Always a theatre lover Sam realized in middle age that there's more to Toronto theatre than just mainstream and is now in love with one person shows, adores festivals, and quirky venues make her day.
Louise Pitre’s one-woman autobiographical musical, On the Rocks, is playing at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille
On The Rocks is Theatre Passe Muraille’s season opener. It’s also Louise Pitre’s first play. It’s an autobiographical one-person musical. As well as writing the play, she wrote the lyrics. W Joseph Matheson wrote the music.
This was a highly anticipated show; opening night was sold out so I went on the second night. Opening nights are fun, there’s a definite buzz, but second nights are good because the audience isn’t as weighted with family and friends so the reaction is less biased.
Toronto’s Angelwalk Theatre kicks off their season with tick, tick…Boom!, the emotionally driven autobiographical musical by Rent creator Jonathan Larson
I find that modern musicals can be kind of hit or miss for me. I’ve seen some that I’ve absolutely loved right from the first number and I’ve seen others that I just haven’t connected with. At first I thought that tick, tick…BOOM! was going to fall into the miss category.
The first two numbers just didn’t touch me in any way. I found myself thinking that the music sounded generic, as if I’d heard it before in other musicals. Not that I could tell you which musicals I thought I’d heard it in.
And then…BOOM! With the third number I was hooked.
Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre kicks off their current season with The Underpants – a hilarious story about feminism, gender roles and conformity
Alumnae Theatre opened its 2013/2014 season with The Underpants, a sweet frothy delight. It was written in 1910 by Carl Sternheim. It was called Die Hose and is a farce poking fun at bourgeois snobbery. This adaptation by Steve Martin was first produced in 2002.
Interesting that the play’s themes are still relevant today, feminism, gender roles, conformity vs individuality; they aren’t as controversial as they were 100 years ago but we still struggle with them.
Toronto’s The Second City’s Fresh Meat pits 20 up and coming local comedians against each other in competition for the Tim Sims Award of Recognition
Monday evening seems like a strange time to go see 20 comedy acts – stand-up and sketch – but that’s what I did on September 16th at The Second City. Each act is hoping to be one of the five finalists that go on to Cream Of Comedy on October 28th. One of them will win the $5000 Tim Sims Award of Recognition.
The sidewalk outside the Royal Alex was an exciting place before the opening of The Rascals: Once Upon A Dream tonight. When I arrived Steven and Maureen Van Zandt were being interviewed for television. As well as the TV camera there was a crush of cell phone wielding fans all determined to catch the moment.
There was a red carpet and other celebrities were interviewed as they arrived. Lots of buzz. It boded well for the evening.
Alumnae Theatre