By Frank Moher The sudden news that the Vancouver Playhouse is closing after 49 seasons comes as a shock, of course. We assume these venerable civic institutions will somehow always manage to lumber along, despite economic downturns and hostile governments and digital depredations. This, after all, was the company that gave Canadian theatre its seminal […]
theatre
GG gee we need to rethink this
By Frank Moher The Governor General’s Award finalists were announced on Tuesday and, as usual, I looked at the drama list and sighed. Not because I wasn’t on it — I didn’t have anything eligible — but because I was reminded once again that we don’t have a proper playwriting award in this country. Now, […]
Where is James Moore?
By Frank Moher Two weeks ago in this space I wrote about the Conservative government’s politically-motivated decision to withdraw funding from the Toronto theatre and arts festival, SummerWorks. To recap: Last year, the company presented a play, Homegrown, that the Prime Minister’s Office decided (in advance, without seeing it), glorified terrorism. So this year, after […]
The Conservatives’ Homegrown censorship
By Frank Moher (Update below: Jim Flaherty translated) We can now begin to see how the Conservative government intends to use its majority to chop arts funding in Canada, particularly to any artistic expression it doesn’t like or agree with. In the short term at least, it will be a death by a thousand cuts. […]
Revisited: Billy Elliot’s big city jive
The musical Billy Elliot opened in Toronto the other night, with its composer, Sir Elton, in attendance. The Globe loved it. The Post didn’t. But great or whatever, it’s liable to hang around Toronto for as long as it has London and New York, because this is the ultimate big-city musical. In the following 2009 […]
Revisited: “How I Got Arrested and Abused at the G20 in Toronto, Canada”
On Friday, the CBC’s The Fifth Estate broadcast “You Should Have Stayed at Home,” about police tactics at the 2010 G20 Summit. Among those appearing in the documentary is Toronto playwright and director Tommy Taylor, whose harrowing account of his arrest and detention appeared on his facebook page (log-in required) within hours of his release. […]
Editing for nothing for Dire Straits
By Frank Moher You will have heard that an American publishing house has plans for an edition of Huckleberry Fiinn in which the character “N***** Jim” is to be renamed “Slave Jim.” Now comes word that the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has ruled that the song “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits is unfit for […]
Emphasis on the tease
by Jodi A. Shaw When I think of burlesque, I immediately picture Liza Minnelli in Cabaret. So when I went to a burlesque show for the first time, I was expecting high heels, garter belts, and tight, sexy clothing. I saw the outfits I expected, but I didn’t expect to see all those items of […]
Todd Butler’s Act Two
“Nimble-fingered maniac” Todd Butler makes the leap from concert stage to the theatrical kind ~~ By Jan Beecher ~~ On a gentle west coast evening, Todd Butler is opening the Islands Folk Festival at Providence Farm near Duncan, BC. I have just arrived along with a thousand or so other people for a weekend of […]
Todd Butler’s Act Two – page 2
Continued from page 1 On his latest, Hamburger Soup, Butler has tried to further squelch his laughabilly half by making the album strictly instrumental, but again — consider the title. He’s still fighting off the ha-ha’s. Looking at the track list on the album still wasn’t enough to convince me this wasn’t just another collection […]
