Chris Stapleton shows his love in Edmonton
In true country music fashion, many of Chris Stapleton’s songs are about drinking – which resonated with the crowd at Northlands Coliseum on Saturday night because everywhere you looked there was beer in hand. Except for the underage fans, of course. Being 17 years old and just 3 months away from the legal drinking age […]
Stupid Fucking Bird gives wing to Chekhov
Anton Chekhov is best known outside of Russia as a playwright of yearning disappointment, unrequited love, missed opportunities and unsatisfactory relationships. He actually thought he was writing a comedy when he penned a play called The Seagull in 1896 – and therein lies a part of the problem. According to those who know about these […]
Detective farce a riot at Mayfield
We’re going to get quite a bit of Ken Ludwig in Edmonton in the next while. On March 4, the Citadel opens his Gershwin musical, Crazy For You – and in the meantime, until April 2, fans can see his comic take on the sleuth of 221B Baker Street at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre: Baskerville, […]
USS makes Edmonton happiest city on Earth
If you didn’t know any better, you might think USS was from Edmonton. The mutual love affair between this city and the Toronto duo officially named “Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker” has existed since at least 2008 when they first started playing here. USS got huge airplay on Sonic radio, which also launched the radio career of […]
REVIEW: Heavenly Blue Rodeo
Having Blue Rodeo in Edmonton for a pair of January shows is a tradition. After playing a two-nighter at the Jubilee Auditorium in January 2016, the six-piece country rock band is back for another two nighter at the Jubilee Auditorium in January 2017 – and Thursday was another packed house. This is unsurprising in a […]
Alan Thicke plays against type in last film
Alan Thicke died of a ruptured aorta on Dec. 13 after playing hockey with his 19-year-old son Carter – who happens to have a bit part in the last feature film his father starred in, It’s Not My Fault and I Don’t Care Anyway, shot in Edmonton. They did a lot together. “You could tell […]
REVIEW: Only In Vegas a full meal deal
The Mayfield Dinner Theatre may have finally hit the wall with their Christmas show this year. Not that audiences have had enough—just try to get a table for their new show, “Only in Vegas.” Perhaps their winning formula of good food, seductive nostalgia and superlative musical production has reached saturation. Probably not though, because, as […]
Million Dollar Quartet comes to life
Jukebox Musicals have been all the rage on Broadway. Examples include Buddy (Holly), Jersey Boys (about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons) and the godmother of them all, Mamma Mia (ABBA). Included in that list is the current attraction at the Citadel Theatre, Million Dollar Quartet. This production is simply superb. It was assembled by […]
OLP + IME = the new classic rock
Late 1990s nostalgia has struck with a vengeance with the return of Our Lady Peace and I Mother Earth. At this rate, we’ll be reminiscing about the 2000s, and sharing fond memories about the day before yesterday. It doesn’t feel that long ago, but it’s actually been 20 years since these two bands turned up […]
Kenny Rogers knows when to fold ‘em
He can hardly walk, he can’t stand up for very long, his voice is a raspy shadow of its former self – but Kenny Rogers is making the most of what he’s got left, one last time. What a trouper. There should be something poetic said here about saluting the lion in his final victory […]
10 out of 12 not a 5 out of 5
Toward the end of the neorealism wave in Italy in the late 1940s the auteurs of the time turned out a series of films about the ennui and boredom of the upper classes. The idea was to make the films long and boring so you wouldn’t just see the privileged tedium on the screen. You’d […]
Tegan and Sara show their pop side
It’s been both inspiring and weird to witness the evolution of Tegan and Sara from folk-singing Calgary twins to the hippest Canadian indie darlings around to the electro-synth dance-pop group they are now. Weirder still is that they’re getting more radio airplay than ever – yet the draw doesn’t equal the high rotation. Barely 2,000 […]
