WEEKEND MUSIC: I will follow Death Cab for Cutie into the dark
I Will Follow You Into the Dark kills me every time I hear it. The 2005 song by Death Cab for Cutie is on the subject of literally undying love. It’s a perfect song with acoustic guitar, over which frontman Ben Gibbard sings a dark lullaby: “Love of mine, someday you will die, but I’ll […]
REVIEW: Billy Idol shows off his age in short River Cree concert
It’s a shame that Mythbusters isn’t running on the telly these days, because if there’s one popular fabrication that needs to be debunked, it’s that being a sexagenarian has absolutely nothing to do with sex. All they have to do is trot out Billy Idol as Exhibit A – and silence those age-shaming social media […]
Italy comes alive in Walterdale romance
The Light in the Piazza is a rarefied experience. It’s not a brash, glitzy Broadway show. Although some of its demands are operatic, it’s not an opera. It’s more of an operetta. Adam Guettel’s music is lush, but quite complex with unsuspected harmonic shifts. To give you an idea of what it calls for in […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Founds Grounds Abounds
Two of the city’s most extraordinary promoters, Double Lunch Productions and Sweaty Palms, have joined forces to put on an epic series of shows called the Found Grounds Music Series at the Backstage Theatre (Old Strathcona Arts Barns), during the city’s Found Festival. Friday’s show is perhaps the pinnacle with Jessica Jalbert. She is of […]
LISTEN HERE: Ken Stead in Trouble
If you’ve got trouble, wait, don’t run! This kind of trouble is lots of fun! This familiar commercial for the old board game may offer insight into the mindset of local singer-songwriter-rocker Ken Stead when he wrote a song called Trouble. It deals with man (or woman, depending) who finds himself in a real relationship […]
WHO NAMED THE BAND: The Dungarees fit perfectly
Naming a country band is just as difficult as naming a rock band. It’s like branding a cow – to use a simile country folk may be familiar with. The cow doesn’t want to be branded. It resists the branding iron, because it hurts. Yet once the scar has healed the cow barely notices the […]
Opera NUOVA’s Secret Garden blooms in dark musical at Festival Place
Many remember Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved 1911 novel The Secret Garden as a great read from their childhood. It’s about a hidden garden that flowers and brings new life to all who enter. A new production of the Lucy Simon (music) and Marsha Norman (book & lyrics) 1991 musical from Edmonton’s Opera NUOVA – in […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Edmonton honoured to host Edmonton Music Awards
It’s an honour just to be nominated – but it’s better to win. That’s what most award nominees say (or at least think secretly) – and the musicians vying for trophies at the annual Edmonton Music Awards are surely no exception. The gala taking place Thursday at the Winspear Centre features seven performances: Ben Sures, […]
REVIEW: Two-minded winter play sparkles in summer Shakespeare festival
The Winter’s Tale is Shakespeare’s great “problem play.” It has been staged with varying degrees of success for 500-odd years and is still regularly produced today. At the Freewill Shakespeare Festival in Hawrelak Park until July 14, this is the “serious” play to balance the comic one (Two Gentlemen of Verona: READ REVIEW). Actually The […]
Shakespeare sitcom gets a Freewill facelift
Geoffrey Rush’s seedy theatre manager character has a bit of advice for budding young playwright William Shakespeare in the movie Shakespeare in Love. “If you want to succeed as a writer,” he suggests – all you need is “comedy, love and a bit with a dog – that’s all they want.” Tom Stoppard (who won […]
REVIEW: Mayfield masterfully mines mid-Century mystery
British mid-Century writer Anthony Shaffer was an aficionado of gaming. From tic-tac-toe to three dimensional chess, he loved them all. So was his close friend, the Broadway composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Back in the late ‘60s Sondheim challenged his game buddy to write a play about a complex battle between two skilled players. Shaffer did just […]
REVIEW: Corey Hart does the time warp
There was no room for cynicism at the Edmonton stop of Corey Hart’s “Never Surrender” tour on Friday. More than 5,000 in Rogers Place lapped up a 17-song set peppered with teary-eyed soliloquies about family values and gratitude towards his fans. Factor in all the cringe-worthy statements about love and peace that wouldn’t have been […]
