Sunday, Jun. 16, 2013 4:55PM EDT
The Daisy Theatre: Less script makes room for more variety
J. KELLY NESTRUCK
It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights … almost.
Word recently leaked out in Variety that Disney Theatrical Productions has been testing out a stage version of The Muppet Show, causing widespread excitement among fans of Kermit and the gang who have always wanted the chance to watch their favourite characters not on a screen but from Statler and Waldorf’s seats.
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Sunday, Jun. 16, 2013 4:00PM EDT
The National Theatre School suffers from 'Montrealcentrism,' report contends
J. KELLY NESTRUCK
Is the National Theatre School of Canada on its way to becoming the national theatre school of francophone Quebec?
That’s the fear expressed in an independent assessment of the Montreal-based school commissioned by the federal government two years ago – and which landed in a semi-censored, access-to-information form on my desk recently in an envelope accompanied by an anonymous (and slightly hysterical) letter asking me to look into it.
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Wednesday, May. 22, 2013 3:44PM EDT
An irreverence for classics plays well in Berlin. Why not in Canada?
J. KELLY NESTRUCK
Thomas Ostermeier, artistic director of Berlin’s famed Schaubuhne theatre company, has made a name for himself internationally over the past decade with his productions of Henrik Ibsen’s plays.
But what does the German director really think of the 19th-century Norwegian playwright who penned such classics as A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler?
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Friday, Sep. 07, 2012 4:00PM EDT
Factory Theatre: It's time to end the boycott
J. KELLY NESTRUCK
As fall arrives, the temperature cools – and tempers cool, too. No surprise then that as Labour Day came and went, Toronto’s tumultuous Factory Theatre had a much-needed week of positive news.
Finally, board chairman Ron Struys and his fellow directors put the search for a new artistic director on hold and entered into mediation with the man they fired from that position a little over two months ago, Ken Gass.
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Thursday, Aug. 02, 2012 10:42PM EDT
Plummer keeps his distance in one-man show
J. KELLY NESTRUCK
For star rating and full review, see Saturday’s arts section
Last seen at Stratford as Prospero, Christopher Plummer – a couple years older and an Academy Award heavier – opens up his personal magic books, quoting from poets, playwrights and authors who have cast spells over him since he was a shy boy growing up in Quebec.
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Tuesday, Jun. 05, 2012 12:52PM EDT
Is Slings and Arrows on the way back?
J. Kelly Nestruck
Will Slings and Arrows be coming back for a fourth season? Co-creator Bob Martin has been hinting that it might on Twitter, making fans of the late, lamented theatre-themed television s eries giddy with excitement. (Well, making me giddy with excitement, anyway.)
"Slings may live again," Martin tweeted recently under his handle @drstoper , a reference to the character he played on the short-lived CBC comedy, Michael: Tuesdays and Thursday.
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Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013 5:58PM EST
Stood there, applauded that: Does the standing ovation really mean anything any more?
J. KELLY NESTRUCK
It’s time to face the facts: The standing ovation is dead in North America. Yes, the standing O is finito.
Theatregoers get up on their feet and clap at the end of plays more than ever, it’s true – but that’s exactly it: The gesture is no longer exceptional. You’ll find people standing and applauding after great performances and less-great ones and sometimes even after lousy ones.
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Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 1:42PM EDT
Catching the Stratford Express
J. Kelly Nestruck
The Globe gets results!
Well, maybe, maybe not. All I know is that two seasons after this critic rode a bicycle through a hailstorm to draw attention to the lack of public transportation to the two major Southern Ontario theatre festivals, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival has finally tackled the serious problem of how to get to and from its theatre town without a car.
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