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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

False Friends and Foes    Last year, we saw Joseph Ziegler own the stage at the Tom Patterson Theatre as Joe Keller in All My Sons, in a heart wrenching story that led to his character’s ruination.  This year, Ziegler is again commanding that same stage in Shakespearean tragedy that similarly ends in his destruction.

Feisty Juliet Commands the Stage Four years ago, the Stratford Festival opened their season with a juvenile Juliet who giggled like a child.  In contrast, this year’s Juliet is a feisty, headstrong young woman. It’s interesting to compare Stratford’s productions of Romeo and Juliet over the years.  The 2013 version stepped back in time to

A Gilbert and Sullivan Delight For fans of light opera, it can’t get much better than HMS Pinafore on stage at Stratford’s Avon Theatre. The British team of Gilbert and Sullivan produced many comic operettas in the late 1800s – and it’s always amazing how the political satire is still so appropriate.  Everything old is

Sexy After Sixty? Want a fun night out for you and your 60-plus friends?  Go to the Victoria Playhouse in Petrolia where The Birds and The Bees is now on stage.  The laughs come one right after another in this comedy that covers sex and then romance for the somewhat older crowd. I can’t reveal

Guys and Dolls and Showstopping Dance Note:  Extended to Nov. 5, 2017 About 14 years ago when I first started writing reviews, I was often asked to critique community theatre shows.  I had just returned from a trip to Broadway when I wrote about a very good community theatre production and I was quite kind