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Live Theatre in Toronto

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? -Soulpepper Theatre

Edward Albee’s 1962 play, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?†is, in my opinion, a touchstone for writers; the stitching together of words, and how that stitching is pieced together, is a crash course on how to craft a fine play. To watch George (Diego Matamoros) and Martha (Nancy Palk) engage in a scorched earth, take no prisoners, dance of mutual destruction is to see a form of marital living that is equal parts hate and love, or rather, what’s left of what passed for love. They drink alcohol as if it were water, using it to fuel the cruel, co-dependant games they play with each other. But, what good are games without an audience? Two strangers, Nick (Tim Campbell) and his wife Honey (Diana Donnelly) have been recruited to watch George and Martha annihilate each other. Police officers know that “domestic disturbance†calls are dangerous; they don’t know the history they’re walking in on, the couple just as likely to turn on them as they are on each other. Too bad Nick and Honey don’t know that. Martha and George draw them into the game along with the audience. When Honey shouts gleefully, “Violence! Violence!â€, she speaks for us as well.

Diego Matamoros’ performance is wonderful, starting tired and old and escalating to murderous rage. Nancy Palk gives her best performance yet, her sharp voice perfect for the slashing cuts she inflicts on her husband. Diana Donnelly as the dimwitted, rich young wife is spot on but, in my opinion, Tim Campbell delivers the best performance of the evening as Nick, the befuddled, horrified, and manipulated participant. The stage set by Astrid Janson is all leathery, booky- professorial, constructed on a raked stage that provides just the right amount of visual trickery; everything, at least from my seat, was slightly askew, as if I’d had a couple of drinks too many.

A terrific play,directed by Diana Leblanc ,and brought to life by a superb cast.


http://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/09_season/who's_afraid_of_virginia_woolf.aspx

In three acts with two intermissions.
 
Altar Boyz-Toronto Centre for the Arts

The new kid on the block, Angelwalk Theatre, presents its first production at the Toronto Centre for the Arts in the Studio Theatre. “Altar Boyz†is (OMG!) such FUN! How could a musical about a Catholic boy-band out to save our souls not be? For 90 minutes, with no intermission, Ken Chamberland (Matthew), Aidan deSalaiz (Juan), Jeigh Madjus (Mark), Erin Morin (Luke) and Stephen Roberts (Abraham) with the aid of the “Soul Sensor DX-12â€, sing, dance and rock us to salvation. And boyz, did I want to be saved! Sweet, silly, funny and touching, the quintet pokes fun at boy-band clichés while actually being a very good boy-band while doing it. The director/choreographer, Tim French, keeps his guys moving well and almost constantly (this must be a physically exhausting gig). Backed up by a great little band, this musical (that opened off-Broadway in 2005) has finally made its way to T.O. It's worth the trip up to North York and, best news of all, it’s been extended to Oct 18th!


http://www.angelwalk.ca/
 
Antigone - Soulpepper Theatre

Soulpepper’s “Antigoneâ€, by Jean Anouilh, based on the play by Sophocles, is as fresh, biting and timeless as it must have been when first staged in France in 1944. It’s one of those plays that makes me wish I had a photographic memory; there are so many lines I wanted to remember but, in the end, I’m left with little parts of things that I must make into a whole. “Unlike melodrama, tragedy is clean, restful, and flawless. In tragedy, everything is inevitable, hopeless, and known. All are bound to their parts.†That quote I lifted from the internet; I had to get it right.

Creon, king of Thebes has ordered that one of Antigone’s dead brothers be buried with full honours, the other to lie exposed to the elements, ensuring his soul never enters the afterlife. Antigone takes exception to this, and knowing she faces death, tries to bury her brother, not once, but twice. She is, after all, a daughter of Oedipus and we all know how well he turned out. The scene where her Uncle Creon gives her a few home truths about the brother she so wants to honour is a freakin tour de force. This isn’t a period piece; the dialogue is as modern as the battle between youth and age, passion and order, destiny and choice, are ancient.

This play is worth seeing just for R.H Thomson’s portrayal of Creon, King of Thebes. But with a stellar cast onstage it’s an embarrassment of riches. Liisa Repo-Martell, as Antigone gives, I must admit, an uneven performance, sometimes delivering her lines in a zoned-out monotone that grates against the realistic emotional style of the rest of the cast. But she can and does, soar to the occasion. There are no small parts or small actors in this production; I’ve seen them all, on different stages throughout the city, and to gather them on one stage is an occasion in itself. Maggie Huculak (the nurse), Claire Calnan (Ismene), Jeff Lillico (the Guard), Jordan Pettle (Haemon) David Storch (The Chorus) give terrific performances. Andrew Barbosa (the page) who must be all of ten years old, speaks only a couple of lines at the end of the play, but speaks them well. A little joke in the programme: Soulpepper veteran, Nancy Palk, is named as “Eurydiceâ€, a character that is mentioned but never appears on stage. Even that was a wonderful! Directed by Chris Abraham (who happens to be married to Ms.Repo-Martell.)

I loved this play and I loved the cast. One hour and 45 minutes, without intermission, just sails by.

http://soulpepper.ca/performances/09_season/antigone.aspx#overview
 
The Drowning Girls - Tarragon Theatre

“The Drowning Girlsâ€, starring Daniela Vlaskalic, Beth Graham and Natascha Girgis must be seen to be appreciated. Three women (with the aid of three bathtubs and lots of water) tell their sordid, terrible tale. Each has been duped into marrying the same psychopath of a man who relieves them of their money, and then of their lives. To me it seemed as if the women were shocked by their own demise and used the play to explain to the audience, to each other, and to themselves how this could have happened and why they let it happen. Set at the turn of the 20th century, each in turn and in unison tell us what marriage meant to women doomed to spinsterhood in a society that had no place for them. What easy prey this made them to the man who would be their undoing. They were so desperate for love, companionship and security that they willingly surrender themselves to him in a very short time (a couple of weeks!).

This play is as much choreographed as acted; the actors move on stage and in and out of the bathtubs (their husband’s preferred method of murder) as if in a sodden, waterlogged dance. They play a number of characters along the way, some who try to warn them, some who will testify at trial. That two of the actresses on stage, Daniela Valsjalic and Beth Graham co-wrote the play along with director Charlie Tomlinson is indicative of what multi-talented performers these women are. The bathtubs I mentioned are magician’s hats, the actors able to pull from them all sorts of little props that help to illustrate their awful stories. To the director (choreographer) Charlie Tomlinson, I tip my hat, to the set and costume designer Bretta Gerecke I offer my congratulations and to lighting designer, Narda McCarroll, I applaud. What a terrific piece of theatre!


And earlier version of The Drowning Girls premiered at the 1999 Edmonton Fringe Festival. The version, now making its Toronto debut at The Tarragon Theatre, premiered on March 6, 2008 at Alberta Theatre Projects in 2008.

Eighty minutes, no intermission. I’m assuming that because the actors on stage were wet for the entire play, the heat in the theatre was turned up. Be ready to shed clothes.


http://www.tarragontheatre.com/season/0910/drowninggirls/
 
The Boys in the Photograph -The Royal Alexandra Theatre

“The Boys in the Photograph”, at The Royal Alexandra Theatre, stars Erica Peck (Mary McGuire), Tony LePage (John Kelly), Shawn Meunier (Ginger O’Shaugnessy), Richard McMillan (Thomas Malloy) and a number of other talented worthies. All of them deserve their spot on the stage, and all of them will get paid this week. Good, they’ve earned every dollar they get. Too bad the musical they’re in is such a dud. Andrew Lloyd Webber has been tinkering with this thing for a long time, even changing its ending to something happier, and removing a song to recycle in his up coming Phantom sequel.

Mary and John are, worst luck, coming of age in Belfast in 1969, just as the 30 years war is about to start. John is a promising soccer star and Mary is concerned for the rights of the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. The central conceit of the piece is a photograph taken of the soccer team after winning the local championship. Their image, all innocence and hope, is frozen in time. For the next couple of hours (or couple of years) we get to see what happens to them as their friendships, lives, and country fall apart. A musical can be made out of just about anything, even soccer and Northern Ireland’s civil war. But such a dull, creaky old-fashioned musical? Wouldn’t the subject matter suggest a newer, riskier approach? I guess not.

The first act, opening with a sort of “West Side Story on Lucky Charms” number was long. The second act, opening with a sort of Doris Day/Rock Hudson honeymoon thing was interminable. I drifted off several times to ruminate on how bloody uncomfortable the Royal Alex is; I’m prepared to suffer for art, but why must I suffer for Lloyd Webber’s art? Finally, near the end of the second act, comes a song entitled, aptly enough, “It Will Never End”. John, and the friend who has betrayed him, meet in a London bar and they sing of the never-ending murder in the future, the closest thing I got to artistic integrity all evening.

Did I mention how good everyone is? Let me reiterate; they sing and dance so well I almost wept that they had to do it in this superficial, dull, vehicle. Erica Peck, who I last saw in “We Will Rock You”, has a wonderful, versatile voice. Nothing she’s given to sing lives up to it. None of the dancing, singing, and EFFORT from this great cast can lift this lame horse to its feet. Time for his lordship to put it down.

http://www.mirvish.com/boys/
 
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Rock'N'Roll-Canadian Stage Company

“Rock’N’Roll", Tom Stoppard’s newest play, did neither. What it did do is make me scratch my head and wonder how the man who wrote “Travesties”, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”, “The Real Thing” etc, could pen such a bad play and get it staged again. Missing in action is Stoppard’s exquisite facility with words and word play. Did anyone at Canadian Stage SEE this thing before they thought to present it? I read the 2007 review of it in the New York Times and can’t, for the life of me, equate its glowing praise with the words I heard on stage tonight.

The play takes place over decades, from 1968 to 1990,ending with a concert given by The Rolling Stones in Prague. It concerns itself with the revolutionary power of rock and roll in the emergence of the democratic movement in Czechoslovakia. Taking place in Cambridge, England and in Prague, the play contrasts the attitudes of a young Czech PhD student/ rock music fan who has to live in the oppressive reality of his home country with those of his British Marxist professor who continues to live in the Communist ideal. Relationships between the Prof (Kenneth Walsh) his dying wife (Fiona Reid) are juxtaposed with …

You know what? I wasted two hours and 40 minutes on this dog and I’m not wasting a minute more. The play is bad and the cast never rises to much of anything;it "strives for inertia" if I may mangle a phrase from the play itself. I should have done what most of the people in my row did and left at intermission. My belief, that with manure there must always be a pony, was put to the test and failed. It’s in its final few days at The Bluma Appel Theatre.
http://www.canstage.com/rocknroll
 
Tewder said:
I read somebody refer to it as Mamma Mia for dudes... made me laugh.
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:D Jeebus! All we need is ANOTHER juke box musical! I'm glad that it'll give some Canadian kids an opportunity to strut their stuff, and I think it'll play BIG here. I can't say anything more about this musical or I'll start gagging again.;)
 
BASH’d : A Gay Hip-Hopera-Theatre Passe Muraille

So, I managed to miss“BASH’d”the first two times it was in town; damned if I was gonna let it go again. Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow wrote and star in this 60 minute all-rap, all-hip-hop, examination of gay love, gay marriage and gay bashing. Using the musical genre that has become infamous for its loathing of the first two and the encouragement of the third, Craddock and Cuckow, (who love this type of music) turn it on its ear.

Two gay rappin angels, Femminem (Craddock) and T-Bag (Cuckow), flow the story of Dylan, the country boy, and Jack, the big city slicker. Boy meets boy. Boy marries Boy. Boy Gets Bashed. Boy seeks Revenge. This play came out of the same-sex marriage debate in Canada back in 2005. Alberta’s then premiere, Ralph Klein, used language so provocative against same-sex marriage that there was a notable spike in anti-gay violence. (I remember he threatened to use “The Not Withstanding Clause” to opt Alberta out of the whole marriage debate.) It’s to my embarrassment that whenever “the city” is mentioned in the play I assumed (centre of the universe type that I am) that it was Toronto they were referring to. But it’s Edmonton where this play is set, which make sense: I don’t remember a lot of extra violence against gays here at that time. (Am I right?) The two guys perform all the characters in the play. In one number, set in a gay bar, all the "usual suspects" are characterized hilariously. It alone is worth going to see. What a freakin hoot!

At the beginning, they tell us that rap is like Shakespeare, and you just have to tune your ear. They’re right. Just like Shakespeare, after the first couple of minutes, my ear was tuned and I was right into what they were saying, although confined to my seat when, like “all real faggots”, I should have been on my feet dancing and “waving my wrists”. The language is harsh and real; even the announcement at the beginning to turn of cell phones might offend. But this is a very traditional story at heart, about love and the futility of violence. It’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s sad and it’s worth seeing.

It's received rave reviews where ever it’s played: Toronto, New York etc and it’s on its way to Vancouver for 2010. We get it here and now.

http://passemuraille.on.ca/09-10-season/bashd/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udDa3u2aSbc
 
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The Toxic Avenger Musical-The Music Hall

“The Toxic Avenger”, Dancap’s latest offering, is silly, funny, and pseudo-gory enough to please the most discriminating of Halloweenie fans. Tromaville, New Jersey is in big trouble. Aided and abetted by Mayor Babs (Louise Pitre) it has served as New York’s toxic dumping ground for too long. Enter Melvin Ferd the Third (Evan Alexander Smith) to save the day. Well, sort of. A White Dude (Jamie McKnight) and a Black Dude (Daren A. Herbert), working for the dastardly Mayor, give the good Melvin a close encounter of the noxious kind turning him into… “THE TOXIC AVENGER!!!”, or “Toxie” for short. He returns to his unrequited, literally blind, love, Sarah (Brittany Gray), to win her over, while slaying, in the goriest fashion, the bad people who cross him. Comedy ensues, the action picks up, cast members change characters, clothes and gender often enough to make you dizzy, all in front of a very ominous (and clever) set made up of toxic waste barrels.

This cast of five actors plays thirty different characters in this 100-minute, no intermission funfest. With songs like “My Big French Boyfriend”, “Thank God She’s Blind”, “Choose Me Oprah” and the terribly sexy “Evil is Hot”, they can sing devils up from hell. And these are FIRST RATE singers: Louise Pitre: “Mama Mia”, “Les Miserables”, Jamie McKnight:”Hair”, Daren A. Herbert:”We Will Rock You”, Brittany Gray:“Urinetown”. I hadn’t heard Evan Alexander Smith sing before, but with a voice like his, I want to hear him again. Actually, this musical is a bit like storing a really good wine in a gaudy plastic jug; I’d love to hear this cast in something top notch. But what the hell, they’re having fun and so did I.

http://www.dancaptickets.com/home
 
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A friend of mine saw Toxic Avenger The Musical and loved it, he said it was a blast. I was a fan of the original Troma film waaaay back when, so I'm curious to see what they've done with this. Maybe....
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
A friend of mine saw Toxic Avenger The Musical and loved it, he said it was a blast. I was a fan of the original Troma film waaaay back when, so I'm curious to see what they've done with this. Maybe....
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I hope you check it out...so much fun. Dancap is offering $15.00 rush seats that you can order on-line starting from noon on the day of the performance.:)

http://www.toxicavengertoronto.com/
 
Tewder said:
I didn't think it had opened yet. Okay Benc7, fess up! How'd you get in??
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It's been in previews for a while. The official opening is Oct 31st (I think). There were, from what I've read, a few technical issues that needed clearing up, but that's what previews are for. Last night's performance was free of all the sound glitches (YAY!). I just went to the Dancap website and got a ticket(YAY!)

It's cool 'cause usually you have to go to the box office to get the last minute rush seats, but here they let you order them on line on the day of performance starting at noon. (YAY!):)
 
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