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Live Theatre in Toronto

Saw Priscilla: Queen of the Desert today. I loved it! The actor who plays Adam/Felicia is a terrific dancer with some awesome muscle tone. Many strong performances, and the staging with the bus was very well done. The costumes were stellar as was the speed of costume changes. Many laugh out loud moments for sure and a few poignant ones as well. I highly recommend it and I hope to go back, I enjoyed it that much. C David Johnson does a good turn as Bob the mechanic. I definitely recommend going to see it.
 
Death of a Salesman-Soulpepper Theatre

Jeez, I can't wait to see "Priscilla";everybody who's seen it raves.

I went to see Soulpepper's production of "Death of a Salesman" and it is riveting. Joseph Ziegler and Nancy Palk play Willy and Linda Loman (they're a couple in real life, too). Ziegler is fantastic, frankly everybody is; Arthur Miller's play deserves nothing less than a first-rate cast. What a terrific piece of writing!

I saw this with an old friend from high school; we agreed that "Salesman" had been ruined for us by an incompetent English teacher in grade twelve. Because of him we'd managed to avoid seeing the play for forty years. Finally, we got to see it as it was meant to be SEEN, not read. We envied the kids we saw in the audience; we hope they know how lucky they are to live in a city that has so much on offer.

Two hours, fifty-five minutes, with one intermission.

http://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/10_season/death_of_a_salesman.aspx
 
Wide Awake Hearts-Tarragon Theatre

A film director has cast his wife and his best friend as lovers in a new movie; what is the film and what is reality? It's a rare pleasure to see a work that is both brand new and freaking good. Brendan Gall's play, Wide Awake Hearts, is both. I wish I had the script in front of me; there are too many good lines and too many good scenes to absorb in one viewing. There's a lot packed into this one-act, eighty minute play, but it isn't bursting at the seams, or begging for more time; it's just right. The cast (Raoul Bhaneja, Maev Beaty, Lesley Faulkner and Gord Rand) is so good, and the direction by Gina Wilkinson is so terrific, I may go see this again.


http://www.tarragontheatre.com/season/1011/wideawakehearts/
 
A Raisin in the Sun-Soulpepper Theatre

"What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"

There's a timelessness about good writing; "A Raisin in the Sun" premiered on Broadway in 1959, but its truth still resonates. There's ten thousand dollars in insurance money coming to the Younger household, a two-bedroom, roach infested flat in Chicago. Lena Younger,(Alison Sealy-Smith) the matriarch, gets to determine how it will be used to lift her family from the working poor in segregated Chicago. Terrific writing and some very good acting (Sealy-Smith won a Dora for her performance) make this a particularly satisfying performance. The set is wonderful; Scott Reid has conveyed the cramped quarters and neighbourhood the Younger family occupy brilliantly. But it's the words that linger; fifty-one years later, still true, still powerful.

This is a remount of Soulpepper's 2008 production, with most of the original cast back for an encore. Until Nov.20

http://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/10_season/a_raisin_in_the_sun.aspx

2 Hours and 40 minutes, one intermission
 
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The Year of Magical Thinking-Tarragon Theatre

My run of luck at the theatre continues with Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking". Seana McKenna reprises her performance from the Belfry Theatre production. One woman, on a stage, delivering a monologue based on Joan Didion's memoir of the year after both her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and only child, Quintana, die. The title refers to the author's own "magical thinking"; if she did this, or didn't do that, her husband would come back, her daughter wouldn't die. No histrionics on stage, just a measured, intellectual, touching, message from a woman who tells us "This will happen to you." Subtly directed by Michael Shamata, this was painfull... wonderful.

http://www.tarragontheatre.com/season/1011/magicalthinking/

One act, 90 minutes.
 
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert The Musical-Princess of Wales Theatre

Any production that can find a reason to use "MacArthur Park" deserves fours stars right off the bat! After a couple of weeks of pretty heavy theatre, it was great to just have...fun! I agree with the previous posters; the musical is a blast! I doubt there's an ounce of glitter left anywhere in the city, it's all been used on stage. LOTS of songs, LOTS of costumes, LOTS of laughs, and few squishy moments too. Though this is a "jukebox musical"( there's not a single new song in it) it means well, and it means to have a good time. It does and so do we.

2:30 with one 20 min intermission

http://www.mirvish.com/shows/Priscillaqueenofthedesertthemusical
 
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Sony Centre and Mirvish Announce Partnership

From the Toronto Star:

"David Mirvish, the largest producer of commercial theatre in Toronto, and Dan Brambilla, CEO of the Sony Centre and the biggest impresario in the non-profit sector, have formed a partnership with far-reaching implications for this city’s show business scene.

In an exclusive interview with the Star, both men revealed that they will immediately start offering their patrons special arrangements to purchase tickets for the other’s shows; help each other with cooperative publicity and make the spacious (3,200-seat) Sony available for up to 10 weeks a year for Mirvish-Brambilla co-productions that would demand the increased capacity and production facilities."

Great news!

http://www.thestar.com/entertainmen...rvish-theatres-to-share-audiences-programming
 
Studies in Motion -Canadian Stage

The complete title is the rather unwieldy "Studies in Motion: The Hauntings of Eadweard Muybridge". Written by Kevin Kerr, this Electric Company production focuses on the life of the 19th century pioneer photographer Muybridge and his obsession with motion: human, animal... you name it. I was familiar with the famous study of the horse in motion, that finally proved all four feet left the ground at once, and his equally famous study of "the running man",the motion picture (literally) in its infancy. But his life was unknown to me.This is a multimedia production that features some of Muybridge's work on screens while we see how he produced it.

There are some astonishingly beautiful scenes, some dance, some stop action; everything parsed into the components of movement. The narrative, the drama, of the piece sometimes suffers from the slick and delicious production on stage, but it is a wonderful piece of theatre, a wonderful study of a man's obsession and heartbreak. "He's always watching", complains his wife. This production compels us to watch too...and to really see. Terrific!

Two Acts; two hours and twenty minutes. Oh, there's a sign in the lobby: "Nudity on Stage", or something like that. There is a lot of nudity on stage. Muybridge says if he could strip away the skin to study the muscle in motion he'd do it. Glad he didn't.

http://www.canadianstage.com/studiesinmotion
 
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - Canon Theatre

Several funny things happen on the way to the forum, but not enough of them to make this the laugh riot it wants to be. Reading the programme notes, I learnt that Stephen Sondheim had to write the famous opening song "Comedy Tonight" in order to inform a confused audience that what they were seeing was indeed meant to be a comedy. I don't know; the very talented cast was trying so HARD. Set in ancient Rome, mistaken identities, webs of lies, kidnapped twins, whores-a-plenty, a lot of running around...the whole thing reminded me of a long Wayne and Shuster skit, and I never found them funny. And if you get that reference, we are of the same vintage. That's it! The vintage! It's a style of comedy that's past its "funniest before date". It'll never be 1962 again.


2:41 with one 20 minute intermission


http://www.mirvish.com/shows/afunnythinghappenedonthewaytotheforum
 
Who is performing in this? We saw it last year at Stratford with Sean Cullen. People in the group ranged from 18 to 83 and everyone found it hilarious, but Cullen ad-libbed quite a bit and a lot of the lines were updated with current references. I think this is a play that very much depends on the performers, not just on the written lines. I was leery about attending this production for that reason.
 
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