A great evening of aspiring comics on stage at Toronto’s Crown & Tiger

There’s always something charming in a show that knows exactly what it is, and the Toronto Comedy Brawl, playing at Crown & Tiger, has no pretensions. Your $5 buys you roughly an hour of above-average amateur stand-up in the dingy basement–producer Ian Atlas calls it a sex dungeon–of what may be the diviest dive bar on College.

It’s better than I make it sound.

This is the Brawl’s 5th year, and Atlas has its operations down to a science. The six to eight comedians do short five-minute sets: if a comedian’s good, the short set leaves the audience wanting more; if not, the short set ensures that this is a speed bump rather than a derailment. The hosts rotate; when MoT attended,  former contestant Wojtek Arciszewski did a magnificent job: subtly pumping the crowd, filling time and keeping the energy going without making the show entirely about himself.

Continue reading Review: Toronto Comedy Brawl (Empire Comedy Live) →

The Canadian Opera Company presents Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre

The Canadian Opera Company is opening it’s Spring season with Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor; a dark tale of forbidden love, deceit and mental illness with the brooding atmosphere of an Emily Brontë novel but set to a lush, beautifully sung Italian score.

Continue reading Review: Lucia di Lammermoor (Canadian Opera Company) →

Theatre that breaks boundaries and tosses expectation aside at Toronto’s World Stage

When I walk into a theatre I tend to expect a fictional (or fictionalized) narrative with a structured arc, defined characters, etc. I tend to prefer things that are surreal, abstracted or absurd, but compared to the work of She She Pop, my usual tastes are tragically conventional. Happily, I had read enough about She She Pop & Their Fathers: Testament that I didn’t have any such expectations: I knew it would be performance art driven, so I walked in with an open mind and was happily delighted with the experience.

In She She Pop & Their Fathers: Testament, the members of the German performance Collective She She Pop bring their own real fathers on stage to probe at the pains and complexities of their relationships, beginning from the baseline of King Lear. Continue reading Review: She She Pop & Their Fathers: Testament (World Stage) →

An eco-aware theatrical production return’s to Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre

Lots has changed since YPT’s highly successful world premiere of Andri Snær Magnason’s Blue Planet eight years ago.

Eco-awareness is everywhere – in our 5c plastic shopping bags and our reusable water bottles. The movie Hunger Games, pitting kids against kids, has given us a nasty take on childhood drama. And flying is ubiquitous: it’s no longer surprising to see actors soaring across the stage.

Which makes remounting Blue Planet a challenge. How do you go beyond the accolades? How do you engage a young audience that’s spending more and more time online and less and less in the real world?

Continue reading Review: Blue Planet (Young People’s Theatre) →

From cult-classic film to Toronto’s stage – Young Frankenstein dazzles while hitting the right spot on your funny bone

If you are not already a fan of comedian Mel Brooks, then this show – or any of his cult-classic film work – will not be for you. If however, you find his lewd goofiness entertaining, as I do, then be prepared to giggle throughout Alexander Showcase Theatre’s Young Frankenstein: The Musical, playing at the Al Green Theatre in the Spadina JCC. Continue reading Review: Young Frankenstein: The Musical (Alexander Showcase Theatre) →