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From Our Old Favourite Musicals Around the Piano is a musical revue where the team at Victoria Playhouse does what they do best.  With Mark Payne at the grand piano and David Rogers singing favourites from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s songbook, they have created another wonderful show, sure to please the VPP audience. Mark Payne brings […]

Scatology on the Festival Stage The Hypochondriac, which has just opened late in the season on the Stratford Festival Stage is full of scatological humour, but thankfully offers a satiric look at the medical profession which redeems it.  Otherwise it would just be Borat dressed up for the Festival Theatre. The Hypochondriac is one of

Who Says Rural Life isn’t Exciting? There is plenty of hilarity for the 60-plus, small town crowd at the Port Stanley Festival Theatre where The Birds and The Bees is now on stage.  The laughs come one right after another in this comedy that covers sex and romance for the somewhat older crowd. I can’t reveal

Loving the Local Humour Little Miss County Fair, now on stage at Victoria Playhouse Petrolia, is a satirical salute to local country life.  Written and directed by David Rogers with music by Mark Payne, this musical covers rural life in southwestern Ontario.   The clever construction of this play is a first for this VPP creative

Without a song or a dance what are we? “So I say, thank you for the music!” That’s the audience’s message for Mamma Mia!, now on stage at Grand Bend’s Huron Country Playhouse.  The encore number, complete with spandex and gold lamé, gets a loud and long standing ovation. Mamma Mia! is the quintessential juke

It’s a Magic Carpet Ride The key to a good panto is to engage the kids, and give the adults plenty of laughs, too.  After all, those kids can’t drive themselves to the theatre, so the panto must also entertain mom and dad and grandma and grandpa.  Aladdin – The Panto, now on stage at

The Fate of Robert Southwestern Ontario just can’t get enough of the Donnelly story.  If you live in this area, you know the story, you’ve been to Lucan, you’ve sung the songs, and you’ve seen it on stage.  In fact, there are many stage versions of the Donnelly story, each more popular than the last. 

Missing your Mom Denise Mader, in her one-woman show now on stage at the Port Stanley Festival Theatre, moves us from hilarious silliness to overwhelming sadness, and then brings us around to foreseeing her happy future.  It’s an autobiographical story, where Mader talks to the audience as if we were friends sitting at her kitchen

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Sweeney Todd may not be everyone’s favourite musical, but the production now on stage at the Shaw Festival Theatre will thrill any fans of horror musical theatre. With Stephen Sondheim’s fast-paced music and lyrics telling the story, there are very few spoken words.  To get the most from this