EDMONTON CONCERT PREVIEW
The city’s 2020 major concert schedule was looking a little sad for a while there – a desert punctuated by an April oasis, with Alice Cooper at the Jube on April 15, (he just gets better with age), James Taylor with Bonnie Raitt (April 17), a Celine Dion double-header (April 21-22), and then nothing. After […]
MUSICAL REVUE: Plain Jane’s Reign Falls Mainly on the Refrain
We owe a debt to Plain Jane Theatre’s Artistic Director Kate Ryan. Who knew it? While Curley was out there singing Oh, What a Beautiful Morning in Oklahoma – waiting in his hovel was a guy called Judd who was going to sing Poor Judd is Daid. While Robert Weede was warbling The Most Happy […]
REVIEW: The Farce is Strong With Manic Mayfield Comedy
Michael Frayn’s backstage comedy Noises Off premiered in 1982 and has gone on to become the ultimate classic farce and theatrical in-joke – displaying to hilarious effect how private passions can intrude on public performance. The comedy has been around for so long that anyone who spends much time in the theatre will have endured […]
Gender Wars Reach Fever Pitch in Hilarious Happy Birthday Baby J
Here’s a play for those of us who are endeavouring to come to grips with the increasing complexities of living in a gender-diverse society where sexuality is expressed in a very fluid and ever-changing manner. Even the lexicon of describing this rainbow-coloured world is full of traps for those who may have missed the subtleties […]
REVIEW: Everybody Loves Robbie a Heartfelt Heartbreaking Musical Comedy
In the first moments of Northern Lights Theatre’s Everybody Loves Robbie, two young people are dancing up a frenzied give-her-all bubble gum roughhouse. The two are obviously lost in delirium – and each other. A few minutes later she pauses and asks plaintively, “Don’t you just love it when you’re making out and your partner […]
Did Citadel Theatre Ruin A Christmas Carol in Bold New Production? Colin Says No
Last year, after a successful run of 19 seasons, the Citadel Theatre sent off its justly esteemed production of A Christmas Carol (originally written by Edmonton’s own Tom Wood, who was the first Scrooge) – to the special corner of Elysium that preserves the Ghost of Christmas Past. But this isn’t the end of Dickens […]
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 […]
OLD MAN MIKULA’S CONTROVERSIAL OPINIONS: Mr. Alberta Want Separate!
Carbon Tax frigfrog boobledunk ug termpt wempel spleg Liberal minority skump peener teet compo NDP bung Greens shnug posso beepboop Alberta bergen pick furndy equalization payments. Plock do diddly whop possler Calgary gribble pimpstimp gibbler energy corridor. Pecken waffel shneeze plensin Alberta prug robe do-dup feffle pep Ontario bling blong peckinposs Conservative Doug Ford flemp […]
Experimental reality show at the Citadel reveals our true selves – and it’s not pretty
It’s Fight Night – and we’ve been conditioned to expect what comes next. It’s a boxing match. There’s a ring. A pool of light. A mic drops down from the darkness and a droll soft-spoken dude in a suit and bow tie announces the battle to come. What follows seems to be a random series […]
