by Colin Thomas | Dec 8, 2016 | Review
Mary Poppins is back and she’s kicking butt. The Arts Club first mounted the musical in 2013 and they’ve been reviving it as holiday entertainment intermittently since then. This latest iteration is as strong as the first. The stage musical is significantly different...
by Colin Thomas | Dec 6, 2016 | Review
Local artists are standing on top of the world in New York and London. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times named Ride the Cyclone one of the best shows to open in the Big Apple in 2016. And the Guardian’s Luke Jennings chose Betroffenheit as one of the year’s top...
by Colin Thomas | Dec 4, 2016 | Review
It’s a stealth operation. I was watching Creeps, admiring the performances and considering the structure of the play when, all of a sudden, the emotional impact hit me and I was stifling sobs. Creeps, which premiered at Toronto’s Factory Theatre Lab in 1971,...
by Colin Thomas | Dec 3, 2016 | Review
I wrote a whole other version of this review before I realized that Holy Mo! A Christmas Show actually has a point. I suspect that’s because playwright Lucia Frangione is speaking an almost private language. In her new script, Frangione retells the story of the birth...
by Colin Thomas | Dec 2, 2016 | Review
God, I hate these people—okay, these characters. Act 1 of The Day Before Christmas digs itself into a deep hole artistically. Act 2 displays moderate improvement. This new script by local writers Stacey Kaser and Alison Kelly features Alex, a busy Vancouver...
by Colin Thomas | Dec 2, 2016 | Review
The East Van Panto is now officially the best holiday tradition in Vancouver—in my Vancouver, anyway. I started loving this year’s panto, Little Red Riding Hood, the minute I entered the theatre. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy being in an audience that has a whole...
