Reviews 2018
Reviews 2018
In 2018 Stage Door received 144,975 pageviews from 62,260 unique visitors from 155 countries. Of the unique visitors 42,120 were from Canada, 10,273 from the US and 2,352 from the UK. The Fate of a Cockroach by Tawfiq al-Hakim maintained its hold on the number one spot again this year and that other top-ten mainstay Zone by Marcel Dubé held on to number two. Up until mid-November, however, it was the Stratford Festival’s production of The Rocky Horror Show that was in the lead.
The company with the largest number of entries in the top 50 is the Stratford Festival with 15, followed by the Shaw Festival with 7 and Mirvish and the Tarragon tying with 4 each. This was the first year that no plays by Soulpepper appeared on the list.
It was encouraging to see the wide range of genres represented in the top 50. Beside plays were musicals (10), operas (5), circus (2), and sketch comedy (1), and 19 of the top 50 shows were by Canadians.
Quite noticeable this year was the number of visitors reading old reviews of plays coming up particularly at Stratford even before those plays began previews. This accounts for the appearance on the list of double reviews of Coriolanus, An Ideal Husband, The Music Man and To Kill a Mockingbird and for the presence of older reviews of Harlem Duet and The Return of Ulysses that happened to receive more hits than this year’s productions.
-The Editor-
The 50 Most Read Reviews of 2018:
1. The Fate of a Cockroach (2005) by Tawfiq al-Hakim, AfriCan Theatre Ensemble, Toronto
2. Zone (2012) by Marcel Dubé, Théâtre français de Toronto et al., Toronto
3. The Rocky Horror Show by Richard O’Brien, Stratford Festival
4. To Kill a Mockingbird (2018) by Christopher Sergel, Stratford Festival
5. The Music Man (2018) by Meredith Willson, Stratford Festival
6. ‘O’ (2012) by Franco Dragone, Cirque du Soleil, Las Vegas, NV, USA
7. The Best Is Yet To Come Undone by The Second City, Toronto
8. The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare, Stratford Festival
9. To Kill a Mockingbird (2007) by Christopher Sergel, Stratford Festival
10. Harlem Duet (2006) by Djanet Sears, Stratford Festival
11. Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl, Shaw Festival
12. Essay / The Russian Play (2008) by Hannah Moscovitch, Factory Theatre, Toronto
13. Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti, Canadian Opera Company, Toronto
14. The Hound of the Baskervilles by by R.H. Wright & D. Pichette, Shaw Festival
15. Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill, Stratford Festival
16. Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth, Outside the March & The Company Theatre, Toronto
17. An Ideal Husband (2018) by Oscar Wilde, Stratford Festival
18. The Magician’s Nephew by by Michael O’Brien, Shaw Festival
19. Henry V by William Shakespeare, Shaw Festival
20. The Music Man (2008) by Meredith Willson, Stratford Festival
21. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by by Marc Shaiman & Scott Whittman, Mirvish, Toronto
22. Paradise Lost by Erin Shields, Stratford Festival
23. Hamlet (2018) by William Shakespeare, Tarragon Theatre, Toronto
24. The Monkiest King by Alice Ping Yee Ho, Canadian Children’s Opera Company, Toronto
25. Napoli Milionaria! by Eduardo De Filippo, Stratford Festival
26. The Birds and the Bees (2016) by Mark Crawford, Blyth Festival
27. Come From Away (2018) by Irene Sankoff & David Hein, Mirvish, Toronto
28. Nongogo (2015) by Athol Fugard, Canadian Stage, Toronto
29. The Dirty/Beautiful (2005) by Stephen Massicotte, Crow’s Theatre, Toronto
30. Volta (2017) by Bastien Alexandre, Cirque du Soleil, Toronto
31. The Abduction from the Seraglio (2018) by W.A. Mozart, Canadian Opera Company, Toronto
32. Coriolanus (2018) by William Shakespeare, Stratford Festival
33. Hadrian by Rufus Wainwright, Canadian Opera Company, Toronto
34. The Return of Ulysses (2007) by Claudio Monteverdi, Opera Atelier, Toronto
35. Oh! What a Lovely War by Joan Littlewood, Shaw Festival
36. The Message by Jason Sherman, Tarragon Theatre, Toronto
37. Lunenburg (2017) by Norm Foster, Norm Foster Theatre Festival, St. Catharines
38. Mamma Mia! (2000) by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus, Mirvish, Toronto
39. An Ideal Husband (2007) by Oscar Wilde, Stratford Festival
40. On a First Name Basis (2016) by Norm Foster, Foster Festival, St. Catharines
41. Annie by by Charles Strouse & Martin Charnin, Mirvish, Toronto
42. The Children by Lucy Kirkwood, Canadian Stage, Toronto
43. Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life by Anika Johnson & Britta Johnson, Outside the March & The Musical Stage Company, Toronto, 2018
44. Coriolanus (2006) by William Shakespeare, Stratford Festival
45. Silence by Trina Davies, Grand Theatre, London
46. Girls Like That by Evan Placey, Tarragon Theatre, Toronto
47. The Tempest (2018) by William Shakespeare, Stratford Festival
48. Grand Hotel by Robert Wright & George Forrest, Shaw Festival
49. Girl in the Goldfish Bowl (2002) by Morris Panych, Tarragon Theatre, Toronto
50. Getting Married (2008) by G.B. Shaw, Shaw Festival
Photo: Dan Chameroy as Dr. Frank N. Furter and George Krissa as Rocky in The Rocky Horror Show. ©2018 Cylla von Tiedemann.
2019-01-04
The 50 Most Read Reviews of 2018