Review: A POEM FOR RABIA at Tarragon TheatreOctober 27, 2023In Nikki Shaffeeullah’s A POEM FOR RABIA, three centuries of women come together to explore the currents of change that shape their lives. Expansive and thoughtful, it’s a fearlessly creative play as messy and complex as the themes of colonialism and queer womanhood it investigates, both to its major credit and minor detriment.
Review: APPROPRIATE at Coal Mine TheatreOctober 22, 2023If you call to book a ticket to Coal Mine’s brilliant production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ APPROPRIATE, you might stumble over the pronunciation. Is it appropriate, the proper actions to take in a particular circumstance? Or is it appropriate, to steal? The answer, shown through a complicated family saga with rotten roots, is that it’s both.
Feature: NÄSS at Harbourfront CentreOctober 19, 2023This year’s Harbourfront’s TORQUE dance series opens October 26-28 with Fouad Boussouf’s NÄSS (Arabic for “people”), inspired by his childhood in Morocco and revolutionary Moroccan musicians Nass el Ghiwane. BroadwayWorld spoke to Boussouf about the piece, its world travels before reaching Toronto, and its and ever-changing nature.
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