WHAT’S GOING ON: Roxy Rises After Seven Years
Time flies, doesn’t it? It doesn’t feel like seven years since the Roxy Theatre burned down one cold January morning in 2015 – leaving its resident company Theatre Network homeless. But the company survived, and at times thrived, mounting numerous shows on rented stages under the leadership of longtime artistic director Bradley Moss – all […]
WHAT’S GOING ON: Touring Artists Have Lots of Post Pandemic Music!
The pandemic has afforded famous recording artists the opportunity to make music with a freedom they could only dream about before. Usually records were made – quickly – between tours, where the real money was supposed to be. Some acts would tour too much, wear out their welcome. But hey, no tours for two years, […]
WHAT’S GOING ON: Is Live Theatre Back In Business In Edmonton?
The Law of Headlines states that if a news-paper headline is a question, the answer is always no. In this case, it’s a yes. Yes, live theatre appears to be back in business in Edmonton. Seems like all the major local theatre companies survived the pandemic and are running hot and heavy. Theatre Network is […]
EDMONTON THEATRE: Stuck in the House
If we are to believe the video posted on the Citadel Theatre’s website (above), it was Executive Director Chantell Ghosh’s idea to institute a series of short videos featuring local performers who suddenly found themselves out of work during the COVID-19 lockdown. From at home in her closet – “It’s the only place where I […]
EDMONTON ENTERTAINMENT: What Hasn’t Been Canceled?
At this point it would be easier to list the events that haven’t been postponed or canceled. COVID-19 has spooked all of humanity like an alien invasion – and we’re all in the same ark. But if you’re not in self-isolation (some people have been doing this for years), there’s still a lot of live […]
COMEDY SKETCH: Marv n’ Berry Makes Something Icy in Edmonton
Following the regionally viral video Keeping Up With the Albertans in which the province’s cities are personified as a dysfunctional family – Edmonton is the underachieving dad; Calgary the high-maintenance mom; their conflicted son Red Deer caught in the middle; mom’s hippie boyfriend Banff camped in a tent across the street; plus the unemployed houseguest […]
Mercury Opera Stages Grand Puccini in Strangest Space Yet – a Legit Theatre!
It’s not that Mercury Opera impresario Darcia Parada hasn’t produced Puccini’s beloved potboiler La Boheme in strange venues before. Back in 1994 she staged Act I of the heartrending opera in a loft in New York’s Tribecca neighbourhood. The producer-opera singer-designer-international entrepreneur has made a career out of staging grand opera in exotic locales (which […]
REVIEW: Colin MacLean Loves As You Like It, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!
At first it seems rather absurd: a mashup of Shakespeare and the Beatles. But let’s look at this: Shakespeare is the English language’s greatest dramatist, and the Beatles is the most popular band in music history. The two share a romantic sensibility. Upon closer examination the free-spirited music of the Beatles begins in the exuberance […]
John Ullyatt Soars in Life-Affirming Theatrical Experiment at the Citadel
Every Brilliant Thing is another effort by the Citadel to pry open our concept of what theatre is. Part of the “Highwire Series” of small experimental productions, it’s a one-person show featuring Edmonton actor John Ullyatt. It runs at the Citadel’s Rice Theatre through Feb. 23. The show was originally a big hit at the […]
REVIEW: Emotional Impact of Disability Probed in Pulitzer-Winning Play
Cost of Living is about society’s marginalized people isolated by poverty or disability. It features four excellent performers who fashion fully-functioning characters out of subjects that are anything but functional. The play deeply probes the problems of living with disability, and the loss and the sacrifice that entails. It minutely examines the lives of people […]
Did Citadel Theatre Ruin A Christmas Carol in Bold New Production? Colin Says No
Last year, after a successful run of 19 seasons, the Citadel Theatre sent off its justly esteemed production of A Christmas Carol (originally written by Edmonton’s own Tom Wood, who was the first Scrooge) – to the special corner of Elysium that preserves the Ghost of Christmas Past. But this isn’t the end of Dickens […]
Formula for a brilliant Citadel hit: 6 wives of Henry VIII, + Spice Girls + #MeToo
The spirited new musical SIX has catapulted onto the mainstage of the Citadel, pausing here on its way to an official opening next year on Broadway (where the theatre is already booked). SIX began its life in the midst of a poetry class at Cambridge in 2017. Toby Marlow had just been awarded a spot […]
