Tickling the Ivories and the Funny Bone Did you hate it when you took piano lessons and your mother forced you to practice for one full hour every night? Or did you pace the hallway, straining to hear the piano notes through the closed door as your son struggled with his conservatory exam? If you’ve […]
2 Pianos 4 Hands 2015 Read More »
Pirates and Cops go Over the Top We are forewarned that The Pirates of Penzance is going to be a bit crazy when the Little Mermaid (straight from last year’s Christmas show in Cambridge) shows up on stage before the pirates’ ship comes into view. The Pirates of Penzance has been revived by Drayton Entertainment,
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Berry Gordy’s Baby Motown The Musical, now on stage at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, is a wonderful nostalgia trip. For those of us in Southwestern Ontario who grew up listening to Windsor’s huge radio station, the Big 8 CKLW, the songs whisk us back to our teen years. And that brings me
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The Matchmaker is a Hit! The High School Project is a speciality of London’s Grand Theatre. They present two productions each year, (one musical, one play) where high school students audition for roles. The productions are put together by professional directors, choreographers and musical directors. Students also apply for positions in the orchestra and as
A Good Old Variety Show If you’ve been sitting back wondering what happened to all the good old variety shows – Ed Sullivan, Carol Burnett, Wayne & Schuster and the like – then you need to get yourself over to Petrolia and see the variety show, The Fiddler and The Crooner, on stage at the
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Keeping the 88s Straight Mark Payne is Liberace, Victor Borge and Glenn Gould rolled into one. He has showmanship and flair, he’s silly and witty, and he can play the classics with passion. While his usual role is that of musical director in the background at Victoria Playhouse, he is now taking centre stage at
Rockin’ Good Time The Legends of Rock ‘n’ Roll are back at Huron Country Playhouse after an absence of eight years. It’s the follow-up to Twist and Shout: The British Invasion which was revived last summer. While Twist and Shout brought us the English bands of the sixties, in Legends, it’s 1975 and Roy Solomon
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Lotsa Laughs in Love’s Labour’s Lost The Shakespearean comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost opened late in the season at Stratford, to gales of laughter on the Festival Stage. In this play, Shakespeare had great fun with puns and wordplay, and the cast makes it even funnier. Four male students believe that their education is all-important and
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War, Love, and Farming Back in 1972, a group of young Toronto actors came to Huron County, in southwestern Ontario, to write a play about farming. The Farm Show became a renowned piece of Canadian theatre, along with its modernized 2013 version, Beyond the Farm Show. The making of the 1972 Farm Show was a
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A Seventy-Six Trombone Celebration The Drayton Theatre, the original flagship of the Drayton Entertainment empire, is celebrating its 25th Anniversary by bringing a musical theatre favourite to the stage – The Music Man. The Music Man captured the hearts of Broadway audiences when it first opened in 1957, winning five Tony awards. The heart-warming story,
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