PLAYBOT: Foolish Foreigner fights Fringe!
What a bonehead move: A bigass high-production jukebox musical is plopping into Edmonton to compete with the opening weekend of the biggest theatre festival in the Americas – and on the same weekend as the classic rock festival, too! What were they thinking? Literally a jukebox musical called Jukebox Hero, based on the songs of […]
PLAYBOT: 30 mini Fringe reviews
A marvelous thing happened at the Fringe HQ today – 30 different theatre companies each presented one-minute scenes from their upcoming Fringe plays. At the end of the strictly-timed event – those going over getting “played off” by an air horn – tickets went on sale for the 37th annual theatre festival, Aug, 16-26 in […]
PLAYBOT: 2 Amigos live for comedy
“When Marty and I fly together,” says Steve Martin of his friend Martin Short, “we save a lot of money because Marty fits conveniently in the overhead bin.” Short says, “You look like Anderson Cooper frozen to death on New Year’s Eve.” Steve plays his banjo and sings, “Let’s count the awards you have won: […]
Carmen in the Badlands a mammoth undertaking for one night at the opera
Opera buffs have seen La Traviata in Chez Pierre, heard Nessun Dorma in a subway station, Un Bel di Vedremoon from a flatbed truck, and a full-blown Pagliacci at the Coney Island amusement park. Now it is time for another grand opera from the adventurous Mercury Opera company – in a location to end all […]
THEATRE REVIEW: Oscar gone Wilde
Since its premiere in 1895, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest has become one of the most successful and oft-produced comedies in the world. Theatre fans may find themselves mouthing the famous epigrams, aphorisms, gags, quips, bon-mots, etc. etc. with the performers on stage. That familiarity can be kind of fun as an audience […]
PLAYBOT: Earnest goes to camp
What great news it is that the respected Edmonton theatre company Teatro La Quindicina has dramatized and condensed for the stage all of the Ernest movies – which starred the late Jim Varney and will now feature Jeff Haslam in the titular role. What? OK, got to read these press releases more carefully. It’s “Earnest,” […]
Walterdale carries off ambitious mental illness musical
It took director Bethany Hughes two years to put together the current Walterdale production of Next to Normal. Along with musical director Sally Hunt, she scoured the local musical theatre scene and very carefully chose some of the best actor-singers from the bubbling amateur community – performers with proven track records, and others who have […]
Les Miserables still moves masses to tears
Just when you thought you’d never see their like again – they’re back. Those passionate French revolutionaries are storming the barricades, marching in place and lustily singing of a glorious tomorrow that will never come. When Les Miserables was in Edmonton last, circa 2013, just pausing on its way to a triumphal return to Broadway, […]
PLAYBOT: Les Miserables – oh, the irony!
Wasn’t Les Miserables originally a story about the devastating effects of poverty and injustice in early 19th Century France that resulted in the French Revolution? And now it’s a huge spectacular musical whose tickets only the wealthy can afford? Oh, the irony! That sound you hear is Victor Hugo rolling around in his grave – […]
Into the Woods: The end justifies the beans
From The Princess Bride to a little piece of cinema called Frozen, we have seen a proliferation of musicals about storybook characters – none more effective and long-lasting than Into the Woods, the 1987 Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine effort at unpacking modern moral lessons in the stories of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding […]
Forever Plaid celebrates rock history that never was
On the evening of February 9, 1964, after months rehearsing in their parents’ basements, the vocal quartet The Plaids set out for their first concert at the Airport Hilton’s Fusel Lounge. They never made it. A bus filled with Catholic schoolgirls ran full-tilt into their car and ended their dreams of success – also their […]
This is not your father’s Hamlet
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play, over four hours in length. The play, in the Heritage Tent in Hawrelak Park as part of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival until July 15, has been slimmed down to a sharpened two and a half hours (with intermission). Fortunately for us, the company has filled that time with a focused, […]
