Wayne Leung (1981-2019)
Wayne was the Managing Editor of Mooney on Theatre from 2012 - 2019 and will be sorely missed. His death from an apparent heart attack was a loss not just to Mooney on Theatre, but also to the Toronto Theatre Community at large. You can read our publisher Megan Mooney's tribute to him here here.
Wayne was a writer, editor and corporate communications professional who was thrilled to be a part of the Mooney on Theatre team. Wayne loved theatre ever since his aunt brought him to a production of Les Misérables at the tender age of ten . . . despite the fact that, at that age, the show’s plot was practically indiscernible and the battle scenes scared the bejeezus out of him. Wayne’s current list of likes ran the gamut from opera, ballet and Shakespeare to Broadway musicals, circus and Fringe theatre. Outside of the theatre Wayne’s interests included travel, technology and food.
Toronto’s Cahoots Theatre presents Jovanni Sy’s cross between a play and a cooking demo
Something delicious is cooking on stage at the Factory Theatre where Cahoots Theatre is presenting a new Cantonese-language version of its 2010 show食盡天下 (A Taste of Empire). The show is essentially a satirical, comedic play mixed with a live cooking demonstration mixed with a TED talk and somehow manages to pull off all three of those aspects well; the end result is funny, delicious and eye-opening. Continue reading Review: 食盡天下 (A Taste of Empire) (Cahoots Theatre/rice & beans theatre)→
Mirvish opens a new Canadian production of the hit musical Come From Away in Toronto
***NOTE: All performances are cancelled between Saturday, March 14 through Sunday, April 12 to respect social-distancing requests around COVID -19
It’s been about a year since the original production of Come From Away—a new musical by Canadian husband-and-wife writing team Irene Sankoff and David Hein—finished its limited, sold-out run in Toronto and transferred to Broadway.
In the intervening year, this little Canadian musical-that-could has taken the Great White Way by storm. It opened to a warm critical reception and earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical. To this day, it still regularly plays to sold out houses in New York and is one of only a handful of Broadway shows that consistently grosses over one million dollars in ticket sales each week. Continue reading Review: Come From Away (Mirvish)→
Toronto’s Factory Theatre stages Kat Sandler’s explosive and scintillating new play Bang Bang
Bang Bang, a new play written and directed by Kat Sandler, commissioned and presented by Toronto’s Factory Theatre, is every bit as explosive and scintillating as its provocative title suggests. It’s also a wildly entertaining night of theatre that alternately had me cringing, gripping my armrest in suspense, and howling with laughter. Continue reading Review: Bang Bang (Factory Theatre)→
Transcendance Project revives its immersive dance-theatre take on Dracula in Toronto
You may have heard of Sleep No More, the genre-defining immersive theatre adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth by UK company Punchdrunk. While the show is wildly successful in New York (playing since 2011) and Shanghai (opened in 2016), it’s unlikely a production will ever open in Toronto due to the show’s complexity and cost. But luckily for us, local contemporary dance company Transcendance Project may have created the next best thing.
Franco Nguyen is thirty years old and lives with his mother. The Toronto-based comedian’s complex relationship with his Vietnamese immigrant mom is the basis of his touching comedic memoir Good Morning, Viet Mom, now playing as part of the 2018 Next Stage Theatre Festival.
Toronto’s Cahoots Theatre presents Jovanni Sy’s cross between a play and a cooking demo
Mirvish opens a new Canadian production of the hit musical Come From Away in Toronto
Toronto’s Factory Theatre stages Kat Sandler’s explosive and scintillating new play Bang Bang
Transcendance Project revives its immersive dance-theatre take on Dracula in Toronto