Monday, May 25, 2015

Spidey’s saviours by Shinan Govani

Cohl is positive, but cautious. Asked if they can make the investment back, he coughs up, “I sure hope so, but it’s showbiz. Who knows?”

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 05:58PM

Review: Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark by Jamie Portman

Too often Broadway’s Spider-Man comes across as a Cirque du Soleil reject. No matter how airborne it seeks to be, it ends up painfully earthbound. Expensive pyrotechnics are no substit…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 05:58PM
Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Scrooges Survey: 10 stage-bound Ebenezers on what really bahs their humbug at Christmastime by David Berry

Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol invites a sort of bean-counting, stock-taking and soul-searching this time of year, so we asked Canada's stage Scrooges to give us their opinions o…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 11:38AM
Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Opera Review: William Tell from Turin hits the mark by Arthur Kaptainis, Special To National Post

Yes, Virginia, there is an opera called William Tell attached to the overture we love so well. And it is good enough to sustain interest in concert

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 12:18PM
Friday, November 28, 2014

Theatre Review: God only knows what troubles await the priestly hero of The De Chardin Project by Robert Cushman

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French geologist and paleontologist whose crucial scientific work was done before the Second World War. He was also a Jesuit priest

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 04:15PM
Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Canadian Opera Company auditions put young talent in the stage’s spotlight by Arthur Kaptainis

The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio is almost literally a troupe of young singers waiting in the wings, appreciated in principle for their hard work in supporting roles but only occas…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 05:35PM

Jokes about jokes: Andy Kindler’s meta-comedy reveals the DNA of funny by Gerry Flahive, Special To National Post

Andy Kindler is a professional comic. Yes, it’s a profession. Even if there’s no stand-up comedy guild, no code of practice, no adjudication board

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 11:54AM
Monday, November 24, 2014

The Scottish plays: The Royal National Theatre pays tribute to the forgotten Jameses; The Scottsboro Boys is the best musical of the millenium by Robert Cushman

Mary Queen of Scots is a sovereign who has never lacked for theatrical attention. The James Plays are an ambitious attempt by a Scottish playwright and TV writer, Rona Munro, to even the odds

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 11:45AM
Friday, November 21, 2014

Two new productions — NSFW and Sextet — strip down concepts that are definitely not safe for work by Robert Cushman

The acronym NSFW stands for 'not safe for work.' The play of which the acronym is the title has a further subtitle: Money, Sex and Photoshop

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 03:38PM
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Governor General’s Award winner Jordan Tannahill’s rainbow connection by Naomi Skwarna, Special To National Post

Jordan Tannahill was sweeping the grey-and-white checkered floor of Videofag — the arts venue he runs with William Ellis in Toronto’s Kensington Market — when he won the Governor Gener…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 03:07PM
Monday, November 17, 2014

Christopher J. Hanke flexes his comedic chops in Buyer & Cellar by Laura Calabrese

Christopher J. Hanke was 18 years old and studying in London when he had what he calls his “aha!” moment

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 11:53AM
Friday, November 14, 2014

Theatre Reviews: The Motherf–ker with the Hat and Arcadia are both masterpieces by Robert Cushman

The plays are more successful at evoking a world than at making a point, but they still dazzle

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 03:48PM
Monday, November 10, 2014

The stunning complexity of the National Ballet’s Manon, reviewed by Dana Glassman, Special To National Post

The ballet's tragic ending leaves you feeling like your heart is about to explode

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 10:00AM
Friday, November 7, 2014

Theatre Review: Soulpepper resurrects one lively graveyard with Spoon River by Robert Cushman

Welcome to the graveyard. You’ll be amazed at how lively it is. Spoon River is adapted, by Albert Schultz and Mike Ross, from Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 06:22PM
Friday, October 31, 2014

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Gerontius is to die for by Arthur Kaptainis

Like most Catholics and most Victorians, Edward Elgar regarded death as a doorway rather than a terminus

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 04:30PM

Robert Cushman: Two plays in London’s West End are metrics of monarchy and the modern press by Robert Cushman

'The historical novelist,' or so I once read, 'must necessarily turn history into romance, and romance will always lie with the deposed or threatened king'

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 03:41PM
Monday, October 27, 2014

Review: Opera Atelier’s Alcina is magic in the moonlight by Arthur Kaptainis , Special To National Post

Can this really be the first Opera Atelier staging of an opera in Italian by Handel?

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 01:16PM
Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Death of Klinghoffer gets standing ovation inside the Met as Rudolph Giuliani joins protesters outside by Verena Dobnik, Associated Press

About 400 people stood behind police barricades chanting "Shame on the Met!" and carrying signs saying "The Met glorifies terrorism" before the company's first performance of The Death of Kl…

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 02:54PM
Friday, October 17, 2014

Theatre Review: What Makes a Man parcels out the words and music of Charles Aznavour — which sounds more promising than it is by Robert Cushman

It seems that hardly a show can open in Toronto that isn’t a tribute to some troubadour or other

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 02:38PM
Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Opera Review: The Canadian Opera Company’s Madama Butterfly is a notch below essential by Arthur Kaptainis

Not a night of bel canto. Verismo? Yes, especially after intermission. And Puccini throughout, which of course has everything to do with the indestructability of Madama Butterfly

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 04:24PM
Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Chagall that jazz: Theresa Tova’s Bella brings the wild story of the painter’s muse to life by Mike Doherty, Special To National Post

'There’s drama, there’s humour, there’s Hitler — it just goes everywhere'

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 02:05PM
Friday, October 10, 2014

Second City’s latest is one for the funny by Robert Cushman

Rebel Without a Cosmos doesn't match its predecessor, but it has its share of giggle-worthy gags

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 04:08PM
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Theatre Review: Tarragon elevates a ‘lesser’ Ibsen in one of the great plays about sibling rivalry by Robert Cushman

Ibsen scholars have generally ranked An Enemy of the People fairly low in their man’s canon, maybe because of its spirited straightforwardness

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 12:54PM

For playwright Alison Lawrence, the chatter after the play’s the thing by Samantha Sobolewski

There’s something almost unsettlingly attractive about the coincidental timeliness of The McGuffin Company’s latest theatre production, The Things Between Us

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 12:32PM
Monday, September 29, 2014

JFL42 in review: Amy Schumer, Tig Notaro among best of fest by Noah Loverebecca Tucker

With another edition of the fest in the books, Noah Love and Rebecca Tucker hand out a few awards from the week that was

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 12:43PM
Thursday, September 25, 2014

JFL 42 Review: Paul F. Tompkins is as charming as his moustache by Rebecca Tucker

JFL42 takes over Toronto’s theatres and comedy clubs until Sept. 27. Here, Rebecca Tucker enjoys an evening with Paul F. Tompkins

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 04:36PM
Monday, September 22, 2014

Theatre Review: Cast of Aussie convicts in Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good can’t avoid anachronisms by Robert Cushman

With a cast composed of transported convicts, Our Country’s Good, by the contemporary British dramatist Timberlake Wertenbaker, is now touching down in Toronto for the second time

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 03:57PM

JFL42 Review: Mike Birbiglia sure knows how to tell a story by Rebecca Tucker

First thing's first: You are not allowed to read another line of this review until you go listen to Mike Birbiglia's 2011album Sleepwalk With Me Live in full

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 02:59PM

Theatre Review: Rob Ford the Musical is a show without substance — which may be for the better by Robert Cushman

The show that has opened could not be called good, but it isn’t uniformly terrible either. It defeats expectation in other ways too

SOURCE: National Post (Canada) at 11:16AM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 15, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic