Pirates of Penzance is a Blast – A Cannon Blast, that is… One question – is it the bomb with the burning wick or the cannon ball? The cannon explodes on stage and the sizzling bomb is tossed around. But which one finally ends the crazy antics? Stratford Festival’s Pirates of Penzance is an over-the-top […]
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You’re a Good Dog, Snoopy! As the Boomer generation, we grew up on Peanuts. I read the comic strip in the London Free Press daily, and the colour funnies on Saturday. I watched all the Charlie Brown specials on TV, and I even had various Peanuts collections in book form. When I went on a
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Tapping all the way to Broadway Life imitates art. At least that is what has happened in the Stratford Festival production of 42nd Street. Jennifer Rider-Shaw is Peggy Sawyer, the hoofer who taps her way from the chorus to stardom. Cynthia Dale is Dorothy Brook, the big star making a big comeback on the big
Much Ado about the Battle of the Sexes The real-life husband and wife team of Deborah Hay and Ben Carlson are well cast as Beatrice and Benedick in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival’s 2012 season opener Much Ado About Nothing. This pair brings so much fun to their roles in Shakespeare’s popular comedy. Leonato (James Blendick)
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When Three Worlds Collide Ragtime is a story of the collision of three very separate worlds that all ram into each other in New York City in the early 1900s. First we meet a family from New Rochelle, affluent and white. Then there are the African-Americans from Harlem, and arriving at the docks are the
Present Laughter Not Coward’s Finest Present Laughter is Noel Coward’s autobiographical play, and for that reason I expected more from it. But the entire story simply served to make Coward seem very shallow. It should be a satire of Coward’s life, but instead this production is lacking in the requisite humour needed to make it
A Trip to Broadway Bringing their tried and true formula to Petrolia from Sarnia, David Rogers and David Hogan packed the house with an appreciative audience for the opening night of The Heart & Soul of Broadway. After three successful years of the Starbright Festival at Sarnia’s Imperial Theatre, the pair moved their talents to
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I Am What I Am La Cage aux Folles is a wonderful story of acceptance. “We are what we are” is the message: Don’t judge your family and those who love you the most, just love them back unconditionally. And while this show tugs at your emotions and comes packaged with lessons well worth remembering,
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The Age of Aquarius Suede vests with long fringe, head bands, psychedelic colours, bell-bottoms with bandanas tied at the knees, huge Afros, and long hair….Hair. The costumes and wigs at the Grand Theatre’s production of Hair will transport anyone old enough to recall right back to the sixties. I can remember when long hair was
Musical Spoof is Over the Top If you love musical theatre, and you have a good sense of humour about being a musical theatre geek, you’ll enjoy The Drowsy Chaperone, now running at the Palace Theatre in London. An exceptionally good production for community theatre, this show spoofs the old genre of musicals. An all-Canadian
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