All posts by Wayne Leung

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.

Bright Lights (Theatre Brouhaha) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review

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Okay, I had incredibly high expectations going into Theatre Brouhaha’s Bright Lights at this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival. If you were to hand pick an all-star team to mount a Fringe show it would look like the team behind this show. There is a lot of seasoned talent in the room and the result of this grouping is sheer theatrical alchemy. Bright Lights is one of the smartest, most uproariously funny and best-performed shows I’ve seen at the Toronto Fringe in recent years.

Continue reading Bright Lights (Theatre Brouhaha) 2016 Toronto Fringe Review

Announcement: 2016 Dora Mavor Moore Award Winners (With Links to MoT Reviews)

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Canadian Opera Company, Young People’s Theatre, Canadian Stage win big at the Doras

The Dora Mavor Moore Awards ceremony is the Toronto theatre community’s big night out to celebrate its own. This year the ceremony was hosted by award-winning Stratford Festival and Broadway alum Bruce Dow, who kept the pace swift and the tone irreverent, interjecting just enough humour and music to keep the proceedings interesting without causing the show to drag.

Continue reading Announcement: 2016 Dora Mavor Moore Award Winners (With Links to MoT Reviews)

Review: The James Play Trilogy (Luminato)

JamesLuminato presents an epic saga of Scottish kings, The James Play Trilogy, in Toronto

Luminato scored an absolute coup when it landed the North American premiere (and sole North American engagement) of the much-lauded epic, The James Play Trilogy. Written by Scottish playwright Rona Munro and originally produced by the National Theatre of Scotland, the triad of history plays details the lives of the James kings who ruled Scotland throughout the turbulent era in the 15th century.

While it has drawn comparisons to Game of Thrones or even Hamilton, I think those claims are overselling it, or at least setting the wrong expectations. Continue reading Review: The James Play Trilogy (Luminato)