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It’s Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! After seeing the movie “Saving Mr. Banks”, one has a new take on the story of Mary Poppins.  The movie is about the life of P. L. Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins book series.  It offers insight into the battle she had with Walt Disney when the popular movie musical was […]

How Do You Spell F-U-N-N-Y? If you’ve never seen an actual spelling bee, especially those leading to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the U.S., then you probably won’t ‘get’ The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, now playing at London’s Grand Theatre. In Canada, we don’t take our spelling bees quite as seriously and

Rose’s Turn The production of Gypsy, now on stage at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, is indeed Rose’s turn. Canada’s own Louise Pitre commands the stage as Rose with such passion that there is no doubt she means it when she says “With what I got in me, I could have been better than any of

Comedy Turns Dark in Immigrant Story The Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago has a reputation for sending its best works to Broadway, so I was excited about the opportunity to visit it recently. We saw the play Russian Transport, and it didn’t disappoint. Sometimes I find dysfunctional family dramas, especially those with a lot of yelling,

Fascinating Story presented by Amazing Actor Two Canadian greats rolled into one – Kyle Blair, one of Canada’s best musical theatre actors portraying Billy Bishop, one of Canada’s greatest war heroes. Now on stage at the McManus Theatre (downstairs at London’s Grand Theatre) Billy Bishop Goes to War is an excellent evening of entertainment produced

No Fun in Dysfunctional Other Desert Cities strange tale similar in style to the great studies of dysfunctional families – it’s a modern version of O’Neill’s A Long Day’s Journey into Night, or Miller’s Death of a Salesman. The production, currently on stage at London’s Grand Theatre, is an interesting study in family dynamics. It’s

Passion in Changing Times 1980: the times, they were a-changin’. But in The Passion of Narcisse Mondoux, poor old Narcisse is being pushed as he reluctantly keeps up with the changing times. Narcisse Mondoux and his long-time crush, Laurencienne Robichaud, are on stage together in this charming Quebecois play at London’s Grand Theatre. This delightful

From the North Pole to New York Elf, the Christmas musical now on stage at London’s Grand Theatre is an endearing show, thanks to a funny, well-written script, and a six foot four Elf who can deliver the lines. Liam Tobin is perfect as Buddy the Elf: He’s taken the best that Will Ferrell had

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas… White Christmas is one of those “feel good” shows. There’s a guaranteed happy ending, great songs, fantastic dance, and everyone leaves the theatre humming and smiling.  Currently on stage at St. Jacobs Country Playhouse, it makes a great gift at Christmas time! The stage show actually has a better

All in Harmony Drayton Entertainment’s Artistic Director Alex Mustakas has continued to his tried and true “Legends” series with Legends of Harmony. This is a concert-style revue, covering all your favourite four-part harmony songs. Most of the numbers are not performed in their entirety – if they were, we’d be there all night, because 88