Toronto Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 26

BWW Review: CANNIBAL! THE MUSICAL Doesn't 'Meat' My Expectations
by Alan Henry - February 18, 2015

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....

BWW Review: BLITHE SPIRIT, Starring Angela Lansbury, is Perfection
by Alan Henry - February 13, 2015

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....

BWW Review: HOW DO I LOVE THEE?
by Dennis Kucherawy - February 10, 2015

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....

BWW Review: SMALL AXE at The Theatre Centre
by Dennis Kucherawy - February 02, 2015

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...

BWW Review: Crow's Theatre THE SEAGULL
by Dennis Kucherawy - January 26, 2015

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...

BWW Review: Off-Mirvish's BOOM is an Impressive Undertaking
by Alan Henry - January 22, 2015

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....

BWW Review: Broadway-Bound THE HEART OF ROBIN HOOD Opens To Great Fanfare in Toronto
by Alan Henry - January 15, 2015

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...

BWW Review: Stephanie Martin in Concert
by Dennis Kucherawy - December 21, 2014

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...

BWW Review: Potted Potter Will Have You Cracking Up Just in Time For the Holidays
by Alan Henry - December 20, 2014

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....

BWW Review: INTO THE WOODS is a Phenomenal Adaptation of the Classic Stephen Sondheim Musical
by Alan Henry - December 19, 2014

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 ...

BWW Review: Mary Poppins at Theatre Aquarius is the Best Holiday Show of the Season
by Dennis Kucherawy - December 11, 2014

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...

BWW Review: The Mythbusters Get Theatrical at the Sony Centre
by Alan Henry - December 03, 2014

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...

BWW Review: Ross Petty's CINDERELLA is Good Ol' Fashioned Family Entertainment
by Alan Henry - November 29, 2014

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...

BWW Review: Rita Carrey's AROUND EACH CHRISTMAS TREE Album
by Dennis Kucherawy - November 19, 2014

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...

BWW Review: Audiences Will Love BUYER AND CELLAR at the Panasonic Theatre
by Alan Henry - November 15, 2014

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 rea...

BWW Review: The Motherf**ker with the Hat
by Dennis Kucherawy - November 12, 2014

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)....

BWW Review: Shaw's ARCADIA at The Royal Alexandra Theatre
by Dennis Kucherawy - November 11, 2014

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...

BWW Review: BELLES SOEURS the Musical at the Segal Centre
by Toronto Newsdesk - October 30, 2014

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....

BWW Review: Soulpepper's GLOBAL CABARET
by Dennis Kucherawy - October 30, 2014

Without a doubt, Soulpepper Theatre Company's Global Cabaret Festival is my favorite Toronto arts festival. It's like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get. Forrest Gump would dig it. Each year I'm tempted to bring my sleeping bag and just camp out for the weekend....

BWW Review: Factory Theatre's THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER
by Dennis Kucherawy - October 25, 2014

The award-winning one-man play 'The Art of Building a Bunker' now on at Factory Theatre Lab, is about a desperate outsider named Elvis Goldstein who is incapable of experiencing love and the consequences that follow. His namesake, of course, was the King of Rock n' Roll. This homunculus is the Kin...

BWW Review: WHAT MAKES A MAN at the Berkley Street Theatre
by Dennis Kucherawy - October 22, 2014

While reviewing What Makes a Man (WMAM), now playing at the Berkley Street Theatre, it's tempting to comment on what's not there, what could and should be there, rather than what is there. What is on display is a marvelous musical stage portrait of Charles Aznavour, the world renowned French singer/...

BWW Review: Second City's REBEL WITHOUT A COSMOS is an Evening of Pure Joy
by Alan Henry - September 29, 2014

I don't know how to even being describing the sheer joy I experienced while attending last night's performance of Rebel Without A Cosmos at the Second City. The entire production is smart, sharp, and lough out loud funny....

BWW Review: 'AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE' Gets Lost in Translation
by Catherine Kustanczy - September 27, 2014

Henrik Ibsen's 1882 play An Enemy of the People is a powerful examination of the difficult and disturbing relationship between truth and power. It examines what happens to a scientist, Dr. Stockmann, and his family when he exposes ugly truths about health concerns related to the economically-vital b...

BWW Review: Mirvish's OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD is Brilliant and Imaginative
by Alan Henry - September 18, 2014

The play Our Country's Good had its opening night last night at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. The play, which has been brought across the pond by presenter David Mirvish is about a colony of convicts who are cast in a play by an officer of the navy at the urging of his captain. Of course, ...

BWW Review: THE LAST FIVE YEARS Movie is a Marvelous Adaptation of Jason Robert Brown's Off-Broadway Musical
by Alan Henry - September 08, 2014

The film adaptation of 'The Last Five Years,' based on the musical by Jason Robert Brown, had its world premiere last night at the Toronto International Film Festival. 'The Last Five Years' is a musical chronicling a relationship taking place over a five year period. Jamie Wallerstein is a young, ta...