culture
Seize a Second Chance to See Successful Shows
We round-up shows on stage returning due to popularity and critical acclaim.
Tony Nappo, left, as Insp. Lamb, Andrew Musselman as Hamilton, and John Koensgen as Josef in a scene from Butcher. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Plays, especially smaller indie shows, don’t often get a second life in Toronto. For various reasons, including grant funding and audience interest, many companies focus on creating new work, without considering if it might be a good idea to remount a past show. But things are changing, due in part to the success of Soulpepper, whose year-round production schedule frequently brings back shows that were acclaimed and/or well attended. Other theatres are starting to follow suit, which means more so than in the past, Toronto audiences can experience shows that they may have missed the first time around.
As of this past weekend, more than half a dozen shows have returned to Toronto (including the musical The Book of Mormon, for a third time). Here’s a round-up of shows Torontoist reviewers recommended their first time around.
Infinity: Hannah Moscovitch’s cerebral story of a family of workaholic geniuses and their stressful family connections returned to the Tarragon Theatre in January, and was so popular, they’re bringing it back for an additional two weeks. (We spoke with Moscovitch about the play’s origins in 2015 when it debuted, later calling it one of the year’s most “exceptional new scripts.“) To April 2, Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue), Wednesday–Saturday, 8 p.m., Saturday–Sunday, 2:30 p.m., $29–$60.
Slip: Also at the Tarragon Theatre, a new life for a strange murder mystery that opens on a dead body. Indie company Circlesnake have adapted their previously site-specific show for the Tarragon’s upstairs studio, with set designer Brownwen Lily transforming the space into a grungy crime scene. We called Slip “a subtle send-up of television procedurals with a touch of comedy like Bones and Castle” when it debuted; this time around, the Toronto Star is on the bandwagon as well, calling it “a smart, complex, psychological drama.” To April 2, Tuesday–Sunday, 8 p.m., Saturday–Sunday, 2 p.m., $20–$30.
Left to right, Anders Yates, Danny Pagett, and Alex Paxton-Beesley in the 2016 production of Slip. Photo by Alec Toller.
Butcher: This phenomenally popular genre thriller has travelled all across Canada, was one of our best reviewed shows of 2015—and made our best of the year list that year, where we called it “tight as a drum and perfectly sustained in tension”—and won Best Production at the 2016 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards. Credit (to start) to the show’s sterling cast and exceptional attention to detail by playwright Nicolas Billon, who went so far as to enlist a linguist to create a new language. Why Not Theatre, whom the Globe and Mail recently profiled, are co-presenting Butcher with Mirvish Productions, as part of the “Off-Mirvish season”. To April 9, Panasonic Theatre (651 Yonge Street), Tuesday–Saturday, 8 p.m., Saturday–Sunday, 2 p.m., $39–$92.
Crawlspace: Soulpepper’s recently launched Solo Series is bringing a number of previously successful “one hander” shows under their roof for limited runs, including Crawlspace, Karen Hines’s story of her nightmarish experience buying her first home in Toronto, which garnered four Dora award nominations (we interviewed her about the impetus to turn said story into theatre). To April 15, Young Centre for the Performing Arts (55 mill Street), Monday–Saturday, 8 p.m., Saturday April 15, 2 p.m., $25–$50.
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