PLAYBILL: Fashionable Cinderella
Let’s face it: Most Cinderella stories do a bad job when it comes to the clothes. It’s usually set in medieval times, first of all, when muddy rags were all the rage. And trained magic birds can only do so much: Sewing her frumpy, froofy, glittery, totally unsexy gown in story after story. The pretty […]
Dinner party implodes in powerful Disgraced
Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Disgraced is a worthy member of a theatrical sub-genre that might be described as the “imploding dinner party.” A group of people gather in a living room for an evening of civil conversation, there are already tensions in the air when the evening starts and everything goes south from there. […]
Red Cannons unite band of brothers
There is evidence that brother bands are tighter than bands whose members are unrelated – in as many ways as you want “tight” to mean. There are exceptions, of course, but sometimes you can just tell. Hear the creative cohesion, for instance, on the Red Cannons’ new EP Always Something. The Spruce Grove band plays […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: January thaw
We’re in the depths of what’s usually the coldest part of the year, which scares off all manner of touring musicians – though you wouldn’t know it, of course, and with temperatures on the weekend expected to soar well into the single digits, you might just be tempted to leave your jacket in the car […]
Inside the song: That Damned Filthy River
You can tell that a songwriter is being honest when they get inspired by their own backyard. Hard to fake that. Local rootsmith Jake Ian has hit the mark with a worthy song of the land, or water, anyway, called That Damned Filthy River. It’s a dark and beautiful love letter to the North Saskatchewan. […]
PLAYBILL: The end of the world as we know it
A group of scientists sequestered in a secure facility in the Far North are tasked build a device that will destroy the sun. Why? Who knows? But Star Killing Machine a musical comedy! How’s that for a twist? They can make anything into a musical comedy these days – and the world is better for […]
REVIEW: Fire from the ashes in Annapurna
Twenty-five years ago, actors Shaun Johnston and John Hudson put together a new company called Shadow Theatre to present “modern theatre for adult audiences.” A lot has changed. Hudson also still performs, but now is best known as a sensitive director with a deft feel for text. Johnston went on to be a staple 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 […]
Fortune Falls more style than substance
Of Jonathan Christenson’s dark Catalyst Theatre off-Broadway production of Nevermore – The Imaginary Life & Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, one waggish New York reviewer observed, “Quoth the raven – Lighten up!” It looks as if Christenson took it seriously. His latest musical, Fortune Falls, which plays through Feb. 5 on the Citadel’s Maclab […]
MUSIC PREVIEW: Must be January, Blue Rodeo is here
Today on Hinterland Who’s Who: Like the swallows to Capistrano, Blue Rodeo returns to Canadian concert halls once again for their annual migration. Behold the wonders of nature! Wait, are there any swallows left or are they all extinct? Where the heck is Capistrano, anyway? No fair Googling. Anyway, Blue Rodeo is a perennial Canadian […]
INTERVIEW: Blue Rodeo careful with politics
Blue Rodeo might be too close to themselves to understand how interesting it is that they didn’t include their one-off protest song Stealin’ All Our Dreams on their new album, 1000 Arms. Maybe it’s a hidden secret bonus track? “It is?!” exclaims singer Jim Cuddy in a recent interview. No … what? It is? “No.” […]
PLAYBILL: Awkward encounters
A Muslim, a Jew, an African-American and a white person have a heated conversation over dinner in New York City. What could possibly go wrong? Didn’t you listen to your mother?! No sex, politics or religion at the dinner table! All the characters in Ayad Akhtar’s explosive drama break mom’s rules in a play that […]
