Results tagged “canstage”

Continuing the merry trend of importing whatever's been a hit on Broadway or the West End from the past several years, CanStage kicked off its current season with Tom Stoppard's latest effort: Rock'n'Roll. In this show, a decades-spanning epic, Stoppard tells the story of a Cambridge University family who become involved with a visiting scholar from the former Czechoslovakia. It opens shortly after the Prague Spring of 1968 and finishes up at a Rolling Stones concert just after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The history of communism in Czechoslovakia is interwoven with the history of rock'n'roll music, as well as Czech scholar Jan's interest in civil disobedience (and Czech rock band the Plastic People of the Universe), Marxist Cambridge professor Max's family life, and the mental decline of Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett. If you think that sounds like rather a lot of things to be jammed into a single play, you are absolutely right. In fact, it's far too many.

Rick Miller has made a name for himself through his explorations of two of our society's most important (and ever-present) icons: Jesus Christ and Homer Simpson. MacHomer, his one-man version of Shakespeare's Scottish play as performed by the cast of Matt Groening's yellow-skinned dysfunctional family, has toured the world to great acclaim. His follow-up to that show was Bigger Than Jesus, a collaboration with accomplished director Daniel Brooks, which examined everyone's favourite carpenter from several different angles. In the duo's latest co-creation, HARDSELL, familiar cultural figures are absent. Instead, they give us an entirely new face. Literally.

Each week, Drama Club looks at Toronto's theatre scene and tells you which shows are worth checking out.

Last winter, CanStage was in a real crisis. Massive lay-offs, dodgy "resignations" and an upcoming season boasting not one single Canadian play had a lot of people pretty peeved. Enter The Berkeley Street Project. Co-productions with Nightwood, Studio 180, and Necessary Angel were announced to round out the season at the company's smaller theatre, keeping the Canadian Stage Company, well, Canadian, not to mention offering self-described "edgier" works. Up first is Nightwood with its adaptation of Helen Humphreys' novel Wild Dogs.

Nominees for the 29th annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards were announced yesterday morning at the Sony Centre. Over muffins and coffee, various TAPA members, politicians, and mainstays of the Toronto theatre scene presented three awards and read off a long list of those eligible for taking home the coveted (if heavy) jesters come June 30th. This year’s nominee list, for the most part, is a rich cross-section of the Toronto theatre-going scene over the past year.

December Man, currently playing at CanStage's Berkeley Street Theatre, is not a happy play. But it's won a Governor General's Award, so you know going in that it's going to be about a depressing moment in Canadian history. In this case, the moment in question is the 1989 Montreal Massacre. Rather than dramatizing the events themselves (which would be pretty tasteless), The December Man tells the personal story of one family and how the massacre affected them. The play opens on a middle-aged French-Canadian couple (played by Nicola Lipman and Brian Dooley) making preparations for an unclear event. Eventually, you realize the two have made a suicide pact and are planning to asphyxiate themselves through carbon monoxide poisoning. The rest of the piece plays backwards, Memento-style, each successive scene taking place previous to the one that preceded it. Gradually, you come to understand that the couple's son, Jean (Jeff Irving), was present at the massacre and, overcome with survivor guilt, also killed himself. The couple become unable to cope with life without their son and decide to join him, the mother planning on meeting Jean again in Heaven, the father more skeptical.

When it premiered in the 1980s, Fire, a "jukebox musical" set to the music of Jerry Lee Lewis and some Christian spirituals, was considered something of a sensation. Twenty years later, CanStage has decided to revive the show, bringing the multi-talented Ted Dykstra (pictured) back to the role of Cale Blackwell, a fictionalized stand-in for Lewis. While none of this sounds like a terrible idea, the current production of Fire which opened last night at the Bluma Appel Theatre, plays like the theatrical equivalent of a "you had to be there" joke. The story is inspired by the lives of rock-and-roller Jerry Lee Lewis and his televangelist cousin Jimmy Swaggart and their respectives rises and falls. The musical turns them into brothers named Cale and Hershel Blackwell, two men bonded by blood, sundered by religion and driven by a passion for Jesus, an eager audience and the just-post-pubescent temptress named Molly they both love.

Gossip no longer, culture vultures. We've finally got confirmation on CanStage's upcoming season. Like it or not, it looks like the rumours are true. As we reported before, the Bluma Appel Theatre's rather commercial lineup is entirely free of any Canadian-written shows, which has some folks in quite a tizzy. And as we suspected, CanStage is getting its CanCon through co-pros at the Berkeley Street Theatre. They're calling it The Berkeley Street Project, and it seems intended to supplement the Bluma's playing-it-safe season with "edgier, more provocative works." The first show, Wild Dogs (a co-production with Nightwood Theatre), is a stage adaptation of Helen Humphreys' eponymous novel. Up next, Studio 180 co-produces the Canadian premiere of Blackbird, a West End and off-Broadway hit by British (and consequently not Canadian) playwright David Harrower. The final co-production (with Necessary Angel) is the Toronto premiere of HARDSELL, a new work by Bigger Than Jesus team Daniel Brooks and Rick Miller. (Although, the only reason CanStage can claim "Toronto premiere" status is that the workshop presentation Brooks and Miller were going to present at Passe Muraille a month ago was cancelled due to illness.)

Leave it to CanStage to somehow, in the midst of extreme internal upheaval what is maybe their darkest financial hour, be simultaneously running two of their strongest shows by far in recent memory. In fact, Palace of the End (which closes tomorrow night) and The Clean House (which runs until March 8) aren't just good shows for CanStage, they would be amazing shows for anywhere. Hopefully, they can win the audiences they deserve, but it's certainly disheartening to finally see the company do something really, really right while knowing what's in store for the future. The abrupt departure of new Artistic Director David Storch a few weeks ago was enough of an unpleasant surprise. But further news reported in The Toronto Star was even more alarming. A total of 10 CanStage staff members have apparently been laid off, including dramaturge Iris Turcott, who, like Storch, will henceforth bear the dubious title of "consultant."

Want to hear the news that's been making its way around the water cooler at theatres all over town this afternoon? Well, do you remember back in May when we reported that actor/director David Storch would be promoted to Artistic Director of CanStage as a result of a recent regime change? Apparently, as of today, in only the seventh month of his directorship (which officially began on July 1, 2007), Storch has resigned from the position. At least, that's what CanStage says. Those in the know who have heard about recent layoffs are calling shenanigans on the official story of "conflicting artistic visions" and saying that Storch got the sack. It is certainly abrupt for an Artistic Director to leave a theatre company before a single year's tenure, and well before the end of the current season. Especially when many are calling Palace of the End, which Storch directed and which is playing until February 23rd, the best thing CanStage has produced in years. Not to mention the fact that he is scheduled to direct Misery, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel, for CanStage in May.

Palace of the End, Judith Thompson's most recent play, is not only her most political work, it is also her best. As most auditioning actors in this country have discovered, Thompson's greatest strength has always been her monologues, and in this piece, she uses that strength to its full advantage. In fact, she dispenses with character interaction altogether and breaks her show into three long monologues, each spoken by someone who has been greatly affected by the political situation in Iraq from Saddam's rise to power to the present. Interestingly, while Thompson has created the text for the show, she has not created fictional characters. Though they are not credited as such in the program, the following becomes clear: Maev Beaty's "American Soldier" is none other than Abu Ghraib's favourite dishonourable dischargee, Private Lynndie England; Julian Richings' "British Microbiologist and Weapons Inspector" is WMD whistle-blower and Thom Yorke muse David Kelly; Arsinée Khanjian's "Iraqi Mother" is the less notorious Nehrjas al-Saffarh, a woman who was tortured along with her children during Saddam's reign and died in the first Gulf War.

In a strange moment of synchronicity, there are currently two musicals on the Toronto stage about a man who kills people and disposes of their bodies by feeding them to someone/something. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has been playing at the Princess of Wales since early November, and closes on December 9. Sweeney tells the story (which we are all likely to become more familiar with after Tim Burton's film adaptation...

Hannah Moscovitch's play East of Berlin is familiar territory for Tarragon's extra space. Remember Rosa Laborde's Léo, which was remounted last season? Well, here's another show in the same space that's set in South America, has political subject matter, spans the life of its main character, and features only two other actors, a man and a woman, both of whom he has sex with. This may be a bit of a tangent, but Torontoist...

Last night at the beautiful Winter Garden Theatre, the winners of the 28th Annual Dora Awards were announced in a ceremony hosted by the hilarious Rick Miller (of MacHomer and Bigger Than Jesus fame). The Doras are basically Canada's version of the Tonies, except you can't watch them on TV and see Molly Ringwald and John Stamos jazz-hand their way through a radical new interpretation of Hello, Dolly! As one might expect, the whole affair is generally more sedate and even less people care about the results. But we do! It's also somewhat validating to see shows that Toronto reviewed positively get the respect they deserve (and occasionally shocking to see the same respect lavished on things we thought were crap). Now, there were a lot of awards being handed out last night, so let's be a jerk and ignore the hard work of all the behind-the-scenes people and focus on the flashier trophies.

American playwright Tony Kushner is one of the most important playwrights of contemporary theatre. He also remains conspicuously under-produced in our fair city. His landmark play Angels in America (since adapted into a popular HBO miniseries) has received only one Toronto production in CanStage's 1996 season, noticeably absent from any season at Buddies. It's unsurprising then, in a way, that Mercury Stage's production of Homebody/Kabul at the Berkeley Street Theatre, a play that caused quite a stir in New York and London about six years ago is its Canadian premiere.

Some biggish news announced this week in regards to two of this city's major theatres: Passe Muraille and CanStage (oh, I'm sorry, I mean "The Canadian Stage Company"—more on that later). Let's start with Passe Muraille, the plucky underdog.

Canstage's heavily-hyped season-ending production of The Rocky Horror Show has finally opened at the Bluma. Last season, they finished things off with "revolutionary" 60s musical Hair, and this year they have opted for one of the 70s' key "revolutionary" musicals. Fortunately for the audiences, Rocky is an infinitely superior show to Hair in almost every way: the songs are catchier, the characters more memorable, the plot more engaging and Canstage's production, helmed by Ted Dyskstra (co-creator of 2 Pianos, 4 Hands and Toronto's Hedwig), is significantly more finessed.

Canstage's publicity department might have you convinced that the only thing on their plate right now is the upcoming Rocky Horror production heading to the Bluma at the end of the month, but tucked away at the Berkeley is a real theatrical gem that deserves its own audience. Lucy, written by local actor/playwright Damien Atkins, is about a thirteen-year-old autistic girl who has to go live with a mother who abandoned her as a baby so that she can attend special schooling. At first, her mother has no idea how to cope with the demands of caring for an autistic child, but as the play develops, so does their relationship and the mother (played by Seana McKenna) realises she and Lucy may have more in common than she first thought.

Morris Panych shows abound in this city. In the past few years alone, we've had Vigil, The Dishwashers, The Government Inspector, Habeas Corpus, Take Me Out, Amadeus, Sweeny Todd and The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl. After What Lies Before Us, The Overcoat is his second Canstage show of the year - and it's only February! He has become a theatre artist of a very divisive nature - some people love his whimsical physicality and often over-the-top sensibilities, and some can't stand it. But if you have to see (and enjoy) one Morris Panych show, The Overcoat is surely that show.

What Lies Before Us is the new play by Morris Panych, one of Toronto's theatre auteurs-du-jour. This one is only written by Panych, though, and directed by Jim Millan, ex-Artistic Director of Crow's Theatre. It's the story of two geographical surveyors stuck in the Rockies in pre-Railroad Canada with only a Chinese-speaking "manservant" to keep them company.

Glorious! The True Story of Florence Foster Jenkins: The Worst Singer in the World has just opened for CanStage at the Bluma. It tells the tale of Ms. Jenkins, a soprano who died in 1944, shortly after giving a series of concerts at Carnegie Hall. The hook, to which the play's subtitle alludes, is that Florence Foster Jenkins was truly an awful singer. If you want to hear for yourself, check out this recording of her singing the Queen of the Night aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute. Glorious! follows Florence Foster Jenkins from the time she meets her pianist, Cosmé McMoon, to her performance at Carnegie Hall, and is supposed to be an inspiring comedy about someone following her dream no matter how terrible she is. The problem with Glorious! is that art begins to imitate life a little too closely - the play seems to believe itself to be both inspirational and hilarious when, in reality, it hardly functions on a higher artistic plain than Madam Jenkins' singing.

Canstage opened its new season at the Bluma Appel with a much-ballyhooed production of Of Mice and Men (scooping Stratford's 2007 season), which resulted in Torontoist's inbox becoming full of e-mails requesting that we audition our dogs for the show (we declined). Things recommenced rather more innocuously at the Berkeley Street Theatre with the world premiere of The Story of My Life, a self-labelled "small musical." The two-hander is all about friendship and death. Or something.

last night. As the photos in the adverts promise, the cast is young, gorgeous, and sometimes scantily clad. The tagline in the adverts ("Now More Than Ever") is less accurate, however.

, CanStage's first production of 2006. The title refers to the thousands of children who were sent from Scotland to work on Canadian farms between 1868 and 1930 - they were known as "home children", and it is thought that a good tenth of today's Canadian population is made up of their descendents. But MacLeod's play isn't a sweeping historical overview - on the contrary, the action is set in the present day (or five years ago at most - it's a little unclear), and follows the usual tropes of Canadian drama. Lorna (Brenda Robins) returns to the family farm in Cornwall, Ontario for the first time in years (she's been living in Toronto, of course - semiotically the city of soulless single mothers who have betrayed their heritage). Her father Alistair (the excellent Eric Peterson), was a home child, and has always refused to talk about his miserable childhood. He suffers a stroke during Lorna's visit, and she learns from his stroke-induced rantings that he had a younger sister, Katie, back in Scotland. Lorna, thrilled by this accidental revelation from her normally taciturn father, determines to track down her long lost aunt.

, which has its official opening tonight (we caught a preview yesterday). It's great to see Albee on Toronto's stages, and given the respect of a stellar cast. R.H. Thompson is great as Martin, a successful architect who, the week of his fiftieth birthday, admits to his best friend that he's been having an affair with a goat (the eponymous Sylvia) for the past six months. This news wreaks havoc on his relationship with his wife, Stevie but seems to bring him closer to his son, Billy, whose homosexuality Martin has been having difficulty dealing with (a fact that seems somewhat ironically hypocritical, given the circumstances).

is full of doctors who feel up their patients, and vicars who look up girls' skirts. Booby-grabbing is frequently substituted for an actual punchline, and there is a running joke about the "permissive society" that flew right over our head. The older members of the audience (who were all tuxed up for the opening, which TOist loves to see) all seemed to have a good chuckle, so our nonplussed reaction may have been more of a generation gap problem than anything else. It's not that this production has nothing to recommend it; the inexplicable dance sequences are a lark, the lighting is beautiful, and Shiela McCarthy is always a joy to watch. And we certainly don't begrudge Panych his ribald whims, but we can't really help but wonder what CanStage, whose mandate is ostensibly to promote Canadian theatre, is doing with a dated (and misogynistic) British farce, no matter how shiny they've made it.

Death, sickness and resurrection in today's theatre round-up:

and much, much more. Expect Torontoist to be out with our bibs on and our spoons ready to slurp up some of Canada's brightest stage talent. Read more about the upcoming theatrical feast here.

But what about the show? The first act of Small Returns -- a surreal my-worst-job-ever tale about debt and Dieppe that closes this weekend -- was decent with some really charismatic performances by Jordan Pettle and Rosemary Dunsmore. Alas, Torontoist can’t tell you how the second act was because Ghandi’s on Queen closes at 10 p.m. and we had a real hankering for some Saag Paneer and Butter Chicken.