we are to truly understand who we are as a country.  Continue reading Review: Japanese Problem (Soulpepper/Universal Limited) →

Canadian Stage presents the premiere of Lucy Kirkwood’s new play in Toronto

The Children is a new play by Lucy Kirkwood that has recently played both on Broadway and in London’s West End. The British playwright often takes a cerebral approach to her writing and tackles complex issues in her work. Canadian Stage previously produced her dazzling US-China political-thriller, Chimerica, in 2016. Continue reading Review: The Children (Canadian Stage/Centaur Theatre) →

A cult leader’s funeral is the setting for a new musical by Toronto’s Anika and Britta Johnson

There’s definitely an air of mystery around Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life; a new, immersively-staged musical taking over Heliconian Hall in the heart of Yorkville. The casual theatre-goer would be forgiven if they had no clue what Dr. Silver was about from the show’s deliberately sparse website which only hints that it centres on the funeral of a charismatic nouveau-spiritual leader and doesn’t really provide much more detail than that. Continue reading Review: Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life (Outside the March/The Musical Stage Company) →

The hit Broadway musical Wicked returns to Toronto

Since it opened on Broadway in 2003, the musical Wicked has become an international phenomenon. It has played over 100 cities in 15 countries, raking in over $4.5 billion in global ticket sales and winning over millions of fans in the process. A touring production of the show has just touched down at Toronto’s Ed Mirvish Theatre for a fifth engagement and—as with any long-running show—the question is; does Wicked retain its magic or does it show its age? Continue reading Review: Wicked (Mirvish) →

Toronto’s Cahoots Theatre presents Jovanni Sy’s cross between a play and a cooking demo

Something delicious is cooking on stage at the Factory Theatre where Cahoots Theatre is presenting a new Cantonese-language version of its 2010 show 食盡天下 (A Taste of Empire). The show is essentially a satirical, comedic play mixed with a live cooking demonstration mixed with a TED talk and somehow manages to pull off all three of those aspects well; the end result is funny, delicious and eye-opening. Continue reading Review: 食盡天下 (A Taste of Empire) (Cahoots Theatre/rice & beans theatre) →

Mirvish opens a new Canadian production of the hit musical Come From Away in Toronto

It’s been about a year since the original production of Come From Away—a new musical by Canadian husband-and-wife writing team Irene Sankoff and David Hein—finished its limited, sold-out run in Toronto and transferred to Broadway.

In the intervening year, this little Canadian musical-that-could has taken the Great White Way by storm. It opened to a warm critical reception and earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical. To this day, it still regularly plays to sold out houses in New York and is one of only a handful of Broadway shows that consistently grosses over one million dollars in ticket sales each week. Continue reading Review: Come From Away (Mirvish) →