TORONTO THEATER REVIEWS

The Philadelphia Story, on stage at the Shaw Festival, takes the audience back to 1939, to the wealthy who have survived the Great Depression. Survived? It looks like they flourished! The audience applauds the luxurious set as the curtain is raised. Everything is gold, silver and white - a lavish gr...

Yes, Alice, there is another world on the other side of that mirror...and it's made for kids! In an effort to reach out to families and little children, Stratford is offering something to keep the attention of the 12 and under crowd. Big colourful costumes, zany situations and audience participation...

The National Ballet's popular production features dazzling sets, eye-popping costumes, and wondrous choreography....

Director CHRIS ABRAHAM's production of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at the Festival Theatre is sure to be the most talked-about production at Stratford Festival this season. This, in itself is a huge feat, as this season is full of brave and exciting productions. Not all of the talk will be positive (t...

MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, Directed by MARTHA HENRY, and set in the 30 years war that ravaged 17th century Europe, is as moving, upsetting, and as politically relevant as ever…which is likely exactly what playwright Bertolt Brecht intended when he initially wrote it as a response to the Seco...

The theme this season at the Stratford Festival is Madness: Minds Pushed to the Edge and when it comes to choosing a musical to fit this theme, there is quite possibly no better choice than MAN OF LA MANCHA....

The National Ballet of Canada opens its summer season with a mixed programme of twentieth century works....

Love between parents and their offspring should be unconditional. As soon as King Lear puts conditions on the love of his daughters, his life unravels: he goes mad. But what really drives him crazy? Is it remorse resulting from his bad decisions? Is it stress, worrying about his daughters? Or is sim...

If you like musicals with amazing dancing, powerful singing and farcical comedy - and who doesn't? - get your tickets now for Crazy for You, on Stratford's Festival stage, as this show will sell out this summer. Crazy for You is an interesting invention. George and Ira Gershwin's old songs from the ...

Flashdance, the 1980's Paramount Pictures movie which led to the creation of the MTV format has been translated to the stage by a group which includes the original film creative team. The show tells the story of Alex Owens, a Pittsburgh steel mill welder by day and a bar dancer by night with dreams ...

The laughter echoed throughout the sold-out house as Victoria Playhouse Petrolia marked its 2014 season opener with Church Basement Ladies. And it is laughter of recognition, whether the audience has memories of cooking in a church basement in the sixties, or feels the discomfort of hot flashes tod...

Cult classic HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH is making waves on Broadway right now with Neil Patrick Harris, so Torontonians will be happy to know that they can catch a production of the edgy rock musical. The Lower Ossington theater is currently staging its own production of the musical about an East Ger...

Deborah Hay as Sally Bowles is a brilliant light shining in this otherwise very dark production of Cabaret, on stage this season at the Shaw Festival. Hayes has captured Sally completely, and in doing so, captivated the audience. Her rendition of "Maybe This Time" is so convincing that you believe ...

It's no secret that there are more Jews in Musical Theatre than stars in the sky - and the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, along with Angelwak Theatre are shouting it from the rooftop of the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts....

'You don't know what a call is going to be like until you get there,' says Anna the paramedic. The same can be said of playwright Rosamund Small's new one-person drama Vitals, produced by Outside the March with support from Theatre Passe Muraille. This site-specific show about the arduous work of pa...

If you get concerned taking your children to the theatre because of all the recent productions featuring violence, swearing, and sexed-up drag queens - you should know The Lion King is fantastic, wholesome family entertainment with none of those (okay, there is one moment in drag, but I promise it's...

For the longest time, I was under the impression that Toronto audiences were not fans of drama - for we just don't seem to get many of them in our biggest theatres during most theatre seasons. From now until June 1st, Toronto audiences have the opportunity to experience drama at it's finest - The La...

William Somerset Maugham's monumental novel 'Of Human Bondage' has never had a stage translation —until now. Adapted by award-winning playwright Vern Thiessen, and produced by Soulpepper Theatre Company, 'Of Human Bondage' is currently on at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts through May 17t...

Sex can be a touchy subject, something many people have trouble talking about. The topic can get messier when discussing sex as a profession and, more so, the murky industry of sex tourism in which privileged westerners exploit the egregiously disadvantaged youth of the third world. This is the subj...

'The singer is the voice of the subconscious self.' So utters the main character in Tom Murphy's famous play, The Gigli Concert, now on at Toronto's Young Centre for the Performing Arts through May 14th. Produced by Soulpepper Theatre Company, the line is key to understanding this epic yet intimate ...

Toronto gets one more blast of snow as I settle in at Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs to watch blustery Chekhov characters spend a summer holiday in the Russian countryside. A group of actors called The Chekhov Collective formed a year ago and began developing this production of The Seagull using t...

When I go to the theatre, I want my attention to be gripped so that I can escape into someone else's story for an hour or two. Unfortunately, The Two World's of Charlie F just didn't manage to hold my attention throughout the performance....

Other Desert Cities strange tale similar in style to the great studies of dysfunctional families - it's a modern version of O'Neill's A Long Day's Journey into Night, or Miller's Death of a Salesman. The production, currently on stage at London's Grand Theatre, is an interesting study in family dyna...

Sir Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests is a three-part play cycle that takes place over the course of one weekend. The trilogy paints a deeply insightful portrait of six individuals bound by love, hate, trust, need, and fear. Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre Company is currently remounting their 2013...

The new tango-focused stage show playing Toronto's Panasonic Theatre is passionate, sexy, and incredibly original. The title character, Arrabal, loses her father as a baby after he is arrested by the military. The story then goes forward 18 years - showing Arrabal becoming a young woman and learning...