Archives

Celebrating 50 Year Old Songs     Happy Together 1967, now on stage at Victoria Playhouse, Petrolia, is like jumping in a time machine and travelling back 50 years.  This musical revue offers about 58 different songs – rock ‘n’ roll, pop, country, show tunes, movie sound tracks – all from the year 1967. A cast […]

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

All Shook Up: Funny, Corny, but with a Great Message    Put Elvis’ music together with the plot of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Then add a message about diversity that we need to hear right now.  Love is love is love, no matter the race or sexual orientation. That message comes wrapped in a wonderful package

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 Note:  This review was written in 2017, but Beautiful, starring Chilina Kennedy has returned to Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King Street, April 9 to May 5.   It is indeed a beautiful story – it’s a journey through life while building confidence.   Beautiful – The

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

Note:  This show was reviewed at The Dunfield Theatre and Huron Country Playhouse.  It is now on stage at the King’s Wharf Theatre, Penetanguishene, August 10 to September 2, 2017.   Go, Go, Go, Joseph I can’t count how many times I’ve seen Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – it’s been very popular with

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