Category: Around town
Around town
Motown The Musical
(Broadway Across Canada presentation)
February 13 to 18, 2018
Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
Tickets
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, HicksBiz.com
Yes, Motown the Musical at Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium February 13 to 18, is a song ‘n’ dance extravaganza featuring some 30 highly talented triple-threat (singing, dancing, acting) actors doing the songs and the great dance moves of the legendary Motown Record Company’s artists, from The Four Tops through Diana Ross through Stevie Wonder.
But the show is far more interesting, much deeper and more complex than what would be expected.
It’s a fascinating deep dive into American culture, race relations, politics and the entertainment business of the 1950s to 1980s. It revolves around one businessman/artist who single-handedly bought “coloured music” into the mainstream of American pop music.
Berry Gordy is a mass of walking contradictions, which makes the story ever so interesting.
A bri ...
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Jersey Boys: The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA
Nov. 10 to 12, 2017 – matinees Saturday and Sunday
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com
Jersey Boys, at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium for a far-too-short run of five shows between Friday November 10 and Sunday November 12, 2017, , is just as much the dazzling, interesting nostalgia trip today as it was in its Broadway debut 12 years ago.
The nostalgia is the canon of songs from Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons – Frankie holding some kind of record of 40 hit songs over a career that has spanned five decades. (Valli, at 83, continues to perform with his remarkable voice still intact.)
In this show, the hits just keep coming: Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk like a Man, December 1963, Dawn, Big Man In Town, Let’s Hang On, Bye Bye Baby, C'mon Marianne, Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, Working My way Back to You, Fallen Angel, Rag Do ...
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The name is a draw unto itself.
“The Bedouins” – brilliant!
It conjures up mythical images of Arabian desert nomads – Lawrence of Arabia, The English Patient, that kind of thing.
Do Bedouin tribes have a distinct Middle Eastern cuisine? Not really. The two savvy partners in North Edmonton’s The Bedouins restaurant readily admit the name is more impressionistic, a brand rather than actual Bedouin dishes.
While Bedouin tribes dot the desert landscape from Morocco to Saudi Arabia, maitre d’ Emad Elgaddafi and chef Ashruf Oun are offering North African cooking, the distinctive tajeens and beautiful lamb dishes of the Maghreb – the coastal regions of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
If there’s a regional bias, it’s Libyan. Pasta shows up more often than grains at The Bedouins, as Libya was once an Italian colony.
Elgaddafi and Oun are of Libyan descent, Canada’s gain when civil war forced the two dynamic young men out of their ...
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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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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 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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Fringe 2017 – Hicksbiz.com – The Apple Tree – Review by GRAHAM HICKS 3 of 5 stars
The Apple Tree
Plain Jane Theatre
Venue 12, Varscona Theatre
10329 83 Ave.
Thurs. Aug. 17 – 9 p.m
Fri. Aug. 18 – 5 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 19 – 7 p.m.
Mon. Aug. 21 – 3 p.m.
Tues. Aug. 22 – 1 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 23 – 5 p.m.
Thurs. Aug. 24 – 1 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 25 – 9 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 26 – 9 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27 – 3:30 p.m.
Duration: 65 minutes
3 of 5 stars
The Apple Tree is a light, sweet two-hander, a not-so-well-known musical from the same team that wrote Fiddler on the Roof.
It’s a gentle, humourous, show, using Adam and Eve to illustrate the vicissitudes, contradictions and need for life-long male-female partnerships, going back to the original couple on Earth.
Most pleasing is the polished singing of Madelaine Knight (Eve) and Graham Mothersill (Adam), both of whom have played leading roles in multiple musical pro ...
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Fringe 2017 – Hickbiz.com – HEATHERS The Musical – review by GRAHAM HICKS
Scona Alumni Theatre,
BYOV 25: Strathcona High School,
10450 72 Ave. (entrance on north side of high school, parking on the east side)
August 17 to 20, 22 to 26, 9 p.m.
95 minutes with no intermission.
4 of 5 stars
This is one weird gem of a large-scale musical.
You have to hand it to artistic director/Scona drama teacher/Scona Alumni Theatre producer Linette Smith.
She fears not controversy, has the resources to mount a large-scale musical – 17 performers and a six-person band, and has a reputation such that her best recent graduates from Strathcona High School in the song-and-dance department are only too happy to be part of the Alumni Theatre’s Fringe show.
Controversial?
HEATHERS is a spectacular musical and cult movie that failed to become a household name: Maybe because, as the note on the program cautions, the show set in an American high school circ ...
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Starting Thursday, it’s Fringe time.
Fringe time means Old Strathcona time.
The kids – university students, the party-till-you-drop group – know Old Strathcona well. They go dancing, drinking and snacking from bar to bar – from The Pint to O2’s to The Black Dog …
The rest of us, when we head down the Whyte Avenue strip, it’s more to dine than to drink — although the occasional $3.50 happy hour pint is attractive.
There’s an unbelievable 60-plus food joints, along or on either side of, Whyte Avenue (82 Avenue) from 101 Street to 107 Street. Sixty! And that’s not counting the restaurants further south between 103 an 104 Streets.
If you’re planning to Fringe, here’s the Weekly Dish Guide to Old Strathcona’s good eats, based on past Weekly Dish reviews, or reports from trusted friends.
Pubs, bars and coffee shops have been excluded, unless they are known for decent food.
Tier 1
Packrat Louie: This lovely restaur ...
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Kurios – Cabinet of Curiosities
Cirque de Soleil
Under the Grand Chapiteau (Big Top)
Behind (north of) the Northlands Coliseum
July 20 to August 13, 2017
REVIEW BY GRAHAM HICKS, Hicksbiz.com
Tickets: https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/canada/edmonton/kurios/buy-tickets
How magical, how lucky we all are, that the world has Cirque de Soleil.
And that Cirque de Soleil brings its shows to Edmonton.
Cirque is astounding. It is popular entertainment at its artistic best. Over 20 shows are now in production around the world, attracting thousands of spectators every day.
Cirque de Soleil never stoops to crass commercialism. Within its circus ways, it is an extravaganza of artistic imagination that knows no bounds. The creators of Cirque shows must feel like Christmas comes to them every day of the year. No other performing arts company can give artistic overseers the resources to bring to life every possible performing idea they can think of.
Extraordinary creativity: In Kur ...
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