Reviews 2012
Reviews 2012
In May 2011 I installed a website statistics generator for Stage Door. From it I learned surprising facts such as from June 1, 2011 to December 31, 2012, Stage Door had visitors from 105 countries. 2012 is the first calendar year for which I have statistics and they told me that the top ten most read reviews may be of shows from large companies like Cirque du Soleil or the Stratford Festival, but it also includes three shows from very small companies. In fact, Les 3 Exils de Christian E., which had only four performances, received more hits than did Mirvish Productions’ War Horse that has been running almost the entire year. It is reassuring to see that all genres of theatre are represented. Canadian operas like Taptoo! and Laura’s Cow do not rank significantly below famous operas from large companies like the COC, just as Canadian works are interleaved in general with non-Canadian works.
One anomaly is the large number of hits for Jean Giraudoux’s Electra at Stratford in 2003. This year Stratford presented Sophocles’ Electra in the translation of Anne Carson, who insisted on spelling the title character’s name Elektra with a “K”. No doubt the many people who searched for reviews of Electra using the standard English spelling were surprised to find themselves reading an archived review. As a result, this years Elektra had far fewer hits than did Giraudoux’s Electra of 2003.
-The Editor-
The 50 Most Read Reviews of 2012:
1. The Pirates of Penzance by W.S. Gilbert & A.Sullivan, Stratford Festival
2. Amaluna by Diane Paulus, Cirque du Soleil, Toronto
3. Penny Plain by Ronnie Burkett, Ronnie Burkett’s Theatre of Marionettes, Toronto
4. Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, Stratford Festival
5. 42nd Street by Harry Warren & Al Dubin, Stratford Festival
6. Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare, Stratford Festival
7. The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder, Stratford Festival
8. The Vindication of Clito Mestres by Monserrat Roig, April Productions, Toronto
9. You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown by Clark Gesner, Stratford Festival
10. Les 3 Exils de Christian E., by Paul Soldevila & Christian Essiambre, Théâtre français de Toronto, et al., Toronto
11. War Horse by Nick Stafford, Mirvish Productions, Toronto
12. Backbeat by Iain Softley & Stephen Jeffreys, Mirvish Productions, Toronto
13. SIA by Matthew MacKenzie, Cahoots Theatre Company, Toronto
14. Les Fourberies de Scapin, Théâtre français de Toronto, Toronto
15. Eigengrau by Penelope Skinner, Red One Theatre Collective, Toronto
16. Crash by Pamela Mala Sinha, Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto
17. Endgame by Samuel Beckett, Soulpepper, Toronto
18. The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine by R. Morgan, M. Ross & L. Cherniak, pivotal(arts), Toronto
19. Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph, BirdLand Theatre, Toronto
20. This Wide Night by Chloë Moss, Mermaid Parade, Toronto
21. The Big Smoke by by Amy Nostbakken & Nir Paldi, Theatre Ad Infinitum Canada, Toronto
22. The Lesson by Eugène Ionesco, Modern Times Stage Company, Toronto
23. A Florentine Tragedy / Gianni Schicchi, by A. Zemlinsky / G. Puccini, Canadian Opera Company, Toronto
24. Semele by G. F. Handel, Canadian Opera Company, Toronto
25. Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi, Canadian Opera Company, Toronto
26. This Lime Tree Bower by Conor McPherson, Cart/Horse Theatre, Toronto
27. L’Emmerdeur by Francis Veber, Théâtre français de Toronto, Toronto
28. The Golden Dragon by Roland Schimmelpfennig, Tarragon Theatre, Toronto
29. Zone by Marcel Dubé, Théâtre français de Toronto et al., Toronto
30. Taptoo! by John Beckwith & James Reaney, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Toronto
31. The Fatal Gazogene by G.B. Shaw, Red One Theatre Collective, Toronto
32. Stockholm by Bryony Lavery, Seventh Stage, Toronto
33. Cinderella (a RATical retelling) by Mike Kenny, Young People’s Theatre, Toronto
34. Der Freischütz by C.M. von Weber, Opera Atelier, Toronto
35. Laura’s Cow by Errol Gay & M.P. Albano, Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, Toronto
36. Kà by Robert Lepage, Cirque du Soleil, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
37. Snow White (panto) by R. Miller, C. Bennett & M. Clarke, Ross Petty Productions, Toronto
38. Odysseo by Normand Latourelle, Cavalia, Toronto
39. Electra (2003) by Jean Giraudoux, Stratford Festival
40. Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell, The Company Theatre, Toronto
41. Mr. Marmalade by Noah Haidle, Outside the March, Toronto
42. Terminus by Mark O’Rowe, Outside the March/Mirvish Productions, Toronto
43. Echoes by N. Richard Nash, (un)happy radish co-op, Toronto
44. Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake
45. The Real World? by Michel Tremblay, Tarragon Theatre, Toronto
46. Loving the Stranger by Alistair Newton, Ecce Homo Theatre, Toronto
47. Les Contes d’Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, Canadian Opera Company, Toronto
48. The Arsonists by Max Frisch, Canadian Stage, Toronto
49. Miss Caledonia by Melody A. Johnson, Lunkamud, Toronto
50. Matilda the Musical by Tim Minchin, National Theatre, London, UK
©Christopher Hoile
Photo: Sean Arbuckle, Kyle Blair and and Gabrielle Jones in The Pirates of Penzance, Stratford Festival. ©2012 Cylla von Tiedemann.
2013-01-01
The 50 Most Read Reviews of 2012