Cinderella couldn’t be better
It’s perfect. I’ve never seen a more seamlessly well-produced show at Theatre Under the Stars. The musical itself isn’t the greatest, although it’s friendly and serviceable. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Cinderella for television in 1957—when it...
42nd Street: in the right neighbourhood, but not at the exact address
Yes, 42ndStreet will give you goosebumps—it gave me goosebumps—but that’s because it’s manipulating the heck out of you. In the book, which was written by Michael Stewart and Michael Bramble, it’s 1933. Peggy Sawyer, who has just stepped off the bus from Allentown,...
The Jessies 2018: three companies take most of the hardware
At the 2018 Jessie Richardson Awards, which took place in the Bard on the Beach mainstage tent for the first time this year, the juries heavily favoured three companies: Rumble, the Arts Club, and Green Thumb. There are three main categories at the Jessie Awards:...
Lysistrata: still funny after thousands of years
Let’s all just agree to see everything that Lois Anderson directs from now on, okay? Two years ago, her reinvention of Pericles for Bard on the Beach was a revelation. And this year she has brought us a Lysistrata that’s so fresh I feel younger after seeing it....
Timon of Athens gives you too much time to look at the shoes
As a script, Timon of Athens has problems. Director Meg Roe’s production for Bard on the Beach doesn’t help it out. There are good reasons why Timon doesn’t enjoy a lot of productions. The play, which Shakespeare probably co-wrote with Thomas Middleton, features a...
Pearle Harbour’s Chautauqua: a haven in troubling times
Pearle Harbour’s Chautauquais like a revival meeting for liberals—and a lot of us could use reviving these days. Chautauquas were a kind of tent meeting popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that offered a combination of entertainment and...
Once: not twice
Once is more than enough. Yes, Once won Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical in 2012, along with six other Tonys. And it has hauled in a bunch of other prizes, too, but man it’s boring! Here’s the plot: boy meets girl; they dither endlessly. To be...
As You Like It: you’ll love it
It could have been a stupid gimmick. Instead, it’s transcendent In this Bard on the Beach production of As You Like It, director Daryl Cloran has excised about half of Shakespeare’s text and replaced it with Beatles songs. Cloran sets his production in British...
Macbeth: bloody loud
Macbeth! All shouting! All the time! Okay, they’re not shouting all the time, but there is a heck of a lot of hollering in director Chris Abraham’s take on the Scottish play and all of that volume keeps us on the surface of the text. Moya O’Connell’s Lady Macbeth is a...
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.
Website by Mighty Sparrow Design.