by Colin Thomas | Apr 28, 2025 | Review
It’s hard to overcome such inane material, but this production of 9 to 5: The Musical boasts three strong leads. This musical is, of course, based on the 1980 film, which grew out of an idea by Jane Fonda, and starred Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton in her first...
by Colin Thomas | Apr 26, 2025 | Review
The Search Party’s production of Dance Nation didn’t leave any residue, it didn’t leave a mark on me, which is disappointing. In an essential way, the world of Clare Barron’s script is a perfect fit for the themes she sets out to explore. She introduces us to a group...
by Colin Thomas | Apr 19, 2025 | Review
Jane Austen’s novels are known for their wry wit and nuanced observation of gender and class among the landed English gentry in the late eighteenth century. Kate Hamill’s stage adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is more like… a cartoon? A panto? A very long...
by Colin Thomas | Apr 12, 2025 | Review
Dead Drone is one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen thousands of shows. It’s the writing. Even scripts this bad often start off with the best of intentions, of course. In Dead Drone, playwright David Mott takes on climate change, the toxicity of social...
by Colin Thomas | Apr 4, 2025 | Review
It’s not terrible. That’s the best I can muster. Playwright and director Mieko Ouchi’s Burning Mom, which is based on her own mom’s experience, is about a 63-year-old Calgary woman named Dorothy, who heads off to Burning Man with her adult son Kevin and his pal...
by Colin Thomas | Mar 31, 2025 | Review
Talk about innovation. Talk about risk. Talk about reward. Talk about writer and director Niall McNeil’s Beauty and the Beast: My Life. Be patient with me. I want to get into the thematic content of this piece — because I find it so compelling — before I try to give...
