Category: Performing Arts
Performing Arts
The Ladies Foursome
Mayfield Dinner Theatre
DoubleTree by Hilton West Edmonton,
16615-109 Ave. Edmonton, Alberta Canada
Feb. 6, 2018 to April 1, 2018
Tickets $70 to $105, mayfieldtheatre.ca/tickets
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com
Sometimes the best of business deals – the breakthrough talk that leads to later agreement at the negotiating table - take place on the golf course.
And, according to the Ladies Foursome, playing at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre in Edmonton from Feb. 6 to April 1, 2018, the golf course is often a place where emotions can also be explored in the few minutes when the foursome are gathering at the start of each hole.
The Ladies Foursome is a sweet show written by prolific Canadian playwright Norm Foster, a comedy with wistfulness, a comedy about regular folks who aren't super-stars, or characters plagued by bigger-than-normal problems.
Four people, four close friends tied together by a regular golf outing that has gone on for years and years, gather together fo ...
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The Humans
Citadel Theatre, Shoctor Stage
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
January 6 to 27, 2018
Theatre review by GRAHAM HICKS, hicksbiz.com
What is all the fuss about?
Why is a yet another cliche-filled play about yet another dysfunctional American family considered to have been 2016's hottest Broadway property, winning every award in the book?
The Humans, having its Canadian premiere at Edmonton's Citadel Theatre January 6 to 27, is about as American soured-apple pie as it gets.
Rebellious aspiring musician younger daughter Brigid, currently bartending, is living in a dingy two-floor apartment with her boyfriend in New York City's Chinatown.
Ambitious older daughter Aimee is about to be fired from her law firm, mainly because her medical problems are eating into her billing hours. And her girlfriend has broken up with her.
Mom and Dad, Deirdre and Erik, are devout but liberal-minded Catholics, on good terms with the daughters but still nagging them a ...
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Subtle changes in the 18th edition of the Citadel Theatre's A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
At the Maclab Stage, Citadel Theatre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Dec. 1 to 23, 2017
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com
The changes are subtle, but they are there.
For the first time since A Christmas Carol graced the Citadel’s Maclab stage 18 years ago, the grand annual Christmas presentation is not being directed by the now-retired former Citadel Theatre artistic director Bob Baker. Nor does it star Tom Wood, who wrote the stage adaptation of the story that the Citadel has used to this day, and who has played Scrooge for most of those 18 years.
It is the end of an era, but not the end of an era.
For if ever a transition was seamless, this is it.
Director Wayne Paquette has long been Bob Baker’s assistant director for A Christmas Carol.
The role of Scrooge this year is being alternated between Glenn Nelson – who has played the role before &nda ...
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Ubuntu (The Cape Town Project)
Maclab Stage, Citadel Theatre,
Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA
October 11, 2017 to Oct. 22, 2017
Tickets: $30 and up
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com
I can’t remember the last time an audience at a Citadel Theatre production sat utterly bewildered for the first 10 minutes and then, by the show’s end, rose as one in an immediate, enthusiastic, standing ovation.
But such was the case October 12, 2017, at the opening night of Ubuntu (The Cape Town Project) on the Maclab Stage.
Ubuntu – meaning “a person is a person through other people” in the South African Bantu language – is full of richly layered complexity, simply and joyfully presented.
Its mystery and magic lies in its deep understanding of the human condition, on so many levels, ALL THE TIME!!!
In almost every scene, three or four sub-themes, ideas, emotional hues, cultural clashes, pleasing/jarring visual and aural prompts simultaneously e ...
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Shakespeare in Love
Citadel Theatre, Shoctor Stage, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
September 16, 2017 to October 8, 2017
Tickets
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com
Rest easy, the Citadel Theatre is in good hands.
Daryl Cloran has had a year now as the new artistic director of the Citadel Theatre, but the 2016/17 season was still picked and planned by his predecessor Bob Baker, who retired in the spring of 2016 after a long and rich tenure at the helm of the largest theatre in Canada west of Toronto.
This season’s opener Shakespeare in Love is the first show of the first season that Cloran has fully overseen. Plus he decided to direct the show as well – which must have involved many 18-hour days leading up to opening night on Thursday, September 22, 2017.
Big challenge! Shakespeare in Love is a sprawling, BIG play in all aspects, over two hours long, 20 actors, jam-packed with action and meaning. You may remember it began life as a movie, a major hit that earned seven Academy ...
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Soul Sistas
Mayfield Dinner Theatre (DoubleTree by Hilton West Edmonton)
Sept. 5 to Oct. 29, 2017
Hicksbiz.com review by GRAHAM HICKS
Hang on!
Taking in Soul Sistas at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre is like hopping into a musical Lamborghini on a race track with no speed limit.
Breathless! Exhilarating! Exciting, and, dare one say it, probably as close to the originals (Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin) as is humanly possible.
Tiffany Deriveau as Tina Turner and Tara Jackson as Aretha Franklin are far more than impersonators – they get inside their characters. In song, dance and spirit they channel these two super-stars of American soul, rhythm & blues, and, in Tina’s case, rock ‘n’ roll.
Older patrons of the Mayfield Dinner Theatre, be not afraid. While the show is full of energy and enthusiasm and celebrates familiar music from the ‘60s to the ‘80s, it is presented within reasonable decibel levels.
Soul Sistas is not so much a musical as two separ ...
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Fringe 2017 – Hicksbiz.com – A Quiet Place - Review by GRAHAM HICKS
A Quiet Place
Blarney Productions
Venue 8, Old Strathcona Performing Arts Centre
8426 Gateway Blvd.
Thurs. Aug. 17 – 9:45 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 18 – 11 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 20 – 4.45 p.m.
Mon. Aug. 21 – 12:15 noon
Wed. Aug. 23 – 9:30 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27 – 8 p.m.
How many stars out of a possible five? I have no idea
Blarney Productions
Duration 60 min.
I’m not saying A Quiet Place is bad theatre.
Not in the least. It’s probably very, very good theatre.
But I’m part of that Fringe audience that just doesn’t understand/comprehend/grok that style of abstract theatre known as “Theatre of the Absurd”.
A Quiet Place is meant not to make contextual sense … I think.
The show makes no attempt to explain why two men are in an inescapable room, why one starts being bound in a chair and being beat up by the other, why the r ...
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Fringe 2017 – Hicksbiz.com – To Be Moved – Review by GRAHAM HICKS 4.5 of 5 stars
To Be Moved
Blarney Productions
Venue 28, the Playhouse, 10033 80 Avenue
Thurs. Aug. 17 – 9:15 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 18 – 2 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 19 – 4:15 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 20 – 7 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 23 – 4:15 p.m.
Thurs. Aug. 24 – 9:15 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 25 – 2 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 26 – 9:15 p.m.
4.5 of 5 stars
Duration 60 min.
What a lovely, non-verbal, embracing-all-senses show To Be Moved is.
This is collaborative, accessible art at its finest – Meagan Koshka’s interwoven visual design, Matt Skopyk’s most appropriate electronic music … which actually carries a melody, thank you very much, the movements and emotions of actors Zoe Glassman and Kristian Stec, all bought together by artistic and conceptual director Braydon Dowler-Coltman.
It’s quite gorgeous. A young sweet couple are so much in love, tha ...
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Fringe 2017 – Hicksbiz.com – The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds – Review by GRAHAM HICKS 4 of 5 stars
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds
Plain JaneTheatre
Venue 3, Walterdale Theatre, 10322 83 Ave.
Fri. Aug. 18 – 8:45 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 19 – 2:30 p.m.
Mon. Aug. 21 – 7:15 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 23 – 12 noon
Sat. Aug. 26 – 4:30 p.m.
Duration: 90 minutes
4 of 5 stars
Every Fringe needs its classic American dysfunctional family psycho-drama play – of which there are many. Because the roles are wonderfully meaty for the actors and the plays have stood up for decade upon decade. Plus there’s a need on the audience’s part to balance out the silliness and zaniness of most Fringe Festival shows with some sobriety, serious acting and serious reflection.
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds is a classic, detailing the breakdown of an American family throug ...
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Fringe 2017 – Hicksbiz.com – The 11 O’Clock Number! The Improvised Musical – Review by GRAHAM HICKS 4.5 of 5 stars
The 11 O'Clock Number! The Improvised Musical
Grindstone Theatre
Venue 16, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Sanctuary Stage
10037 84 Ave.
Thurs. Aug. 17 – 10:15 p.m
Fri. Aug. 18 – 6:30 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 19 – 9:45 p.m.
Mon. Aug. 21 – 5:15 p.m.
Tues. Aug. 22 – 9:45 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 23 – 5 p.m.
Thurs. Aug. 24 – 6 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 26 – 9:45 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27 – 3:30 p.m.
Duration: 60 minutes
4.5 of 5 stars
Move over, Rapid Fire, Die-Nasty, Gordon’s Big Bald Head, Atomic Improv …. There’s a new kid in town!
Actually not so new: Grindstone Theatre has been around for some five years, but with this Fringe is emerging from the underground into much wider recognition.
Here’s the rub.
Not only is this Edmonton ensemble really good at stage improvisation &hel ...
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