As far as live acts go, the Blue Man Group would seem to fall somewhere between a ‘90s Lollapalooza side stage oddity and an indisputably bitchin’ laser show. Stemming from this altogether radical branch of entertainment, the resulting performance is a cavalcade of flashing lights, pulsating rhythms, and perhaps most surprisingly, hearty laughs.

The cast of Forests, in the initial dinner celebration scene. The guests, and even the expectant parents, are blissfully unaware of the decades-old familial trauma that’s part of the forthcoming child’s birthright. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann. Forests In the opening scene of Québécois (and Governor General Award–winning) playwright Wajdi Mouawad’s new play, Forests, his [...]

Tony Nappo as the titular cosmonaut in The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union. Photo by Bruce Zinger. The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet [...]

The students of Our Class at play, before bigotry drives their adult selves apart. Photo by John Karastamatis. Our Class In Studio 180‘s Canadian premiere of Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s 2010 play Our Class, 10 Polish schoolchildren—five Roman Catholics, five Jews—grow into adults who do horrible things to each other: aggression, rape, murder, and one especially horrible [...]

Jack Langedijk investigates a mysterious sound in the night. Ghost Stories Approaching a predominantly cinematic genre such as horror to create a stage production is an ambitious endeavour—though not at all an impossible one. Not long ago, in fact, Toronto made that argument loud and clear with the four-part thrill ride The Mill, which proved [...]

Albert Schultz and Krystin Pellerin. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann. Our Town In theatre, there are a few classics⎯The Crucible by Arthur Miller, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, Antigone by Sophocles, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, and anything by Shakespeare are a few. These are plays that [...]

From March 9 to 13, Torontoist is covering the crap out of Canadian Music Week, with daily concert and film previews, reviews of the latest action, words with your favourite and soon-to-be-favourite bands, and more. Opopo played the Indie Love Radio show at the Royal York on Friday afternoon. Photo by Corbin Smith/Torontoist. Friday and [...]

From March 9 to 13, Torontoist is covering the crap out of Canadian Music Week, with daily concert and film previews, reviews of the latest action, words with your favourite and soon-to-be-favourite bands, and more. Miracle Fortress at Lee’s Palace. Photo by Corbin Smith/Torontoist. Did you make it out to CMW day two last night? [...]

From March 9 to 13, Torontoist is covering the crap out of Canadian Music Week, with daily concert and film previews, reviews of the latest action, words with your favourite and soon-to-be-favourite bands, and more. Montreal’s Half Moon Run were one of the best surprises of CMW’s first night. Photo courtesy of Half Moon Run. [...]

If you’ve always been intrigued by David Mamet’s most famous, most controversial play, if you’ve always meant to catch the show but never quite managed to get there—go see Soulpepper’s production of Oleanna. The acting is excellent, the direction is smart, and the production is very well-executed. If you’re already familiar with the play, if [...]

It’s wild outside, huh? So wild that it allows us to segue into talking about Strange Wilderness first, for some reason. It surprises us that the last Happy Madison film that we saw was (the quite sweet, really) 50 First Dates. Strange Wilderness is only of interest to us because it has quite possibly the [...]

Soulpepper, that scrappy little theatre company from The Distillery, just released their 2008 schedule. If you haven't seen a Soulpepper play before, you've been missing out on some of the best theatre this city has to offer. This past season was one of Soulpepper’s greatest. Among other fantastic shows, the company put on an astounding rendition of Brecht's The Threepenny Opera and a hilarious staging of William Saroyan’s Time of Your Life. They also...