One of the best things about this production is its minimalist staging. (Photo of Stephanie Liatopoulus and Seth Gordon Little by Derek Fu.
Why, dear God? This production of Silence! The Musicalis a waste of talent. [Read more…]
Archives for July 2019
The Drawer Boy belongs on the drawing board
July 21, 2019 by 4 Comments
(L-R) Darcey Johnson, Angus Gill, and Chris Lam confront each other about why The Drawer Boy is so listless. (Photo by Zemekiss Photography)
***Guest review by David Johnston
My editor would probably ask me to rewrite this review if I just made it the word “NO” in 128-point font, so let’s get through this as painlessly as possible. [Read more…]
Superior Donuts: superior production
July 20, 2019 by Leave a Comment
You want to see these guys perform together. You really do. (Photo of David Nykl and Chris Francisque by Zemekiss Photography)
Superior Donuts is delicious.
Set in 2008, Tracy Letts’s script is about the friendship between Arthur Przybyszewski, a white, second-generation Polish-American guy who runs a donut shop in the Uptown neighbourhood of Chicago, and Franco Wicks, an ebullient young black man who shows up very eager for a job and immediately starts recommending poetry nights and healthy menu options. [Read more…]
Born Yesterday: a difficult birth but, finally, a healthy baby
July 18, 2019 by Leave a Comment
Like a certain orange president, Paul Herbert’s Harry Brock thinks it’s all about him. (Photo by zemekiss)
Billie Dawn, the central character in Born Yesterday, may go down in history as the greatest bimbo of all time. I’ve watched the movie version of Born Yesterday over and over and there’s a small, sunlit temple in the inner reaches of my heart that’s dedicated to the worship of Judy Holliday, who won an Academy Award in 1950 for her performance as Billie.
I used to feel guilty about loving bimbos; I thought that adoring apparently dumb blondes made me a bad feminist. Those days are gone. Bimbos are innocent clowns and their innocence gives them powerful insight.
The thing that has always made Born Yesterday thrilling — and that makes it urgent right now — is the way that it combines feminism with a stirring defence of democracy and democratic institutions. [Read more…]
Newsies: the news is it’s frickin’ fantastic
July 11, 2019 by 2 Comments
Just wait till they start dancing. (Photo by Lindsay Elliott)
This show features some of the best musical-theatre choreography I’ve ever seen — and I’m gay and old, so I have seen a lot of musical theatre, my children. [Read more…]
Mamma Mia!: a nest of earworms
July 10, 2019 by 2 Comments
Shiny pretty things. (Photo of Lori Ashton Zondag, Caitriona Murphy, and Sheryl Anne Wheaton by Lindsay Elliott.)
Mamma Mia! Here were go again.
Mostly, director Shel Piercy’s production of this ABBA jukebox musical is cluttered and loud, but it also contains some really good bits. [Read more…]
All’s Well That Ends Well: the pick of the season (so far) at Bard
July 1, 2019 by 1 Comment
Sarena Parmar is both steely and fragile as Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well (Photo by Emily Cooper)
Yes! This is the Bard on the Beach production I’ve been waiting for. This is the one to see.
All’s Well That Ends Well is rarely produced — and there are good reasons for that — but co-directors Johnna Wright and Rohit Chokhani have set the story in India in 1947, in the last days of the British Raj, and that choice unleashes myriad pleasures. It’s exciting to see more of Vancouver represented onstage and in the audience, thrilling to hear Hindi spoken in a Bard production, a joy to be introduced to so much previously unfamiliar talent, and a treat to revel in the aesthetic exuberance of the spectacle — including the glittering fabrics and infectious dancing. [Read more…]
