Artistic Director Tim Carroll has unveiled the Shaw Festival's 2023 casting and creative teams for the Festival Theatre, Royal George Theatre, Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre, BMO Stage, as well as the newly added Spiegeltent.
Americana and the Golden Age of the Broadway musical has happily landed at the Shaw Festival in their knock it out of the park production of DAMN YANKEES. After years without a staged musical at the Festival Theatre and repeated cancellations of it's production of GYPSY (thanks Covid!), the magic of the American musical comedy can be seen once again.
The Shaw Festival will once again go al fresco with a series of specially produced performances, concert series and curated experiences throughout the summer and fall. Popular Outdoors @ The Shaw events return with new enchanting and imaginative encounters at various locations in and around the Festival grounds and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The Shaw Festival’s 60th season will continue with performances of the romantic musical comedy Damn Yankees, psychological thriller Gaslight and surreal tour de force Too True to Be Good. All three shows will begin welcoming audiences to preview performances in the coming days and weeks.
Artistic Director Tim Carroll has announced casting for the Shaw Festival’s upcoming productions of Charley’s Aunt, Flush, The Devil’s Disciple, Sherlock Holmes and the Raven’s Curse, A Short History of Niagara and Trouble in Mind.
The new programming venture will showcase nine conceptual adaptations of multi-character works, in which all roles will be played by a single actor, and in two cases by two actors, using in-person, virtual or hybrid platforms. Works will premiere gradually over the next two seasons, alongside TIFT’s regular scope of programming.
Playing the role of the enigmatic Jay Gatsby is international star of Broadway, Film and Television, and best known for his role as Will Truman on NBC's smash hit sitcom Will & Grace, Eric McCormack. Star of Broadway's Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Chilina Kennedy will be playing debutante 'Daisy Buchanan'.
Below, we're counting down to the Jesus-filled weekend by taking you deep into the archives of BroadwayWorld photographer Walter McBride. Check out these shots of now Broadway favorites Paul Alexander Nolan, Josh Young and Chilina Kennedy as they make their Broadway debuts in the 2012 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar!
Talk Is Free Theatre (TIFT) begins the new decade with a wildly imaginative double-bill including an unearthed piece of neglected Canadian theatre history and a playfully penned adaptation from one of Russia's most influential writers. Continuing this season's theme of celebrating the beautiful and the brutal, Herringbone is a deeply layered exploration of the effects on a young boy forced into the entertainment industry during dire times. The Yalta Game centers around two star-crossed strangers who are profoundly connected and invent ways of freeing themselves from their monotony
The mystical land of BRIGADOON has emerged once again at Niagara on the Lake's Shaw Festival, and the now rarely produced musical still brings with it a sense of hope wrapped around Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's hauntingly beautiful lyrics and score. And while re-engaging with this Golden Age of Broadway classic brings with it a sense of familiarity, injecting new life into the work written in 1947 presents some obstacles.
Diana Donnelly directs this season's Lunchtime One-Act, The Russian Play - a tale that pays homage to the bleak realism and humour of the great Russian playwrights. Written by award-winning Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch, this satirical Siberian love story begins previews Saturday at The Shaw's Royal George Theatre.
Tartan, kilts and braw melodies from the beloved romantic classic Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon brings a wee bit of Scottish delight to The Shaw's Festival Theatre beginning May 5. The season's main stage musical, directed by Glynis Leyshon, with a revised book by Brian Hill; brilliantly brings the windswept wonder and ethereal charm of this enduring tale of love to life. A feast of song and dance, the Shaw Festival production also includes music direction by Paul Sportelli and choreography by Linda Garneau, with fight direction by John Stead.
Last week, the Stratford Summer Music Festival teamed with Canadian (and Stratford resident) singer-songwriter, Ron Sexsmith to present SONGS FROM DEER LIFE-an in-concert production of a musical that Sexsmith has written based on his Fairy Tale, DEER LIFE. Along with a group of talented musicians from the INNERchamber ensemble, a fantastic children's choir, and performers Barbara Fulton and Mike Nadajewski, Sexsmith put on a wonderful show filled with intriguing new music. This was the first time this music was heard by the public, but it certainly won't be the last!
Talk Is Free Theatre (TIFT) announces the ultimate, international theatrical adventure with The Curious Voyage, running Oct. 23 to Nov. 10, 2018 in Barrie, Canada and London, England. Taking place over three days to groups of no more than 36 participants, the immersive adventure will provide a unique, personal experience for every audience member, surprising them with curious artistic encounters as they inhabit new worlds in Barrie, Canada and London, England. The experience culminates in a site-specific mystery musical (a well-known Tony Award-winning work), whose dramatic themes will have been woven throughout the previous three-days. Tickets for The Curious Voyage are extremely limited and only available from May 8 to June 27, 2018.
We're taking you deep into the archives of BroadwayWorld photographer Walter McBride for exclusive flashbacks to Broadway past. Today, check out these shots of now Broadway favorites Paul Alexander Nolan, Josh Young and Chilina Kennedy as they make their Broadway debuts in the 2012 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar!
The very last production to ever open at the current incarnation of the Stratford Festival's Tom Patterson Theatre was David Edney's translation of Jean Giraudoux's THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT. Directed by Donna Feore, this was the world premiere of this translation. It boasts an excellent company and it explores themes and issues that are certainly relevant today.
TIMON OF ATHENS opened at Stratford Festival's Tom Patterson Theatre on Friday night. It is probably one of the more relatable cautionary tales that Shakespeare has produced, which explains why the Festival continues to have it set in modern times. Director, Stephen Ouimette takes this production on for a second time, as he also directed it in Stratford in 2004. I did not have the opportunity to see his previous production, but this one is impressive.