PLAYBOT: I see dead people – Citadel Theatre unveils new season
One of the biggest shockers in today’s announcement of the 2019/2020 Citadel Theatre season is the addition of an annual summer musical. Like why didn’t they do this before? It starts this summer with Ring of Fire, based on the life and music of the late, great Johnny Cash. He died in 2003, leaving a […]
PLAYBOT: Stage mom goes overboard in Miss Teen
What it is with stage moms becoming obsessed by their daughters’ beauty pageants? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by? You want to be supportive for your kid and all, but some mothers go way overboard. Many ridiculous cases both real and fictional are evoked in Michele Riml’s new play Miss Teen, […]
REVIEW: Blue collar drama a play for our times at the Citadel
With her Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat, playwright Lynn Nottage has created a gritty work that dramatically captures the tensions and pervasive feelings of anger and despair that have gripped middle America. This is a play for our times – an insightful work based on the lives of real people – putting a human face on […]
PLAYBOT: Sweat hits Alberta nail on the head
So now we wonder when seeing a yellow vest: “Is that a protester or just a construction guy?” Terribly confusing. It sucks that an allegedly unsavoury political group has co-opted such a common article of safety clothing designed for visibility, but what are you going to do? Judge all yellow vests accordingly? Switch to hot […]
EDMONTON THEATRE 2018: The Colin MacLean Awards
If the Alberta economy is in tatters, it would be hard to tell from the number of plays and musicals to grace our stages this year. Theatre budgets may be suffering and costs ballooning, but we fortunate Edmonton theatre-goers have enjoyed a mountain range of productions. Like our Rockies, some were high, others not so […]
PLAYBOT: Singin’ in the Freezin’ Rain
The appearance of the dependable musical warhorse Singin’ in the Rain at Festival Place Dec. 15-30 is disturbing for a couple of reasons. They’ve been running Stanley Kubrick’s ultra-violent masterpiece A Clockwork Orange on TV lately, and there’s an edgy scene during which the title song Singin’ in the Rain plays. The music is now […]
PLAYBOT: Weird story behind The Nutcracker
Everybody knows The Nutcracker – the 100-plus-year-old ballet with music by the great Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. But what is this thing really about, anyway? In a nutshell – do you see what I did there? – someone seems to have spiked the kids’ eggnog on Christmas Eve. Either that or the story’s creator Ernst Theodor […]
PLAYBOT: Last call for Carol!
You will be visited by three ghosts! The first will arrive when the clock strikes one. The second … hey, what? Where are you going? Come back here! You’re not supposed to flee the visitation! … damn it, he got away … curse these chains. Aaaaand … scene! You think the Citadel Theatre would give […]
REVIEW: Austen powers heart-warming Christmas romance
This is the time of Jane Austen. We are told that the early 19th Century author sells more books now than she ever did. Just look at the number of stage productions and seemingly unending movies based on her slender output that continue to grace stage and screen. They’ve even turned unfinished novels into movies […]
PLAYBOT: Fallen Angels high class comedy
It’s becoming clear in hindsight that women had a raw deal in the 1920s. Expected to be obedient housewives and mothers, they were assailed by prejudice and hobbled by double standards, and that wasn’t the worst of it. On the plus side, women just won the right to vote, so everything was about to change […]
PLAYBOT: High expectations for Carole King musical
How a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn became one of the greatest songwriters of all time is the rich subject of a new musical that opens in Edmonton tonight. From a Broadway hit in 2014 to the Jubilee Auditorium until Nov. 11, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical follows the inspiring story of its titular subject […]
TONIGHT, I HUNT: Myth and reality fuse in powerful Redpatch
Early in World War 1, the British High Command had difficulties in distinguishing the Canucks (considered inferior) from the Brits in the ranks. So, at the Battle of The Somme, a single red patch was attached to the Canadians’ uniforms. Some of those soldiers were First Nation and Metis. In fact, some 4,000 volunteered to […]
