Little Mermaid comes to life with wondrous St. Albert Children’s Theatre show
Back in 1989, The Little Mermaid set off a renaissance in the Disney world. The company had gone three decades without a hit. Indeed, Disney was seriously considering getting out of its signature animation business completely. Then a whole new set of animators were hired, new goals were set, The Little Mermaid was a hit […]
A PLAY FOR OUR TIMES: Wild Wilder Wonderfully Done by Bright Young Things
The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder’s head-scratcher of a three-part allegory about the precarious life of mankind, debuted in 1942. The biting satire won a number of best play awards – including the Pulitzer Prize – and immediately became a hit in the early years of World War II. Watching it return in 2019 […]
Theatre Network season opener a smart two-hander with humour and heart
Mark Crawford’s Bed and Breakfast is one of those Canadian stage comedies that overcame small beginnings in a summer theatre in Ontario to take on a life of its own – and much like Kim’s Convenience, became the basis of a successful television series. Theatre Network begins its new season in the Roxy on Gateway […]
REVIEW: MacEwan Theatre tackles challenging ’70s musical to great success
The musical Pippin has been a long time coming to Edmonton. The Stephen Schwartz (music and lyrics) and Roger O. Hirson (book) opened on Broadway in a Bob Fosse production in 1972. The original ran for a long time (36th longest on Broadway) and in 2013 was revived in a successful production. The show is […]
Spotlight Cabaret a Welcome Addition to Edmonton Entertainment Scene
Edmonton’s newest dinner theatre is in the lively Spotlight Cabaret that sprung up off Whyte Avenue last summer and became something of a fun place to be. It’s across the street from “Meat.” There’s a bar, a restaurant and a popular patio that presented cabaret shows for a ready audience. Co-owners Aimee Beaudoin and Jeff […]
Class of ’63 chews up groovy bubblegum at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre
The first sprig of Christmas greenery to appear this year is courtesy of the Mayfield Dinner Theatre. For many years now, it has been their seasonal tradition to unleash another of their large-scale, lavishly-produced musical extravaganzas that have proven to be great crowd pleasers – and to generate lots of Christmas cheer at the box […]
REVIEW: The Beast is BACK!
The current production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast comes from our spunky local musical theatre production company, Foote in the Door. The troupe began when a group of graduates of the Citadel’s Foote Theatre School, having tasted the magical waters of musical theatre, decided to found a platform for their continuing obsession. Earlier productions […]
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 […]
REVIEW: Workshop West drama exposes dark underbelly of Edmonton
Back in 1978, Workshop West was just a gleam in Gerry Potter’s eye. He founded the company to give Alberta playwrights a shot at seeing their works actually produced on a stage. Since then, many plays have graced its various stages. In 2014, playwright Vern Thiessen returned from New York, changed the name of the […]
REVIEW: The Odd Couple meets Breaking Bad in Shadow Theatre production
The Roommate at first glance plays like a re-imagining of The Odd Couple – but it’s much more than that. Jen Silverman’s new comedy-drama, which comes to Edmonton for a Shadow Theatre show after a successful run at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, strikes off in its own subversive directions. It plays at the Varscona Theatre until […]
REVIEW: E-Day a frenzied political comedy – just in time for the real election!
In the political circus to the South and the attendant carnival in Canada, Edmonton’s adventurous independent company The Serial Collective has chosen to look backward at a time of political ferment in Alberta. E-Day is a comedy based on playwright Jason Chinn’s time as a volunteer with the NDP during those heady days of their […]
REVIEW: Baroness Bianka’s Bloodsongs a Delightfully Grisly Comedy
One always approaches Northern Light Theatre Artistic Director Trevor Schmidt’s new seasons with a sense of wonder. Where does he find these plays? He must spend a lot of time scouring dusty scripts from all over the world because he inevitably finds hidden treasures and spins them into theatrical gold. Perhaps it’s not the plays […]
