BILLY BISHOP GOES TO WAR at Third Avenue Playhouse

By John MacLachlan Gray with Eric Peterson
Music and Lyrics by John MacLachlan
Directed by Robert Boles

The story of irreverent hero and Canadian WWI flying ace Billy Bishop remains one of the most critically-acclaimed Canadian plays of all time. The New York Times called it “a high flying ace of a show, capturing the humor, the hellfire, and the derring-do of an extraordinary career.” Billy Bishop calls himself “a convicted liar and cheat who was the worst student ever at the Royal Military College…. so of course they made me an officer.” The music is comprised of martial arts, barracks room ditties, Kiplingesque tunes of glory, Gilbert and Sullivan-like patter songs and a bitter brew of Brecht-Weill.

In his heyday, no one was more famous in Canada than Billy Bishop, a pugnacious young pilot from Owen Sound, who was the terror of the skies during World War I. Eric Peterson and John MacLachlan Gray’s buoyant celebration of this complex man has a rich, nearly 40-year history of touring nationally and internationally.

“A snappy, totally fulfilling evening of music and theater that should not be missed.”
-New York Times