All stories by J. Kelly Nestruck on BroadwayStars

Saturday, March 10, 2018

The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s Steven Schipper is making his exit after 30 years by J. Kelly Nestruck

The MTC’s artistic director, who brought Transit of Venus and Keanu Reeves’s Hamlet to Winnipeg, will step down in May, 2019

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 07:00AM
Friday, February 23, 2018

Review: Cottagers and Indians is a charmingly low-key production with no heroes or villains by J. Kelly Nestruck

Ojibwa playwright Drew Hayden Taylor’s latest is inspired by a real dispute between Ontario cottage owners and local Indigenous people trying to revive an old tradition

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 05:02PM
Thursday, February 22, 2018

Dear Evan Hansen, you’re coming to Toronto by J. Kelly Nestruck

Musical is set to have its first international production in 2019, as New York producer partner’s with city’s David Mirvish

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 08:34PM

Canadian production of Dear Evan Hansen set to open in Toronto in 2019 by J. Kelly Nestruck

Hit musical will come to Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre in March of next year

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 10:47AM
Friday, February 16, 2018

Review: Play Jerusalem triumphs as pure theatre of the kind we rarely see by J. Kelly Nestruck

Kim Coates, the Saskatoon-born actor, takes on the challenging lead role after a 25-year absence from the stage – and quickly shows he hasn’t lost his live-performing chops.

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 06:12PM
Thursday, February 15, 2018

Canada Council for the Arts rescinds planned grant increase for Soulpepper by J. Kelly Nestruck

Board of directors votes to keep base grant of theatre company currently being sued by four past employees alleging sexual harassment

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 07:19PM
Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Canadian Stage director Matthew Jocelyn’s last season is an ambitious farewell by J. Kelly Nestruck

Season of 17 shows includes a number of projects on which the director has personally played matchmaker

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 07:00AM
Friday, February 9, 2018

Review: The Humans is a play where everything seems so real that it takes on a surreal character by J. Kelly Nestruck

The Canadian Stage production in Toronto is as exciting and unsettling as the original in New York, which won a Tony Award for best play.

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 06:04PM
Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Come From Away's investors are doing the impossible – making money off a Canadian musical by J. Kelly Nestruck

The production has grossed more than US$60-million on Broadway to date – and has been turning a profit since it earned back its original US$12-million investment in October

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 05:00AM
Thursday, February 1, 2018

Canada Council for the Arts reviews Soulpepper funding following Albert Schultz allegations by J. Kelly Nestruck

Toronto theatre company immediately placed under ‘concerned status’ after civil lawsuits against its former artistic director were filed

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 12:00AM
Friday, January 26, 2018

Review: Declarations is ‘postdramatic theatre,’ an experimental performance with a mix of text and gesture by J. Kelly Nestruck

At first everything seems a new discovery – and then even joys become repetitive, and then maybe a new joy is there to be found in repetition, like the chorus of a song.

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 04:12PM
Monday, January 22, 2018

Review: Krapp’s Last Tape is tragicomedy that’s both rich and resonant by J. Kelly Nestruck

The production at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto is a miniature masterpiece – and absolutely prescient about how the past would be ever-present in the future.

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 05:43PM
Friday, January 19, 2018

Review: There’s more to Bears than a bit of oddly beautiful bestiality by J. Kelly Nestruck

It’s environmental agit-prop, for sure: The flora and fauna are the good guys; Kinder Morgan and the RCMP are the bad guys. It implores the audience to “fight” in its penultimate line.

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 07:46PM
Friday, January 12, 2018

Questions still hang over Soulpepper Theatre in wake of Albert Schultz allegations by J. Kelly Nestruck

Globe and Mail hears more complaints about the theatre company’s workplace culture after lawsuits filed against former artistic director

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 10:12PM
Monday, January 8, 2018

Artists issue open letter in support of women suing Soulpepper, Albert Schultz over sexual-misconduct allegations by J. Kelly Nestruck

Letter to Soulpepper’s board of directors, signed by 281 people, urges acknowledgment of ‘harm these women, and others, have suffered’

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 11:17AM
Saturday, January 6, 2018

Amid sexual harassment lawsuits, Soulpepper severs relationship with executive director Leslie Lester by J. Kelly Nestruck

Soulpepper board’s executive committee also said in a statement that it would cancel the production of Amadeus while 30 artists signed their names acknowledging an unhealthy workplace cult…

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 07:35PM
Thursday, January 4, 2018

Albert Schultz resigns from Soulpepper amid sexual harassment allegations by Molly Hayes and J. Kelly Nestruck

Earlier Thursday, actors Ted Dykstra, Stuart Hughes, Michelle Monteith and Rick Roberts resigned in support of four women who made allegations against Schultz

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 01:33PM
Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Soulpepper Theatre icon Albert Schultz accused of sexual misconduct by four actresses by J. Kelly Nestruck

Plaintiffs describe years of harassment and assault while working for Soulpepper's co-founder Albert Schultz, who has been described as a 'serial sexual predator' in separate …

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 01:02PM
Wednesday, December 20, 2017

The best theatre of 2017: Toronto, Stratford and Shaw by J. Kelly Nestruck

Touching, challenging and hilarious, here are the top 10 productions of the year – plus honours for the finest performance

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 06:00AM
Wednesday, December 6, 2017

For women’s theatre such as Toronto’s Nightwood, ‘the game has changed’ by J. Kelly Nestruck

As politics and news continue to stir the conversation around inequality, Toronto's female-fronted Nightwood Theatre has been burning brighter than ever. But for a 38-year-old company u…

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 06:00AM
Friday, December 1, 2017

Review: Heisenberg’s appeal lies in its unpredictability by J. Kelly Nestruck

You can’t quite tell where Heisenberg is going to go from scene to scene – and that’s part of the play’s appeal

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 08:18PM

Review: This twist on A Christmas Carol has a few too many Scrooges loose by J. Kelly Nestruck

On the whole it does not work as well as a fairy tale for a panto – not offering enough opportunities for group dance numbers and having too set a structure

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 06:58PM
Friday, November 24, 2017

Hadestown is immersing audiences in Edmonton, far from it’s Broadway roots by J. Kelly Nestruck

Keeping Hadestown away from Broadway, producers believe, maintains a level of anonymity beneficial to the production

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 04:25PM
Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Review: Jabberwocky goes down rabbit hole to talk about what it means to be a man by J. Kelly Nestruck

The Old Trout Puppet Workshop adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem goes from exaggerated whimsy to galumphing tragedy.

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 05:18PM
Monday, November 6, 2017

Vancouver playwright Youssef is a new kind of Siminovitch winner by J. Kelly Nestruck

Siminovitch Prize winner breaks new ground as a specialist in collaborations

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 07:00PM
Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Shaw Festival to see major mounting of Sanskrit epic The Mahabharata from Why Not Theatre by J. Kelly Nestruck

New stage adaptation of the work, previously mounted by Peter Brook to immense success in the 1980s, is fuelled by a $375,000 grant and will feature a cast from the South Asian diaspora

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 06:00AM
Monday, October 30, 2017

Soulpepper Theatre cut ties with director Laszlo Marton after sexual-harassment complaints by J. Kelly Nestruck

In recent weeks, Marton, an iconic figure in Hungary’s theatre world, has been publicly accused of sexual harassment by ten women who worked with him

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 11:16PM

Saved from bankruptcy, Magnetic North gets a second chance by J. Kelly Nestruck

Theatre festival cancelled its 2017 edition and planned to declare bankruptcy, but a group of artists and administrators have saved it from shutting down permanently

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 09:00AM
Friday, October 27, 2017

Review: In Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools, collaboration produces beautiful music by J. Kelly Nestruck

Rather than focus on conflict, the show featuring a Northern and Southern artist opts for reconciliation

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 03:35PM
Friday, October 20, 2017

The future of history theatre: avoiding conflict by including everyone’s voice by J. Kelly Nestruck

Ten playwrights of different backgrounds and languages come together to produce a play about Gabriel Dumont that pleases, puzzles and provokes through wildly shifting forms

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 04:09PM
Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Women will play Prospero, Julius Caesar, Cassius at Stratford in 2018 by J. Kelly Nestruck

Stratford Festival says putting significant number of female actors in traditionally male role part of initiative to diversify casting approach

SOURCE: The Globe and Mail at 11:11AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards