Turning the Rez into an Amusement Park Germans are fascinated with the Indigenous people of Canada.  I learned this several years ago, when chatting with an acquaintance originally from Germany.  He told me that he came to Canada as a child. A friendly immigration officer asked him what he wanted to do, now that he […]

Play Something Scottish My parents were big fans of Guy Lombardo.  They lived in St. Thomas when they were dating in the 1930s and would go dancing at the Stork Club in Port Stanley to the Lombardo brothers’ sounds – “The Sweetest Music this Side of Heaven”.  My mother even had a record album – […]

Chilina Kennedy is Beautiful in the Carole King Musical It is indeed a beautiful story – it’s a journey through life while building confidence.   Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, now on stage at Toronto’s Ed Mirvish Theatre, is the true story of how Carole gained the self-assurance to take charge of her own life.  […]

Ontario’s Not-so-Proud History Brought to Light     Here in the province of Ontario – formerly known as Upper Canada – we are pretty proud of our past.  We are blessed with the beautiful Great Lakes and green, lush, countryside, a healthy mix of agriculture and industry, and for the most part, good government. But it […]

Hero to Villain to Martyr    When Joan of Arc leads the French into battle, she is victorious.  But she is seen as a heretic and a threat to the court who must be destroyed. Later she is found innocent and much later, she is canonized   Shaw’s very moving play, Saint Joan, is now on […]

Another Song & Dance Take on the Pygmalion Story Shaw’s Pygmalion – the story of the Cockney flower girl who passed for a member of the upper class, thanks to speech lessons – was fashioned into the musical My Fair Lady and again into the 1990 movie Pretty Woman.  But Me and My Girl gives […]

The Kids will Love this Treasure    This year’s Schulich Children’s Play is a new rendition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.  In fact, the Stratford Festival commissioned Nicolas Billon to create this adaptation of the familiar story.  Treasure Island made its recent world première at the Avon Theatre. Billon’s version is strictly for the […]