Ilana Lucas - Page 2

The musical is based on a section of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, but it’s anything but staid and traditional. In the midst of war, death, and constrained social circumstances, in fact, it’s enormously successful in feeling like a celebration of life.

Putting the audience onto the same boat as its characters and letting us feel the intense, heated gaze of its captain exemplifies what MIGRAAAANTS does best, which is to take us on a journey.

Steven Hao, playing Pirithous and The Wooer in THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN, spoke to BroadwayWorld about the unusual aspects of Shakespeare’s last play, why Theseus is Iron Man, and the joys of putting on one of the few works in the Shakespearean canon that's a 'hidden gem' without 500 years of baggage.

It’s been a strong year for Toronto theatre. I saw 145 shows this year in Toronto and beyond, and am happy to report that theatre is alive and well. I’ve laughed, sobbed, coughed (discreetly into a mask), and cheered my way through our stages in 2023. Here are some local highlights.

In WITHROW PARK, Morris Panych’s new play at Tarragon Theatre, we see a view into a neighbourhood a little less than 7 kilometres away from where we sit. Panych’s script is quippy and fun with a philosophical bent about aging, mortality, and the ability to start again at any point, but just like its characters, finds it hard to achieve balance between those two states.

CHRIS, MRS., bills itself as a musical version of a Hallmark holiday movie, and it does exactly—and I mean exactly—what it says on the tin. If you are a lover of Hallmark family entertainment, you’ll be over the moon for this show. It boasts entertaining lyrics, killer dance moves, adorable children, and a quirky, can-do spirt. That also means that it has ALL the parts of a Hallmark movie, for better or for worse.

Are you a Christmas cheerleader? A decorated-tree devotee? Do you love Hallmark Christmas movies so much you wish you could see one live? Well, CHRIS, MRS., aims to fulfil that need.

Jani Lauzon’s autobiographical one-act PROPHECY FOG at Coal Mine Theatre encourages its guests to be receptive vessels, to find comfort in sharing an experience around a circle, engaging in the journey together, and sitting amongst the star stuff of which we’re made.

Unadorned, beautifully delivered, linguistically gorgeous and both funny and wrenchingly sincere, it’s one of the most beautiful plays I’ve ever seen, and I think you should see it, too.

In Canadian Stage’s production of Italian playwright Stephano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy, three powerhouse performances, a surprising and meaningful staging, and a sweeping story outweigh the curious neutrality of the script to create a vital, must-see show with high stock value.

Chaos reigns in Second City’s new sketch offering, CHAOS MENU: DISORDER UP! That’s not surprising; the best types of sketch comedy are, by their nature, somewhat chaotic. For the 88th mainstage show, though, the talented cast (PHATT al, Andy Assaf, Coko Galore, Devon Henderson, Liz Johnston, and Ron Pedersen) really lean into the concept, creating a show that thrives on anarchy.

Maury Yeston and Peter Stone’s TITANIC, winner of five 1997 Tony Awards including Best Musical, sails to Toronto in film form for two showings via Cineplex on November 16th and 19th. BroadwayWorld spoke to Maury Yeston, the show’s award-winning composer and lyricist, in advance of its arrival in Toronto.

It's a fascinating, disturbing work with a powerhouse cast, literally unsettling: never completely relaxing into a style or structure, it stretches deep into the monstrous before snapping back to remind us that the high and low road often originate from the same place.

Sandra Caldwell is, indeed, fabulous. The classy triple threat brings her autobiographical show, THE GUIDE TO BEING FABULOUS, to Soulpepper’s “Her Words” festival. This version of the show triumphantly celebrates what Caldwell long kept hidden: her identity as a trans woman.

Tapestry Opera’s production of Gareth Williams and Anna Chatterton’s ROCKING HORSE WINNER uses a son’s desperate attempts to provide for his mother’s desire for wealth as a cautionary tale about the perils of a hunger that is never satisfied.

In Nikki Shaffeeullah’s A POEM FOR RABIA, three centuries of women come together to explore the currents of change that shape their lives. Expansive and thoughtful, it’s a fearlessly creative play as messy and complex as the themes of colonialism and queer womanhood it investigates, both to its major credit and minor detriment.

Opera Atelier opens its 2023-2024 season on October 26th at the Elgin Theatre with Gluck's ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE. BroadwayWorld spoke to Opera Atelier's founding co-artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski C.M. and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg C.M. about what makes this take on the famous myth so unique.

If you call to book a ticket to Coal Mine’s brilliant production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ APPROPRIATE, you might stumble over the pronunciation. Is it appropriate, the proper actions to take in a particular circumstance? Or is it appropriate, to steal? The answer, shown through a complicated family saga with rotten roots, is that it’s both.

This year’s Harbourfront’s TORQUE dance series opens October 26-28 with Fouad Boussouf’s NÄSS (Arabic for “people”), inspired by his childhood in Morocco and revolutionary Moroccan musicians Nass el Ghiwane. BroadwayWorld spoke to Boussouf about the piece, its world travels before reaching Toronto, and its and ever-changing nature.

Arbery’s play is a fascinating and multifaceted look into the unexamined front of a burgeoning culture war. The Howland Company gives this 2020 Pulitzer finalist the thoughtful, unsettling and passionate production it deserves. It’s the kind of show that you’ll still be talking about weeks later.