FRINGE: 3 hilarious COMEDIES
The program notes for Blarney Productions’ Tragedy: A Tragedy (Stage 3) suggest a take on how a modern TV news organizations might report on the end of the world. It quickly becomes apparent that it’s not really the end of the world at all – just the usual coming of night. As a reporter observes, […]
FRINGE: 2 plays from UNEXPECTED artists
Walk (Stage 17) is unexpected because it is a new method of expression from one of Edmonton’s best writers – the Edmonton Journal’s Liane Faulder, and this is her stage version of a true story. The results demonstrate that she is a promising playwright. About 10 years ago the columnist wrote a book, The Long […]
FRINGE 5 out of 5: Xanadu a spirited send-up on wheels!
Xanadu: The Musical – at the Edmonton Fringe on Stage 25 (Strathcona High School) – was a daring Broadway experiment. The original reference is to a favourite Victorian poem. The verse inspired a 1947 Rita Hayworth movie, Down To Earth. The story is about a gorgeous Greek Muse who descended from Mount Olympus to thwart […]
FRINGE 5 out of 5: Scorch an enthralling revelation
Scorch (Stage 28) is based on the true story of the British schoolgirl who was found guilty of posing as a Goth boy to get another teenage girl into bed. She was charged and went to prison. This event, chronicled in Britain but largely unknown here, is the obvious basis for this play – but […]
REVIEW: 2 more MASTERS of the Fringe
Bright Young Things don’t mind taking on the big ones. The company has given us, and received much audience (and Sterling Award) love for previous productions such as Sartre’s No Exit and Rattigan’s Deep Blue Sea. Their current Fringe production is Tom Stoppard’s minor theatrical masterpiece, the confounding The Real Inspector Hound (Stage 12). Two […]
REVIEW: 2 MASTERS of the Fringe
Don’t Frown at the Gown (Stage 12) comes from those long-time Fringe Masters Darrin Hagen and Trevor Schmidt under the production umbrella of Guys in Disguise. The duo, who write and perform their own stuff, have long since broken out of the gay ghetto (although their orientation is obvious and celebrated), with shows like Flora […]
THEATRE REVIEW: Oscar gone Wilde
Since its premiere in 1895, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest has become one of the most successful and oft-produced comedies in the world. Theatre fans may find themselves mouthing the famous epigrams, aphorisms, gags, quips, bon-mots, etc. etc. with the performers on stage. That familiarity can be kind of fun as an audience […]
Walterdale carries off ambitious mental illness musical
It took director Bethany Hughes two years to put together the current Walterdale production of Next to Normal. Along with musical director Sally Hunt, she scoured the local musical theatre scene and very carefully chose some of the best actor-singers from the bubbling amateur community – performers with proven track records, and others who have […]
Les Miserables still moves masses to tears
Just when you thought you’d never see their like again – they’re back. Those passionate French revolutionaries are storming the barricades, marching in place and lustily singing of a glorious tomorrow that will never come. When Les Miserables was in Edmonton last, circa 2013, just pausing on its way to a triumphal return to Broadway, […]
Into the Woods: The end justifies the beans
From The Princess Bride to a little piece of cinema called Frozen, we have seen a proliferation of musicals about storybook characters – none more effective and long-lasting than Into the Woods, the 1987 Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine effort at unpacking modern moral lessons in the stories of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding […]
Forever Plaid celebrates rock history that never was
On the evening of February 9, 1964, after months rehearsing in their parents’ basements, the vocal quartet The Plaids set out for their first concert at the Airport Hilton’s Fusel Lounge. They never made it. A bus filled with Catholic schoolgirls ran full-tilt into their car and ended their dreams of success – also their […]
This is not your father’s Hamlet
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play, over four hours in length. The play, in the Heritage Tent in Hawrelak Park as part of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival until July 15, has been slimmed down to a sharpened two and a half hours (with intermission). Fortunately for us, the company has filled that time with a focused, […]
