Laura Burton News

Just as the 2022 season comes to a close, work for the 2023 season is getting underway at the Stratford Festival. Creative teams for next year's productions are coming into place and the casting department is busy confirming key roles for the season. Soon the workshops will be abuzz with artisans building the season's sets, props and costumes.

Productions from the Stratford Festival’s 2021 season begin streaming this Thursday, September 2, with a ticketed viewing party of selections from Why We Tell the Story: A Celebration of Black Musical Theatre on Stratfest@Home, the Festival’s streaming platform. It will feature a live chat for all those virtually attending at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday.

After over a year without live theatre pretty much anywhere in the world, Canadian musical theatre lovers made it known just how much they missed this art form by quickly scooping up tickets to YOU CAN’T STOP THE BEAT - a Cabaret at the Stratford Festival curated and directed by Thom Allison. This performance is exactly what everyone needs as they return to the theatre and so if you have the chance, be sure to purchase a ticket, add yourself to the waitlist, or watch the filmed version from home when it becomes available. The team of Evangelia Kambites, Mark Uhre, Alana Hibbert, and Gabrielle Jones delivers a wide array of memorable musical numbers spanning from Tin Pan Alley to the present day. A lot of material is covered in the hour and twenty minutes and there is sure to be something for everyone.

The New Art Dealers Alliance, the definitive non-profit arts organization dedicated to the cultivation, support, and advancement of new voices in contemporary art, is pleased to announce the participants in a first time collaborative exhibition with Foreland, an 85,000 square-foot arts campus in the Hudson River Valley.

What is it about musical theatre that captures the hearts of millions of fans? Through wars, disasters, heartbreaks and triumphs, musicals have been there to give us a way to understand the human experience and flourish.

The Ontario government has issued its guidance for attendance at outdoor performing arts events, paving the way for the opening of the Stratford Festival’s 2021 season. According to these guidelines, the Stratford Festival will be able to accommodate 100 people (or 25% capacity) in each of its new outdoor canopies.

The Stratford Festival is transforming, for this summer, into an outdoor festival offering a season of six plays and five cabarets reflecting on the theme of Metamorphosis, with performances held under beautiful canopies that will hark back to the Festival’s founding under a tent in 1953.

Due to theaters closing to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Hammer Theatre Center has postponed New Ballet's Fast Forward, an exhilarating evening of contemporary ballet highlighting the innovative works of rising local and national choreographers originally scheduled for March 28.

Subjects from aliens to opera will be explored through dance when Hammer Theatre Center presents New Ballet's Fast Forward, an exhilarating evening of contemporary ballet highlighting the innovative works of rising local and national choreographers. In this dynamic performance, New Ballet's gifted dance artists bring each choreographer's creative vision to life in a lively and fast-paced evening.

 Broadway star Chilina Kennedy returns to Stratford for a one night only in-concert performance of Leslie Arden's acclaimed Canadian musical THE HOUSE OF MARTIN GUERRE. Stratford audiences may remember Ms. Kennedy from her much lauded lead performances in WEST SIDE STORY, EVITA, and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR to name just a few. Since then, she transferred to Broadway with the rest of the company of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, and then played over a thousand performances on Broadway as the title character in BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL. Currently, she is starring as Dina in the national tour of THE BAND'S VISIT. BWW had the chance to speak with Ms. Kennedy a few days after she concluded the Toronto run of THE BAND'S VISIT. She shared her excitement to finally return to the Stratford Festival, and her passion for THE HOUSE OF MARTIN GUERRE.

Little Shop of Horrors is currently playing at the Avon Theatre through Nov. 2 as part of the Stratford Festival.

If you are in Stratford, Ontario and are looking for a good time, look no further than this season's production of horror comedy rock musical LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. There aren't a whole lot of shows that can call themselves a horror comedy rock musical, but if you frequent these parts…or, you know, have a pulse, chances are you saw one last year too. The success of last season's THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW has sent the message that audiences get a kick out of the subversive escape that this kind of show can offer, and so, Director/Choreographer Donna Feore is serving up another delicious hit in the same vein as ROCKY HORROR (puns intended).

BroadwayWorld has a first look at The Stratford Festival's Little Shop of Horrors. The production is currently in previews and opens on Friday, May 31. 

From the creative team that made history with Stratford's longest-running production, The Rocky Horror Show, comes another cult rock musical, Little Shop of Horrors. Previews begin today at the Avon Theatre and the production opens on Friday, May 31.

The wit of Noel Coward is at its cheekiest in his exquisite romantic comedy, Private Lives, now on stage at the Avon Theatre. The production opens on Thursday, May 30.

A jolt of pure energy is pulsating through the Avon Theatre in Stratford as an electrifying production of Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show hits the stage for the first time. BroadwayWorld has an exclusive first look at the production below!

It's rare that you walk out of a show knowing you've witnessed history - and that is just what those seeing The Sound of Music at The Stratford Festival will be experiencing. Stratford's staging of the classic show, by director/choreographer Donna Feore will be talked about for years to come.

Performances of the 2015 Stratford Festival Season began yesterday afternoon with the first performance of Rodgers and Hammerstein's THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Today the festival will present the first performance of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK.

I'm very pleased to announce that BroadwayWorld Toronto has exclusive photos from this morning's first rehearsal of The Stratford Festival's The Sound of Music. See the exclusive photos of the cast in action in our photo gallery!

The Walnut Street Theatre continues its landmark 200th anniversary season with Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. This all-new production of Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatic masterpiece erupts onto the Walnut stage with powerfully emotional themes brought to life amid the steamy urban jungle of 1940's New Orleans. The production runs January 13 through March 1 on the Walnut Street Theatre Mainstage.