Toronto Interviews - Page 3

A North American premiere is set to stun Toronto audiences when NORTH BY NORTHWEST, a stage adaption of Alfred Hitchcock's renown film, graces the stage at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. BroadwayWorld's Taylor Long spoke with leading man, Jonathan Watton, on playing Roger O. Thornhill....

GREASE says 'You're the One That I Want' to Pretty Little Liars star, Janel Parrish. With previews beginning November 1st at Toronto's Winter Garden Theatre, Parrish will be taking on the iconic role of Sandy - but did you know that she auditioned for a different role?...

With the second week of rehearsals well underway, the cast and creative team of The Drowsy Chaperone have moved into our new rehearsal space and are taking advantage of the wall-to-wall mirrors and sprung floors to run through some of the show's biggest dance numbers....

Evan McKie, a Principal Dancer with The National Ballet of Canada, has enjoyed a thriving international career, performing with the Paris Opera Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet and the Tokyo Ballet to name a few. Hailed as 'among the absolute best in the world' (Dance Europe), it was my plea...

A new Canadian musical is about to hit the stage in Toronto. The Musical Stage Company (formerly Acting Up Stage Company) is bringing us their new work, ONEGIN. I had a chance to chat with ONEGIN's creators, Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille as well as two of the cast members, Daren A. Herbert (Onegin)...

Idina Menzel will perform in Toronto this Wednesday at the Sony Centre as part of her 2015 world tour. Menzel is of course best known for her work in WICKED and FROZEN, and also recently concluded a Broadway run in her star vehicle IF/THEN, which she will take on tour this fall....

For Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award winner Alan Menken - his musical based on the book and film The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz is what he calls 'a passion project, definitely.' Menken's version of Duddy Kravitz as a musical, which he co-wrote with David Spencer, was originally produced in the 198...

No, the Stratford Festival isn't doing another production of West Side Story. Chilina Kennedy already played that Maria at the Stratford Festival a few years back. The festival will produce the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical - The Sound of Music for their upcoming season....

For Danielle Wade playing iconic, female characters on stage is a dream come true. Fresh off the national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's production of The Wizard of OZ - which played Toronto during an extended sit down, Wade is trading her ruby slipper for ones made of glass in Ross Petty's annual pa...

It's unlikely anyone leaving a performance of 'The Motherf**ker With the Hat' (MOFO) will be indifferent. That makes actor Juan Chioran happy. 'To be indifferent is the biggest crime in theatre,' he says on a day off from the popular show now playing at the new Coal Mine Theatre on the Danforth. He ...

BUYER & CELLAR is an outrageous new comedy about the oddest of odd jobs: 'an underemployed Los Angeles actor going to work in Barbra Streisand's Malibu basement' (The New York Times). Broadway star Christopher J, Hanke plays the lucky actor in this brilliant, hilarious and outrageously inventive com...

With its World Premiere about a year away, tickets are already on sale for the Broadway bound musical N THE QUEEN OF PARIS. And 2015 is shaping up to be the year of Emile Zola. Recently, I sat down with Ella Louise Allaire and Martin Ferguson, the co-creators of N THE QUEEN OF PARIS, and Pascal Nado...

'Helen Lawrence,' now playing at Toronto's Bluma Appel, theatre, is an entertaining, multi-media presentation of a 1940s film noir story hampered by a thin script by Chris Haddock (co-written with Stan Douglas.) During the first five minutes, you tend to be overwhelmed by the show's blue compositing...

Chatting backstage between tech rehearsals for Les Belles Soeurs, a new English musical adaptation of Michel Tremblay's epic play, I asked 3 of the shows 12 powerhouse performers, Valerie Boyle, Lisa Horner and Paula Wolfson, if they'd ever been in another show with a cast entirely comprised of wome...

In an annual report released today, Canadian Stage announced the company's third consecutive budget surplus following an award-winning and record-breaking season. This year under the leadership of artistic & general director Matthew Jocelyn, managing director Su Hutchinson and board chair Adrian Lan...

Julie Taymor is no stranger to being innovative in the theater. In 1997 she became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for her production of 'The Lion King.' That same night she also walked away with the prize for costume design. No one had ever seen a production on...

Fans of Andrea Martin should know that she's written a wonderful, moving, incredibly funny, and honest series of essays that have been published by Harper Collins into a book titled 'Lady Parts.' Ms. Martin immediately sets the tone of her book in the introduction, where she confesses the greatest d...

Allan Hawco has been putting in long days in the lead-up to his onstage appearance in Belleville, a play about a dysfunctional couple, on now through May 4 at Toronto's Berkeley Street Theatre....

The Canadian Opera Company's Ensemble Studio was created in 1980 as a vehicle for training Canada's next generation of opera stars. Its current members will take to the stage of the Four Seasons Centre on February 7th, replacing regular cast members in Atom Egoyan's production of the Mozart opera Co...

Les Miserables has been delighting audiences in Toronto since it opened in October of last year, and a few of its cast members are now Broadway bound for the show's big debut in March. St. Thomas native Aaron Walpole is one of those Canucks headed to the Great White Way. Walpole has been with th...

LOT regular Kylie McMahon who stars as the shows leading bombshell Sally Bowles took some time to talk to BWW about the nature of the LOT as well as the pressures that come with playing such a widely recognized role....

On Thursday, December 18 the Toronto Fringe Hit The Musical of Musicals, the Musical! will open at the Panasonic Theatre as part of Mirvish Production's 50th Anniversary Season. Alan Aronshtam had the opportunity to talk with the cast and creative team back at the 50th Anniversary Celebration at the...

Ashley Brown recently sat down with BroadwayWorld's Alan Aronshtam to talk about her Symphony Concerts, The Sound of Music LIVE, and more!...

It's an exciting holiday theatre season in Toronto, with lots of great options for children and grown ups alike! One option which is bound to appeal to people of all ages is the classic tale of ANNIE - being presented by Young People's Theatre and starring newcomer Jenny Weisz in the iconic role. ...

Literary lovers will be delighted to know there's a unique new theatrical event starting this week - a site specific performance piece that examines the life and works of Virginia Woolf. The brainchild of Naomi Wright (who will play Woolf in the production) the show is a fully immersive production ...

It's an exciting holiday theatre season in Toronto, with lots of great options for children and grown ups alike! One option which is bound to appeal to people of all ages is the classic tale of ANNIE - being presented by Young People's Theatre and starring newcomer Jenny Weisz in the iconic role. ...

Evil Dead the Musical is back in Toronto and bloodier than ever! The show opened last week to rave reviews, and audience members are flocking to the Randolph Theatre for a chance to experience this cult classic in all its gory glory. The show takes the cult classic film by the same name and adapts ...

It's a big bright beautiful world for Andrew Di Rosa, the Picking actor who played Shrek in the Lower Ossington Theater's production of SHREK THE MUSICAL this fall. Di Rosa previously starred in the companys production of ALTAR BOYZ, and will be seen in the feature film thriller Fragile Minds in 201...

The new Canadian 25th Anniversary Production of Les Miserables is now playing at The Princess of Wales and has been receiving rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. BWW has been bringing its readers interviews with the cast of this incredible production, and today we sit down with Mark Uhre...

Canadians are a unique bunch of people, polite to a fault, humble and extremely freaking talented. The problem is, we often don't boast our talents because of the aforementioned polite, humble qualities. Kyle Golemba and Adam White are seeking to boast about our awesome musical theatre talent on M...

BWW's coverage of the 2013 Global Cabaret Festival continues today with an interview with Patricia O'Callaghan, producer and star of 'The Judgment of Paris'. This unique cabaret is set against the backdrop of the Great War and features music by the revolutionary Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, tw...

Sharron Matthew's is one of the foremost stars of Canada's cabaret scene, having recently traveled the world on her GOLD tour she returned to Toronto to become the first artist in residence at Buddies in Bad Times theatre where she continues to develop and hone her cabaret skills. This year she j...

Production of MAMMA MIA reunite for a one-night only benefit in support of FIFE HOUSE. They are a not for profit organization that seeks to provide secure and affordable supportive housing and support services for persons living with HIV/AIDS. The event will feature none other than Louise Pitre i...

360 Screenings has much to celebrate this Halloween - their recent screenings (a unique hybrid combining movies and live theatre) have been selling out well in advance of their dates and they've just wrapped more than a year of presenting screenings in Toronto! When they launched, BWW featured an in...

Fans of Les Miserables have long drawn lines in the sand when it comes to the show's young leading ladies, Cosette and Eponine. Often proudly declaring themselves either #TeamEpo or #TeamCosette long before it became 'cool' to do so, young fans of the musical would generally feel quite strongly abou...

I Love Lucy Live takes the stage in Toronto next week - and marks the first time these iconic characters have been tackled live on stage. The foursome you know and love - Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel, comes to life at The Royal Alex Theatre (which will become the Desilu Playhouse soundstage) and they...

The Canadian production of Les Miserables begins previews at the end of the week, boasting an incredibly talented cast from across the country, and a 'borrowed' West End star in the role of Javert. Earl Carpenter hails from the U.K., where he has been wowing musical theatre audiences for over fiftee...

Toronto, you are in for a treat. The iconic musical FUNNY GIRL will be brought to life for 'One Night Only' this coming Monday night September 30th.Toronto's own Gabi Epstein stars as Fanny Brice in the role that catapulted a young actress and singer named Barbara Streisand to super-stardom nearly a...

The Canadian production of Les Miserables begins previews at the end of the week, boasting an incredibly talented cast from across the country, and a 'borrowed' West End star in the role of Javert. Earl Carpenter hails from the U.K., where he has been wowing musical theatre audiences for over fiftee...

Louise PItre is one of the grand dames of Canadian musical theatre, and this fall, she's back in Toronto doing something truly brave, unique and more than a little scary. On Wednesday, her show ON THE ROCKS opens Theatre Passe Muraille's 2013-2014 season. A 90 minute emotional rollercoaster, the s...