REVIEW: Working for The Weeknd
A lot of batteries were drained at the Weeknd concert in Edmonton on Monday night. That’s because there were so many slow songs. It was like rich cannabis syrup in there. Great singers like Abel Tesfaye are suckers for ballads – which always demand a tribute of light from fans. In the old days people […]
REVIEW: Lemoine remount a dark delight
Stewart Lemoine has long been a champion of new talent. Not one to write throwaway material at developing performers, the local playwright-director always brings his full canon of talent to bear on his embryo performers, whether writing for the Citadel, Grant MacEwan or local stage-struck lawyers looking for a new play in which to perform. […]
REVIEW: End of the road for Nickelback!
Edmonton seems to be the place for all these nostalgia bands to wind down their tours. From Peter Gabriel with Sting to Metallica, and recently Coldplay on shows No. 104 and 105 of their two-year world tour, promoters are choosing our gorgeous late summer-early fall nights to close out the concert season. Better late than […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Not the worst band in the world
Make no mistake: Nickelback has been bullied. They are victims of bullies. You should all be ashamed of yourselves! What did they do to deserve such treatment? All they did was create bland, massively popular rock hits that made millions of dollars by catering to the lowest common denominator, by sounding like catchy pop-country hits […]
REVIEW: All hail Coldplay
Coldplay gave everybody a free LED wristband, so the audience could become a spectacular part of the light show at Rogers Place on Tuesday night – and then they blew off the confetti cannons in the first song. Usually that comes at the end. It figures. Coldplay has always set the bar high for themselves. […]
PLAYBILL: Shockers Delight! revives, renews
When you’ve written dozens of plays over 35 years like Stewart Lemoine, you’re entitled to a few reruns – but, like Star Trek, occasionally you want to get some fresh faces into the story. Shocker’s Delight! was a hit when it was first produced in 1993, and will now enjoy its third remounting at the […]
Shatnerd vote sewn up at Edmonton Expo
There is something unique about the Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo. It is a place where shy teens wearing homemade body armor can have their picture taken by a woman with three breasts; a place where a mother and daughter, both dressed as Power Girl(s), discuss in utter disbelief the fact that the knives sold […]
Remand Centre haunts Edmonton singer
Going back to the decrepit, ugly, shut-down old Edmonton Remand Centre for a recent film shoot was an emotionally wrenching experience for Stephanie Harpe – because the local singer and actor was there as a prisoner in the past, “before I got sober,” she says. Harpe tells her story openly, “I was in and out […]
Shakespeare in Love a hit! A most palpable hit!
Despite its origins as an Oscar-winning movie, the stage version of Shakespeare in Love is a smart love story as well as a witty love letter to the collaborative nature of theatre. At the Citadel Theatre through Oct. 8, it’s set in the dynamic, productive theatre scene of Elizabethan London. Even the Queen is a […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Peak Coldplay
This weekend features a lot of awesome talent playing our local music venues, but let’s face it, most music fans are holding their breath and waiting in anticipation for the arrival of Coldplay next week for a pair of shows – Tuesday and Wednesday at Rogers Place. Ever since their start in the mid-1990s, the […]
