The Abominable Showman, June 3, 2012

Stage Fright

Theatre audiences love whodunits – from Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap in London’s West End, to Shear Madness in Boston and Curtains in Montreal, the same city where infamous onetime porn star Luka Rocco Magnotta is the sole suspect in a grisly real-life killing that is living proof human beings continue to be fascinated by murder and the macabre…

By Richard Burnett

I loved London in the 1970s. The city clanged and lit up like a pinball machine, which I adored playing in London Town’s arcade parlours. I was a wide-eyed kid who snuck smokes behind my parents back, loved going to the movies – one of my faves was The Gumball Rally in 1976 starring Michael Sarrazin (an old friend of the late Nick Auf der Maur, the Montreal boulevardier and newspaperman who – incidentally – would become my mentor years later) – and going to see the play The Mousetrap.

Agatha Christie’s famed whodunit had its London premiere at the New Ambassadors Theatre in the West End in November 1952, then in March 1974 transferred next door to the St. Martin’s Theatre which is where I saw it.

Tour Whore, June 3, 2012

Thirty things I want festival patrons to know

by Cameryn Moore

Festival season starts for me next week, with the launch party and Fringe for All at the Montréal Fringe. But those of you reading this piece in other parts of Canada, you can print this out and study up, because it applies to all festival audiences everywhere. These are just 30 of the things that I want you to know:

I really do mean what I say after my show: I will answer any question put to me in the spirit of honest curiosity and goodwill. (Anyone being a disingenuous douchebag, on the other hand, will feel the full heat of my wrath.)

News Roundup, June 2, 2012

Dáirine Ní Mheadhra
(photo credit: John Lauener)

BAD DAYS IN CANADIAN PRINT MEDIA: Postmedia has cut posts in most of its operations including The Montreal Gazette, Edmonton Journal and the Ottawa Citizen. Meanwhile, The Globe and Mail has told its staff to add four unpaid days off to their summer schedules; in exchange, the company will not hire freelancers to fill the hole.

STRATFORD: The Stratford Shakespeare Festival Legacy Award will be given to Dame Maggie Smith this year. Dame Maggie played several seasons with the company, including in Antony and Cleopatra, Three Sisters and The Guardsman. (Source)

OTTAWA: Dáirine Ní Mheadhra has been awarded the $50K Molson award, announced the Canada Council. Ms Mheadhra is the founder of Queen of Puddings Music Theatre. (Source)


MONTREAL: Sherry Bie will be leaving the artistic directorship of the English section of the National Theatre School. The school is now accepting resumés for her replacement. (Source)


SAN FRANCISCO: Writer Steve Galluccio's Funkytown will be appearing at the city's LGBT film festival, Frameline, later this month. (Source)


HUDSON (QC): Hudson Village Theatre has announced its summer season. It includes Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks and Ned Durango Comes to Big Oak. The company's full-time artistic director was let go, at the end of last summer, and the board of directors has rehired the company's founder, Heather Markgraf, to program this season. (Company website)


MONTREAL: Provincial culture minister, Christine St-Pierre, has announced a deal in principle to pump $2.4 million into Théâtre du Rideau Vert for renovations and purchase of the building adjacent to the theatre. (Source, in French)

Review: (Ottawa) Titanic

A Night to Remember

Orpheus scores again with a story of a boat and an iceberg

by Jim Murchison

It is fitting in the year that marks the 100th anniversary of the Titanic that we think about it and pay tribute to it. Unless you never listen to the radio, read the paper or watch television you’re certain to have heard something of it this year. There have been many films and documentaries that have explored the history of that fateful night. 

I must confess that before Orpheus added the musical to this year’s schedule, I was largely unaware of it. It is certainly far more faithful to the actual story than the over-hyped, almost completely fictional James Cameron film.  The story itself is so monumental and compelling that there is no need to add some invented and trite subplot.  

Theatre For Thought, June 2, 2012

SPIDER MAN, STUNTS AND MERRICK’S GHOST

joel fishbane

Most Canadians will be watching the Tony Awards to see if the Stratford Festival’s Jesus Christ Superstar will win Best Revival of a Musical (it won’t) or if  Josh Young will win for his portrayal of Judas Iscariot (er…maybe). But the real drama that day will have already happened over at Foxwood Theatre. Annoyed that Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark only received two nominations (for set and costume), the producers are offering free tickets for the matinee performance to anyone named Anthony, Antonio, Antoinette, Toni or Antonia.  Said producer Michael Cohl: “Nothing would make us prouder than to have more Tonys than any other show on Broadway on Sunday, June 10.”

The stunt, which is cute at best, becomes more significant when one considers that Cohl has long been angling for the title of the Next David Merrick. Although he died in 2000, Merrick remains a titan in the history of American theatre. Merrick was the legendary producer of shows like 42nd Street, Hello Dolly! and Marat / Sade and was himself the progeny of other legendary showmen like P.T. Barnum and Florence Ziegfeld. 

Review: (Montreal) On The Concept of The Face, Regarding the Son of God (FTA)

(photo credit: Klaus Lefebvre)

The Face of Controversy

FTA challenges all comers

by Chad Dembski

After reading about the protests that followed On The Concept of The Face, Regarding the Son of God  in Paris I was extra curious about the controversial content of this piece.  Outside of Place des Arts were two adults with large white signs decrying the show and Place des Arts for supporting it.  I was  excited to see this  latest work of Romeo Castelluci after having seen two of his previous pieces Orestia (FTA 1997) and Genesi (FTA 2000) - some of the most exciting, experimental and inspiring pieces of live performance I had ever seen.  The images, sounds and performances from both of those shows have stayed with me until this day and I often speak of them as some of the best examples of avant garde theatre.  

CharPo's Real Theatre! June 1, 2012