Top of The Pops: A British Rock Invasion
Mayfield Dinner Theatre in the Doubletree by Hilton West Edmonton
Doors at 6 p.m., show at 8 p.m., Wednesday and Sunday brunch, closed Mondays
Tickets, with buffet, $80 to $105.
Through February 1, 2015
Review by GRAHAM HICKS
The Mayfield Dinner Theatre has truly perfected the art of entertainment.
Don’t expect a pop culture treatise from its just-opened Top of The Pops: A British Rock Invasion. Just enjoy the (much-improved) buffet, sit back and let an entertaining evening of some 35 British pop songs, plus skits featuring the likes of Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Sherlock Holmes and the crazed Scotsman, to wash over you.
The economics of the Mayfield Theatre have always been a source of wonderment. How does an unsubsidized theatre manage to keep eight very talented musical actors plus a crack five-person band (on stage with the singer-actors all evening) on the payroll for a three-month run?
The answer, of course, is to give the people – a slig ...
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One Man, Two Guvnors
Citadel Theatre, Shoctor Stage
Through Sunday, November 16, 2014
Tickets $30 and up, www.citadeltheatre.com
Review by GRAHAM HICKS
In One Man, Two Guvnors, Francis (John Ullyatt) splays away with a metaphorical comedic machine gun, shooting off humour in every which direction, at every which moment, within every which comedy device ever devised since the first playwright walked on his or her back legs.
Lord, this is one great screwball comedy that Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre has used to brighten up its 2014/15 season – up there with previous productions such as Monty Python’s Spamalot, Noises Off, the Noel Coward runabouts and Tom Wood’s initial adaptation of The Servant of Two Masters – on which this show is also based – back in 2002/03.
As the program notes usefully point out, British playwright Richard Bean is a worthy heir to the brilliant line of British physical/spoken humour that stretches from Spike Milligan to Peter Sellers, John Clee ...
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