Preview: The Kreutzer Sonata

Another Soulpepper production is getting strong reviews and is generating a lot of buzz. For tickets to The Kreutzer Sonata please click the header!

The Glass Menagerie - Behind the Scenes

This looks really wonderful. Nancy is such a Canadian gem. If you haven't seen it we highly recommend taking a stroll down into The Distillery District to check out this classic piece! Please click the header for tickets.

Move On - Sunday In The Park With George

I've been listening to this song this evening and I think it is so beautiful. Enjoy.

Sharron Matthews hits Buddies!

Beautiful, funny, humble, SUPERSTAR.



Our ABSOLUTE favourite cabaret artist is hitting the Buddies stage tonight and tomorrow evening!!!

We are so excited and very proud of our girl Shar!

For tickets please click the header.

Preview: MARAT/SADE

Show Description and Press Release:

Soup Can Theatre proudly presents Peter Weiss’ Tony Award winning drama-musical, Marat/Sade! (full title: The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade) This dark and unflinching show - packed full of madness, melody and Machiavellianism - is sure to be a highlight of Toronto’s summer theatre season!

~ “A vivid and explosive work ... It will stir your imagination and provoke your mind ... It will not leave you untouched” - The New York Times ~

Marat/Sade paints a critical picture of the French Revolution and its unbridled violence through the eyes of eccentric nobleman and sexual deviant, the Marquis de Sade. The work is set in the Charenton Asylum where, as an inmate, De Sade was permitted to write and mount dramatic works using his fellow patients as actors, and to perform the completed pieces before audiences of French Aristocrats. When De Sade presents his latest and most controversial work to date - a dramatization of the assassination of writer and fervent revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat at the hand of young and comely idealist Charlotte Corday - his incendiary script inspires and energizes the motley cast of inmates. Despite the asylum director’s attempts to quell the situation, the polite proceedings devolve into an anarchic melee of wit-laced debate, hedonism, and animalism that threatens to bring the whole institution crumbling down.

Soup Can Theatre’s production has stripped ‘Marat/Sade’ of its early 19th century mise-en-scene and placed it in the world of McGill University’s Psychiatry Department, circa 1957.

July 19th-23rd @ 8pm, July 24th @ 2pm. Alumnae Theatre Mainspace.

All tickets and performances $15, available by clicking the header!

Sharron is FIERCE

Check out these great shots for Sharron Matthews Superstar: Jesus Thinks I'm Funny. Can't wait to see this show this weekend.

Check out the Facebook page here.

And here for tickets.

Preview: The Glass Menagerie

Playing all summer in the Distillery District is the reworked mounting of the classic The Glass Menagerie. The Tennessee Williams' masterpiece has gotten solid reviews from most of the Toronto publication, particularly for the shows acting. Nancy Palk's, Amanda has been heralded in the Globe and Mail review, as was director Ted Dykstra, for his focus on the show's humour. But Globe writer, Martin Morrow felt this production missed the mark on some of the more complex themes.

Neither Justin or I have been to see the show yet, but we are hoping to get to one of the few productions left in August. Click the header for performance dates and times.

Preview: Next to Normal

OK Toronto. Are you ready? It is has officially arrived! And EAP is going to the opening tonight of this groundbreaking musical. I had the honour of seeing NEXT TO NORMAL two years at the Booth Theatre and I found it to be a profoundly moving experience. It is dark, funny, well written, executed and directed. We would like to thank Dancap for always being so open and generous with us here at EAP and for making us feel apart of the Toronto theatre community no matter the scale or scope of shows they produce. We applaud you Dancap.

Show Description:

From the director of Rent comes the most talked about show on Broadway, NEXT TO NORMAL, Alice Ripley, who received the 2009 Tony Award® for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award®-winning NEXT TO NORMAL, will reprise her acclaimed performance as Diana Goodman, a woman crippled by bi-polar disorder, for the final time as the musical’s 36-week multi-city North American tour comes to a close in Toronto.

NEXT TO NORMAL also features Asa Somers (Dan), Curt Hansen (Gabe), Emma Hunton (Natalie), Canada’s own Jeremy Kushnier (Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine) who starred as Tommy DeVito in the First National Tour, and first Canadian company, of Jersey Boys in Toronto, and Preston Sadleir (Henry).

With a thrilling contemporary score, NEXT TO NORMAL is an emotional powerhouse of a musical about a family trying to take care of themselves and each other. In awarding the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Pulitzer Board called NEXT TO NORMAL "a powerful rock musical that grapples with mental illness in a suburban family and expands the scope of subject matter for musicals."


Dancap Productions Inc. presents
The Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award®-Winning
NEXT TO NORMAL
Music by Tom Kitt, Book and Lyrics by Brian Yorkey, Directed by Michael Grief
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West
July 19-30, 2011
Tuesday – Saturday @ 7:30pm • Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday @ 2pm
Opening Night: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 @ 7:30pm
Ticket prices range from $34-$129 including all service charges and HST
To order, visit www.DancapTickets.com or call 416.644.3665 or toll-free 1.866.950.7469
For groups of 12 or more, call 416.644.3666 or toll free at 1.866.960.7469
Official tour website: www.NextToNormal.com

Preview: Sharron Matthews Superstar - Jesus Thinks I'm Funny

EAP's favourite funny lady, Sharron Matthews, is back at Buddies this weekend. For two nights only, Sharron is previewing her new show Sharron Matthews Superstar: Jesus Thinks I'm Funny, before heading out on tour to Britain (. Every show we've ever seen Sharron do was an absolute riot, even the sad ones!

But seriously, she's awesome, and you can expect the unexpected (breast milk was involved once, not Sharron's, but that is a story for another blog post). You can bet that, Sharron Matthews Superstar: Jesus Thinks I'm Funny, will be a delicious night of laughs, stories and songs.

Sharron Matthews Superstar... IS A TWO NIGHT EVENT!!

July 23rd and 24th!
Doors both nights at 7:30pm and show at 8:00pm
Buddies Box Office Tuesday @ 5:00pm till Saturday Call #416 975 8555
ONLINE HERE

Or click the header for more info from Sharron's website.

EAP will be there BOTH nights!

It has arrived!!!

Get ready to be blown away. Next to Normal with Alice Ripley has landed in Toronto people!

Best of Fringe 2011

Well another Fringe Festival has passed. It has overall been a VERY strong year in terms of quality. A collection of some of the very best are showing uptown at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. Below is the list of performances and for tickets please click the header!

ELLAmentary
Aug 3,4 & 5
7:00 PM
45min.

Hypnogogic Logic
Jul 20
7:00 PM
60min.

Kim's Convenience
Jul 24, Aug 2 & 5 - 9:00 PM
Jul 26, 27, 29, 30 - 7:00 PM
90min.

Living With Henry
Jul 21, 22, & 23
9:00 PM
90min.

Love Virtually
Jul 22 & Aug 2 - 7:00 PM
Jul 29 - 9:00 PM
80min.

Mickey & Judy
Jul 21
7:00 PM
55 min.

Pitch Blond
Jul 23
7:00 PM
60min.

Remember Maggy?
Jul 27, Aug 3 & 4
9:00 PM
90min.

The Soaps
Jul 20 & 30
9:00 PM
60min.

Tiki Bikini Beach Paradise Party A-Go-Go
Jul 24 - 7:00 PM
Jul 26 - 9:00 PM
60min.

The Travelling Salesman & His Magical Suitcase of Desires!
Jul 29 & 30
4:00 PM
60min.

HORSE at the Toronto Fringe

Our friend Diana Bentley is in a very fascinating show at the Fringe Festival this year and although tickets are very limited and hard to get, we urge you to try and check this site specific show out!

Show Description:

Cassie and Lou live on the streets.

Now Lou is gone.
A cop is dead.
And Cassie knows too much.

At a loss, Cassie checks herself into the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health to make sense of the disturbing series of events she has witnessed in a Toronto alleyway.

"You are a very small part of a very large, hungry, very fucking permanent machine."

Director: Leora Morris
Cast: Diana Bentley, Eleanor Hewlings, Stevie Joffe, Steve Schwabl, Tim Walker

JULY 6 - 11 & 13 - 17
All shows at 7pm
No latecomers
12 Kensington Avenue
Toronto, ON

Tickets go on sale the day of the performance at 5:30pm outside the alley in Kensington!

Mickey and Judy at the Fringe Festival

This show is gathering lots of buzz at the Fringe Festival so far this year. Lots of people are talking about it and according to one of our favourites, Sharron Matthews, you HAVE to check it out!

Show description:

Mickey & Judy is a hilarious pseudo-memoir, chronicling Hughes’ childhood obsession with musicals and his journey from psychiatric ward to Off-Broadway. Chock-full of comical anecdotes from his youth, dramatic readings from his actual doctor’s charts, and a musical score that borrows from Broadway classics and the Judy Garland songbook. "Mickey & Judy" is about falling in love and following your dreams.

Starring: Michael Hughes
with Musical Direction by Chris Tsujiuchi.

Performances:
Opening Night: Friday, July 8th @ 5:45pm
Saturday, July 9th @ 7:00pm
Sunday, July 10th @ 10:30pm
Tuesday, July 12th @ 10:30pm
Wednesday, July 13th @ 4:00pm
Thursday, July 14th @ 1:45pm
Closing Night: Sunday, July 17th @ 3:30pm

Tickets: $10-$11

Get your tickets today! Click the header!


www.mickeyandjudy.ca

Ambiguous at the Fringe

Our friend Geoff Stevens is in a production at the Fringe Festival this year. It is called Ambiguous and it is playing at the Annex Theatre. It seems totally bizarre and completely interesting to be honest. For information on tickets please click the header!

Show details c/o the official facebook page:

A writer named Gabriel, and a queer ear-wig named Wigworm collaborate on a perfect character. Can Kyle ever live up to their expectations? Every action is put under a microscope, and Kyle feels the strain. Wigworm tries to spice up the story with a homoerotic fantasy, and Gabriel's survival mode kicks in. Panic and Hysteria manifest to fight off Wigworm. In the process more characters form. Nick is a former best friend, Claire is the right one for Kyle, but somethings wrong. Rachel is perfect for any man, but it falls apart, Tyler may not be who he seems to be...
The battle royale in Gabriel's brain will only leave one...
www.afterglowtheatre.com

Annex Theatre,
730 Bathurst Street (South of Bloor).

Friday, July 8, 2011 7:00pm
Saturday, July 9, 2011 12:00pm
Monday, July 11, 2011 6:45pm
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 11:00pm
Thursday, July 14, 2011 9:15pm
Saturday, July 16, 2011 2:15pm
Sunday, July 17, 2011 1:45pm

AMBIGUOUS
Written & Directed by Aaron Rothermund
Stage Managed by Garth Droog

The Cast:

Adam Barrett as GABRIEL
Geoff Stevens as WIGWORM
Greg Willmot as KYLE
Timothy Eckmier as NICK
Emily Jefferies as PANIC
Tashieka McTaggart as CLAIRE
Lea Russell as HYSTERIA
Jessica McGann as RACHEL

Fringe Toronto 2011

The Cast of SWOON

I wanted to compile a little collection of great Fringe articles that I have been reading and put them together here for easy access. NOW Magazine again seems to be the king of promoting Fringe shows and it is so lovely to see. Always comprehensive and insightful, NOW is always the best when it comes to what is going on in the Toronto theatre community.

Click here the article on the endearing sounding new show about love, Swoon.

Click here to find out what Canadian Classics are worth checking out this year.

Click here for an article on what dance shows to look into.

Click here to read a featured NOW article on the up and coming theatre artist Ins Choi. His new show at Fringe allegedly has some "hard hitting immigrant truths". Sounds pretty good to me.

Click here to check out a great article on five artists to watch over this year's festival.

Stay tuned for more Fringe previews!

Pride Productions at the Fringe Festival

PHOTO: MICHAEL HUGHES IN MICKEY & JUDY.

Starting tomorrow is the annual Fringe Festival here in Toronto. The festival runs from the 6th of July to the 27th. I just read this cute little article in Now Toronto on queer productions to see over the next few weeks.

Click here or the header to be rerouted to the article.

Billy Bishop Goes to War

Soulpepper is at it again this summer bringing delicious theatre offerings to the Toronto community. Consistency folks. Currently they have brought to life one of Canadian theatre’s enduring legacies in Billy Bishop Goes to War, a soaring and exhilarating masterpiece. Original creators Eric Peterson and John Gray return to the stage in this timeless story of World War One fighter pilot Billy Bishop that has delighted audiences around the world for more than 30 years.

For tickets click the header!!!

Billy Bishop Goes to War
Directed by Ted Dykstra
Featuring John Gray, Eric Peterson

Young Centre for the Performing Arts
55 Mill Street,
Building 49
Toronto, ON

BITCH SALAD gives back 2011!

One of our Favourite quaterly events is back and it is looking mighty fierce ya'll! In the words of Andrew Johnston:

July 1, 1867: Two British colonies and a province of the British Empire unite into a single country within the empire called Canada, thus, creating a holiday called Canada Day that actually isn't celebrated until sometime in the 1920's. No rockets red glare, no bombs bursting in air: BORING!

July 1, 2011: Something way, WAY more fucking awesome happens:

BITCH SALAD'S ANNUAL PRIDE GALA IS BACK!!! And this year, we are ECSTATIC to b...e throwing it down on our nation's birth during the high-holy weekend of Toronto's Legendary Pride Celebrations - with partial proceeds going to benefit the AIDS Committee of Toronto and Buddies In Bad Times Theatre!!!

Featuring an absolutely devastating lineup of some of our very favorite guests:

The delectably droll DINI DIMAKOS!

The rollickingly komical REBECCA KOHLER!

The simply mesmerizing SHELLEY MARSHALL!

An all-new mini-concert by song parodista's THE CHEETO GIRLS!

Hosted by the absolutely jocular ANDREW JOHNSTON!

and we are OVER THE MOON to welcome our very special guest:

The deeply delightful DREW DROEGE as CHLOE SEVIGNY!

It's all almost too much.

Also, you know how in the past we've touted super-surprise guests that have included eTalk's Traci Melchor, the stars of "1girl5gays", Comedy Goddess Kristen Johnston featuring Fashion Icon Christian Siriano, Degrassi's Adamo Ruggeiro and, of course, the late, great Jackie Burroughs... right???

Well... y'ain't seen nothin' yet...

When: FRIDAY, July 1st (and yes, we SO excited)
Where: Buddies In Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander St. - Betwixt College & Wellesley St. on Yonge)
What Time: Doors at 7:00 SHARP, show at 8
How much: An unbelievably reasonable $20, with partial proceeds going to AIDS Committee of Toronto and Buddies In Bad Times theatre...

***Tickets can and will be purchased in person at the Buddies In Bad Times Box Office (12 Alexander St.)416-975-8555