TORONTO THEATER REVIEWS

Perfect? Far from it - but the Soup Can Theatre's latest production, HERETIC still showcases the beauty of indie theatre. Framed as a one-woman show, Sarah Thorpe both directs and stars in this new retelling of the story of Joan of Arc. The 50-minute production highlights the complex aspects of Joan...

It's very rare that you see a performer so skilled in his/her craft that that performer can command the attention of two thousand patrons for two and a half hours single handedly. On Thursday night I had the pleasure of witnessing such a performance: that of Barry Humphries - or as he's best known, ...

Ronnie Burkett's THE DAISY THEATRE is a unique night of live entertainment. His unscripted and over the top show featuring over forty marionette puppets will have you laughing out loud for the whole 90(ish) minute run. At the beginning of the show Ronnie explains that it may run over depending what ...

The Coal Mine Theatre's second production, Mike Bartlett's BULL, offers a cutthroat and ruthless look into a highly competitive workplace situation. This small independent theatre company located at the bottom of a Danforth pizza joint offers a new experience for Toronto theatregoers in the East End...

Christopher Durang's Tony Award winning play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, opened last night at the Panasonic Theatre. The play's premise is reminiscent of a sitcom: Masha, a famous actress past her prime (and the most successful sibling) returns home for a weekend to visit her siblings Soni...

The TSS Collective is presenting a remount of last summer's hit Toronto Fringe show, TIME STANDS STILL by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies. Director Jordan Merkur expertly stages this Tony Award-nominated play with a strong cast, set and direction. From start to finish, the audience was captiv...

I never saw Once, now playing at The Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto, during the National Tour's engagement here last year. After attending the media opening of the all-Canadian production Sunday afternoon, I can see why a return engagement was needed. Audiences will fall in love with this show, over ...

If you bill a show as 'From the co-creator of South Park and The Book of Mormon' you're going to set the expectations pretty high. Cannibal! The Musical opened last night in Toronto, and as much as I really wanted to like it - it came across rather flat, even in the intimate Panasonic Theatre....

Last night, Blithe Spirit, starring Angela Lansbury opened in Toronto at the Princess of Wales Theatre. Noel Coward's witty and charming play has stood the test of time and had the opening night audience laughing out loud at the brilliant performances on stage....

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Artistic Director Ken Gass' new Canadian Rep Theatre (CRT) has given us a theatrical bouquet of eloquence, elegance and excellence in a story of the marriage of true minds with impediments....

Five years in development, 'Small Axe' is a compelling, timely, provocative and inspiring new piece of Verbatim Theatre now playing at the Theatre Centre. It is presented by The Theatre Centre and Project: Humanity (PH). Founded in 2008, PH calls itself 'a non-profit organization raising awareness o...

The production of Chekov's 'The Seagull,' now on at the Berkley Street Theatre, is an uneven disappointment. It fails to engage. Like Theatre 20's production of Stephen Sondheim's 'Company,' presented in the same venue last year, this Crow's Theatre production does not deliver on its exciting promis...

Rick Miller's new show, Boom, now playing the Panasonic theatre via the off-Mirvish season is an impressive undertaking for Miller - who through his two hour one man show, shows audiences he has chutzpah galore but doesn't leave them completely satisfied....

The Toronto production of 'The Heart of Robin Hood' opened to great fanfare yesterday evening at The Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. The audience leapt to its feet at curtain call to cheer on the cast - and it was well deserved. 'The Heart of Robin Hood' is a great, feel-good night out at the th...

One of the last times I heard Toronto singer-songwriter Stephanie Martin in concert, she brought down the house performing before more than 2,000 people at Toronto's lavish and vast Elgin Theatre at the venue's 100th anniversary celebration. With her customary charisma, she performed a duet as Jose...

I have to admit, I was skeptical when I heard that Potted Potter promises all seven Harry Potter books in just seventy minutes. And several times throughout the night, when the story telling stopped for comedic moments, I was worried they wouldn't finish in time....

It's no surprise Walt Disney Pictures has decided to bank on the popularity of the movie musical following the box office success of Les Miserables - what is a surprise is how successfully they've done so. Their first foray into the live-action movie musical, Into the Woods is everything you'd want ...

Toronto's best holiday family show is actually in Hamilton at Theatre Aquarius. It's Disney/Cameron Mackintosh's "Mary Poppins," featuring a stellar cast of Shaw, Stratford and Charlottetown Festival vets. It also stars Broadway vets award-winning Steven Sutcliffe and Chilina Kennedy as the beloved...

If you've seen the Mythbusters on television, you'll know their television show is all about theatrics. They love to test myths from every-day phrases all the way down to things out of science fiction. And if they don't get the result they were hoping for, odds are they'll blow something up just for...

Ross Petty's annual pantomime has become, if anything, a tradition and staple in Toronto of the holiday season. As downtown storefronts are transformed from 'pumpkin spice' to 'naughty or nice,' the cast and creative team at Ross Petty Productions work on their whimsical, magical, and hilarious take...

Listening to Rita Carrey's debut CD Around Each Christmas Tree, it's obvious baby brother Jim, one of filmdom's greatest and most successful comic-actors, didn't get all the talent in the family. This is a wonderful, fun-filled celebration of seasonal classics with performances so infectious you are...

Sometimes an idea is so crazy, it just might work. The premise behind the hit Off-Broadway play, Buyer and Cellar is simple – Barbra Streisand has an underground mall in her basement and hires an out of work actor to tend to the shops. The first part of the premise is based in reality; Streisand r...

Simply put, Juan Chioran, with his at times hilarious, at times heartbreaking, performance as Cousin Julio, is the reason to see the Toronto premiere of Stephen Adly Guirgis' 'The Mother f**ker with the Hat.' (MOFO)....

At the Shaw Festival in its record-breaking 2013 season, all performances of Tom Stoppard's 'Arcadia' sold-out before it opened. With its current revival engagement at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre (with the original Niagara-on-the-Lake cast), many disappointed theatergoers will finally get thei...

When a 23-year-old first-time playwright named Michel Tremblay wrote Les Belles-soeurs in 1965, no one could have predicted how it would turn into an international sensation over the next four decades and go on to be produced in over 30 languages....