Fresh Sheet Full Reviews logo
THE SCHOOL OF ROCK: Joy Arrives

THE SCHOOL OF ROCK: Joy Arrives

It takes a while for The School of Rock — the musical itself, more than the  production — to find its groove. Or maybe it just takes a while for it to find my groove. If you asked the creators of School of Rock, the musical or the non-musical movie upon which it’s...

read more
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS: Some Errors, Some Comedy

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS: Some Errors, Some Comedy

Watching this production of The Comedy of Errors is kind of like waiting in a two-hour lineup for a 15-minute ride. The show doesn’t really pay off until the very end. Before that, it burbles along pleasantly enough, but it’s weirdly shapeless. So what’s going on? A...

read more
RING OF FIRE: It’s Empty

RING OF FIRE: It’s Empty

If you’re looking for a musical revue with no story or ideas, you’re in luck. This Arts Club production of Ring of Fire is well staged, well designed, it contains some strong performances and, of course, it features a bunch of great songs by Johnny Cash and others,...

read more
HAMLET: Unexpected Elsinore

HAMLET: Unexpected Elsinore

Clarity is both the blessing and the curse of director Stephen Drover’s production of Hamlet — mostly the blessing. I was grateful to have some parts of the story more clearly defined than they’ve ever been for me. But it’s also important to remember that the play is...

read more
TWELFTH NIGHT: What country, friends, is this?

TWELFTH NIGHT: What country, friends, is this?

A couple of hours before the lights went up on this Bard on the Beach production of Twelfth Night, Kate Besworth got the call that she’d be going on as Viola: Camille Legg, who is cast in the role, has been laid low by a nasty bug. Besworth is the understudy for...

read more
MEDICINE: I Could Use a Stronger Dose

MEDICINE: I Could Use a Stronger Dose

For at least the first two-thirds of Medicine, I was bored. It was never the actors’ fault, it was the script’s. When hope made an appearance in the story, I started getting into it. Irish playwright Enda Walsh’s 2021 work is set in an activity room in a psychiatric...

read more
BARBU: Again! Again!

BARBU: Again! Again!

So sexy. So much fun. For a good time, call Barbu at 604-251-1363. That’s The Cultch’s box office number. Created by Montreal’s Cirque Alfonse, which is a family-and-friends operation, Barbu sets out to recreate the feel of the circuses that toured Québec at the turn...

read more
WHEN WE WERE SINGING: A Flawed Good Time

WHEN WE WERE SINGING: A Flawed Good Time

I enjoyed myself at When We Were Singing. Beyond that, the analysis gets more complicated. Off the top, I want to thank the company for accommodating my schedule and letting me see this show in its first and only preview. To be clear, this cast had never performed in...

read more
Freshsheet Reviews logo reversed

Subscribe Free!

Sign up for the FRESH SHEET newsletter and get curated local, national, and international arts coverage — all sorts of arts — every week.

Contact

Drop a line to colinthomas@telus.net.

Support

FRESH SHEET, the reviews and FRESH SHEET, the newsletter are available free. But writing them is a full-time job and arts criticism is in peril. Please support FRESH SHEET by sending an e-transfer to colinthomas@telus.net or by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Copyright ©2025 Colin Thomas. All rights reserved.