Review: HEROES OF THE FOURTH TURNING at Streetcar CrowsnestOctober 9, 2023Arbery’s play is a fascinating and multifaceted look into the unexamined front of a burgeoning culture war. The Howland Company gives this 2020 Pulitzer finalist the thoughtful, unsettling and passionate production it deserves. It’s the kind of show that you’ll still be talking about weeks later.
Review: THE LAST EPISTLE OF TIGHTROPE TIME at Tarragon TheatreOctober 5, 2023Walter Borden at 81 is a powerhouse of a Shakespearean actor. His warmly stentorian diction, the core of THE LAST EPISTLE OF TIGHTROPE TIME, echoes invitingly through the Tarragon mainspace as he tells stories about his life. It’s not always the easiest work to follow, but Borden’s presence serves as an anchor in a sea of non-linear content.
Review: TOPDOG/UNDERDOG at Canadian StageOctober 4, 2023By focusing on the slower, more structured rounds of boxing over the fast-paced hustle of a card sharp, M’Carthy’s production invites us to watch the hands when we really should be watching the eyes. It’s a thoughtful idea that doesn’t fully pay off in dividends of energy and connection to the audience, leading Canadian Stage’s season-opener to be a good production of a great play.
Review: WORK.TXT at The Theatre CentreSeptember 28, 2023From its initial roll call of types of audience members, Ellis’ thought experiment becomes a sort of interactive poem that comes both to satirize work and to praise it, a funny sort of feel-good cooperative enterprise that is surprising and delightful.
Review: ASSES.MASSES at The Theatre CentreSeptember 27, 2023Choosing to attend asses.masses at The Theatre Centre is a big commitment to an intriguing premise. The show, a collaboratively-played video game with a sweeping narrative about a donkey revolution, takes at bare minimum seven hours. It's a long ass show. But despite its outward silliness, with its thoughtful messaging, it’s anything but ass-inine.
Review: FRINGE FESTIVAL: FINAL ROUNDUP at Toronto FringeSeptember 1, 2023This year, the Fringe Festival returned more than half a million dollars to its talented, hardworking artists. Toronto Fringe may be over, but other festivals aren't! Our critic saw 59 shows in this year's festival. Here are some of her final comments as we look forward to Fringe 2024.
Interview: Julie Dumais Osborne and PHATT al on Second City's 50th AnniversaryAugust 28, 2023This summer, Second City Toronto celebrated its 50th anniversary with a weekend of parties, panels, and opportunities for alumni and fans to reconnect. BroadwayWorld Toronto spoke to AD Julie Dumais Osborne and cast member PHATT al about the celebrations, what Second City means to Toronto, and what’s next for the company as it marks the big 5-0.
Review: SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER at Sorry StudiosAugust 17, 2023In a small, intimate office space near Queen and Dufferin, Riot King’s production of one of Tennessee Williams’ lesser-performed plays, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, feels like you’ve been invited into someone’s Southern Gothic living room.
Review: THE EFFECT at Coal Mine TheatreJuly 26, 2023In asking the persistent questions of how much of what we consider love, the personality, and even the soul is of our own making, and how much is just chemical, Mitchell Cushman’s searing production immediately gets under your skin, and it’s no placebo.
Review: SPONGEBOB: THE MUSICAL at Regent TheatreJuly 26, 2023Before heading to Oshawa’s Regent Theatre for Mansfield Entertainment’s SPONGEBOB: THE MUSICAL, I had never seen a single episode of the cartoon series featuring the ubiquitous bright yellow sea creature with square pants that lives in a pineapple under the sea. It didn’t matter; the candy-coloured satire was still fantastic, fishy fun.
Review: FRINGE FESTIVAL: BATCH FIVEJuly 14, 2023Reviews of Fatal Charade, Levels: The Play, Danielle Tea's Infernal Latte, Mail Ordered, All That Remains, and B-Max and the Re-Revolution at the Toronto Fringe Festival
Review: CRIPCAB at Buddies In Bad TimesJune 24, 2023It’s hard to be disabled in the world of the performing arts. Hours can be punishing, physical expectations are high, and remuneration is low. This is the provenance of CripCab, a new performance showcase that premiered at Buddies in Bad Times theatre. CripCab is an attempt to expand much needed accessibility efforts at Pride.
Review: PERCEPTUAL ARCHAEOLOGY at Streetcar CrowsnestJune 17, 2023The joy of theatre is the same as that of travel: the ability to promote multiple ways of seeing and understanding, allowing us to look through another person’s eyes. PERCEPTUAL ARCHAEOLOGY gets us to think about the very way we perceive and move through the world, and, for the sighted, about the other ways in which experiences might be open to us.
Review: KELLY V. KELLY at Canadian StageJune 11, 2023It’s called KELLY V. KELLY, but Britta Johnson and Sara Farb’s surprisingly moving new 90-minute musical could be called CAGE V. CAGE. A mother and daughter, locked in a petty legal battle over the latter’s debauched behaviour in 1915 New York, are both looking for some sort of control over lives that have been designed to be as small as possible.