REVIEW: The Sound of Music fresh like alpine stream
Rogers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music may not be a sound that’s been sung for a thousand years, but it certainly has been around for a long time. It debuted on Broadway almost 60 years ago and, overcoming charges of saccharine sweetness. For years Christopher Plummer referred to the 1965 movie he starred in […]
Sharp Dwarvish Axe hews Expo media
Sam Maggs had the toughest job in Edmonton on Tuesday night: moderating a question period with John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli in The Lord of the Rings. At a media preview for the sixth annual Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo running Friday through Sunday at the Edmonton Expo Centre, the English actor talked for an […]
PLAYBILL: The Hills are ALIVE! Aieeee!
If you didn’t know what comes after “The hills are alive …,” you might get the wrong idea and think you’re at a horror movie. What aforementioned sentient buttes are alive with is of course the title of one of the most famous musicals of all time, The Sound of Music – the Broadway Across […]
Protest erupts at BreakOut West
It’s interesting to reflect on the slow and steady increase of how often and in how many ways musicians have been convinced to perform for free – for “exposure.” On the flip side, shouldn’t they be free to do so? The music business is a different beast than it used to be. So here we […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Kaleido scope astounding
What the Fringe is for theatre, the Kaleido Family Arts Festival is for the Edmonton music scene. For there’s a blithering bonanza of live music descending on the Alberta Avenue community this weekend. A not-so-quick count reveals more than 180 different gigs in almost every genre in 14 different venues, indoors and out, alleyways, patios, […]
PLAYBILL: From tragedy comes comedy
It turns out that Taylor Swift isn’t the first person in the history of the world to create art inspired by heartbreak. About 500-something years ago, a British playwright named Will Shakespeare had a torrid love affair with someone else’s fiancé – and as one might expect, it ended badly. But then he finished Romeo […]
Win Gene Simmons tickets!
To boldly go where no man has gone before! That should correctly read, “To go boldly where no person has gone before.” Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it – and anyway it doesn’t matter because we’re talking about Gene Simmons today. The KISS bassist is just one of the many celebrity guests at […]
REVIEW: Super Soul Sistas
In their unending forensic probing of pop music for discerning dinner theatre patrons, the Mayfield Theatre is trying something new – well, not really new, but something a little different. Instead of giving us a musical genre (folk music) or a group (The Beatles) or an individual (Buddy Holly, Patsy Cline), they have combined the […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Say Yes to Yes
Eight members of the progressive rock band Yes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame earlier this year, in what some would argue was the apogee of their historic musical career. Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the British prog-rock band – yes, 50th – and they’re already planning an […]
PLAYBILL: Respect for Soul Sistas
One of the things the Mayfield Dinner Theatre has going for it is its artistic director Van Wilmott – whose gifts are brought to full fettle in the season opener Soul Sistas, depicting the lives and music of Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner. No word if they’re going to touch on their reported feud. And […]
