Stage Door Reviews

The Master Plan

Saturday, September 23, 2023
The Master Plan

✭✭✭✭✩
by Michael Healey, directed by Chris Abraham
Crow’s Theatre, Streetcar Crowsnest, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto
September 13-October 19, 2023
Eric Schmidt: “Just give us a city and put us in charge”
There’s something very Canadian...

The Waltz

Friday, September 15, 2023
The Waltz

✭✭✭✩✩
by Marie Beath Badian, directed by Nina Lee Aquino
Factory Theatre, Toronto
September 6-17, 2023;
Prairie Theatre Exchange, Winnipeg
November 14-29, 2023;
Great Canadian Theatre Company, Ottawa
February 13-23, 2024
Romeo:...

Queen Maeve

Sunday, September 10, 2023
Queen Maeve

✭✭✭✭✭
by Judith Thompson, directed by Murdoch Schon
Here For Now Theatre, Stratford Perth Museum, Stratford
September 8-23, 2023
Maeve: “Roots are sacrosanct”
Here For Now Theatre concludes its summer festival on a high note with the...

Frankenstein Revived

Monday, August 28, 2023
Frankenstein Revived

✭✭✭✩✩
by Morris Panych, choreographed by Stephen Cota, directed by Morris Panych
Stratford Festival, Avon Theatre, Stratford
August 24-October 28, 2023
Frankenstein: “To examine the causes of life, we must first have recourse to death” (Frankenstein,...

Les Belles-Soeurs

Sunday, August 27, 2023
Les Belles-Soeurs

✭✭✭✭✩
by Michel Tremblay, translated by John Van Burek & Bill Glassco, directed by Esther Jun
Stratford Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
August 25-October 28, 2023
Chorus: “I hate my life!”
Les Belles-Soeurs (1968) by Michel Tremblay...

The Shadow of a Doubt

Saturday, August 26, 2023
The Shadow of a Doubt

✭✭✭✩✩
by Edith Wharton, directed by Peter Hinton-Davis
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
August 20-October 15, 2023
Lady Uske: “I don’t think anyone ever really knows another person”
The Shaw Festival has always...

Gypsy

Friday, August 25, 2023
Gypsy

✭✭✭✭✩
music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents, directed by Jay Turvey
Shaw Festival, Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
May 27-October 7, 2023
Rose: “But some people ain’t me!”
The Shaw Festival last...

The Amen Corner

Thursday, August 24, 2023
The Amen Corner

✭✭✭✭✭
by James Baldwin, directed by Kimberly Rampersad
Shaw Festival, Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
August 19-October 8, 2023
David: “I’ve got my work to do, something’s happening in the world out there, I got to go!”
The Shaw...

On the Razzle

Tuesday, August 22, 2023
On the Razzle

✭✭✭✭✩
by Tom Stoppard, directed by Craig Hall
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
May 26-October 8, 2023
Zangler: “One false move and we’ll have a farce on our hands”
If you are in the mood for show overflowing with...

The Donnellys: A Trilogy

Saturday, August 19, 2023
The Donnellys: A Trilogy

✭✭✭✭✭
by James Reaney, adapted and directed by Gil Garratt
Blyth Festival, Harvest Stage, Blyth
June 22-September 3, 2023
James, Sr.: “The Donnellys don’t kneel”
Over the years the Blyth Festival has presented various plays about the...

Village Wooing

Wednesday, August 9, 2023
Village Wooing

✭✭✭✩✩
by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Selma Dimitrijevic
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
July 8-October 7, 2023
A: “We must take the world as we find it. It's we that are not rightly arranged”
This season’s...

The Playboy of the Western World

Tuesday, August 8, 2023
The Playboy of the Western World

✭✭✭✭✩
by John Millington Synge, directed by Jackie Maxwell
Shaw Festival, Studio Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
July 7-October 7, 2023
Jimmy: “Bravery’s a treasure in a lonesome place”
Widely considered the epitome of Irish drama The Playboy...

The Apple Cart

Monday, August 7, 2023
The Apple Cart

✭✭✭✭✩
by George Bernard Shaw, directed by Eda Holmes
Shaw Festival, Studio Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
July 9-October 7, 2023
King Magnus: “Ministers come and ministers go; but I go on for ever”
The Shaw Festival last presented Shaw’s...

Wedding Band

Wednesday, July 26, 2023
Wedding Band

✭✭✭✭✭
by Alice Childress, directed by Sam White
Stratford Festival, Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford
July 14-October 1, 2023
Julia: “I want to rise higher than the dirt around me”
The Stratford Festival is presenting the Canadian premiere...

Much Ado About Nothing

Friday, June 30, 2023
Much Ado About Nothing

✭✭✩✩✩
by William Shakespeare, directed by Chris Abraham
Stratford Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
June 16-October 27, 2023
Friar Francis: “What we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack’d and lost,
Why,...

Prince Caspian

Saturday, June 24, 2023
Prince Caspian

✭✭✭✭✩
by Damien Atkins, directed by Molly Atkinson
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
May 28-October 8, 2023
Doctor: “There is magic all around us”
The Shaw Festival continues its traversal of C.S. Lewis’s heptalogy,...

A Wrinkle in Time

Monday, June 19, 2023
A Wrinkle in Time

✭✭✭✩✩
written and directed by Thomas Morgan Jones
Stratford Festival, Avon Theatre, Stratford
June 16-October 29, 2023
“A straight line is not the shortest distance between two points”
The children’s show at the Stratford Festival this...

Richard II

Sunday, June 18, 2023
Richard II

✭✭✩✩✩
by William Shakespeare, adapted by Brad Fraser, directed by Jillian Keiley
Stratford Festival, Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford
June 17-September 28, 2023
Richard: “What must the king do now?”
The last time the Stratford Festival...

Rent

Friday, June 16, 2023
Rent

✭✭✭✩✩
music, book & lyrics by Jonathan Larson, directed by Thom Allison
Stratford Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
June 2-October 28, 2023
Mark: “How do you document real life / When real life’s getting more / Like fiction each day?”
The...

Grand Magic

Sunday, June 4, 2023
Grand Magic

✭✭✭✭✩
by Eduardo de Filippo, translated by John Murrell & Donato Santeramo, directed by Antoni Cimolino
Stratford Festival, Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford
June 3-September 29, 2023
Calogero: “Al giorno d’oggi la gente vive nei giuochi...

Monty Python’s Spamalot

Thursday, June 1, 2023
Monty Python’s Spamalot

✭✭✭✭✩
music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle, book & Lyrics by Eric Idle, directed by Lezlie Wade
Stratford Festival, Avon Theatre, Stratford
May 31-November 12, 2023
Lady of the Lake: “Life is really up to you”
If you are in the mood for...

King Lear

Wednesday, May 31, 2023
King Lear

✭✭✩✩✩
by William Shakespeare, directed by Kimberley Rampersad
Stratford Festival, Festival Theatre, Stratford
May 30-October 29, 2023
Fool: “Then shall the realm of Albion / Come to great confusion”
Unless you happen to be a particularly...