Peter and the Starcatcher
Citadel Theatre, Maclab Stage, Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA
April 1 – 23, 2017
Tickets - $30 and up
Review by GRAHAM HICKS, hicksbiz.com
Call it a qualified success.
The Citadel Theatre’s version of the 2012 Broadway hit Peter and the Starcatcher is full of fun, friendliness, theatrical invention, imagination, silly puns, song, dance, vaudeville, panto, slapstick and so on.
But the show – based on a book that is another author’s prequel to the classic Peter Pan – is just too frantic, trying just too darned hard to squeeze a monster into a mere two hours.
The 14 actors each have a main character, and they all perform multiple other characters. The show dashes from scene to scene – in the first half, on board the two sailing ships the H.M.S. Neverland and H.M.S. Wasp somewhere in the late 19th Century when Britannia ruled the waves, in the second half on the mythical island that will become Neverland.
The theatrical challenge is a ...
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Grandin Fish ‘N’ Chips
9902 109 St.
780-250-3474
Grandinfish.ca
11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Saturday
No reservations
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 3.5 of 5 stars
Plenty of fast food outlets offer fish ’n’ chips, but the batter usually drips oil like a rusting car, the fish is mushy, the French fries from a bag and the ambience as charming as an aging fastfood court.
In the years I’ve called Edmonton home, only once have I experienced the very best of fish ’n’ chips, being a special-of-the-day at Beaumont’s charming Franco-Albertan Chartier restaurant.
Until now: With the opening of the Grandin Fish ’n’ Chips shop on 109 Street just north of the High Level Bridge, a glorious new era of fish ’n’ chips has dawned.
The new shop is clean, sunny and well-ventilated, with some 40 seats. The decoration and décor is whimsical and appropriately Maritime themed. The open kitchen is superb.
It&rs ...
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Whichever way you look at it – financial, moral, compassionate – the city-led, mostly provincially funded 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness launched by then-Mayor Steve Mandel in 2009 has been a success.
You can look at numbers until your brain is spinning, but a few big ones stand out.
Since 2009, Homeward Trust – the umbrella organization coordinating housing and social programs in Edmonton for the homeless – says 6,000 formerly homeless individuals have been housed.
Two-thirds of those helped were considered to be chronically without shelter.
The annual 2016 Homeless Count – the best measurement available – was 1,752 people. The 2014 count was about 2,170. The count in 2008 was about 2,500. Had no action been taken, the 2009 report suggests the homeless count could have jumped to 8,500 by 2018.
Many tax dollars have been spent on this effort. Homeward Trust’s 2015 budget was $44.6 million for building new housing units, rent subsidies and social progr ...
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Vivo Ristorante Downtown
10505-106 St.
587-525-7500
vivoristorante.ca
4 p.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week
(Pizzeria and Taverna sections, 11 a.m. to late)
Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4.5 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (excluding beverages and tip): basic, $45; loaded, $120
The start was rough, but the evening proved enchanting.
An unsmiling, unwelcoming host, as charming as a James Bond villain, led us into the new Vivo Ristorante Downtown, pointed at the table we were to occupy, turned heel and left!
Having settled in, I opened the menu, and just about fell off my chair.
Antipastos were priced at $17 to $54, pastas at $20 to $43, entrees at $54 to $92, and veggie side dishes at $14 to $19! For a moment, we considered moving downstairs to Vivo’s Pizzeria, where a beer and a personal pizza can be had for $12.
The initial “oh dear” moment didn’t last. All was made well by delightful Michelle, who, as our server, ...
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A hurricane of numbers has descended upon us, as both the Alberta and federal governments announced their 2017/18 budgets in the past two weeks — i.e. their anticipated (i.e. hopeful, optimistic, ideal) spending and expected revenues for the next 12 months.
I often think the parties in power simply throw out as many numbers as possible, so we will give up on trying to make sense of anything.
But two numbers — two measurements — can tell us how we are doing economically as a province and as a nation.
One is the gloom and doom, fiscal-conservative number — the debt-per-capita.
The other is the why-worry measurement used by free-spending governments to justify their spending — the debt-to-GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio.
Right now, the Alberta New Democrats and the federal Liberals are tossing the province and the country into big-time debt.
On a debt-per-capita basis, the numbers are terrifying.
Formerly debt free (thanks to oil and gas revenues), Alberta&rs ...
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Baijiu
Mercer Building, 10359-104 St.
780-421-7060
Baijiuyeg.com
Tuesday to Thursday, 5 p.m. to midnight
Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Closed Sunday and Monday
Reservations for large groups only
Food: 3.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Service: 3 of 5 stars
Dinner for two (excluding beverages and tip): basic, $40; loaded, $60
Baijiu is not all it’s cracked up to be.
The new, ultra-trendy restaurant-bar in the trendy Mercer Warehouse building in its ultra-trendy location (right across from Rogers Place) is definitely ultra-trendy.
The ambiance is clever, and a ton of fun. I’ve heard of this narrow but spacious space described as a 1930’s style Shanghai speakeasy mixed with Southern California pastels and neon.
Tables are squeezed down one side with cheek-by-jowl seating. Across the aisle is one of the longest sit-down bar counters in the city.
Like Michael Maxxis’s Old Strathcona Have Mercy and El Cortez restaurant bars, Baijiu’ ...
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All eyes are focused on the Alberta 2017/18 provincial budget – the spending side of the equation. But good news is happening in the oil and gas sector – where most of the money comes from.
This is a tad ironic. According to the headlines, the sky is falling on the oilsands.
A few months ago, international energy giants ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips announced a $4.4-billion write-down in the value of their oilsand reserves (the value of oil still in the ground). The sky is falling!
Earlier this week, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell announced it was leaving the oilsands, selling its Athabasca Oilsands (Albian) mine, the Scotford upgrader and smaller oilsands holdings to Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) for $12.7 billion.
Locally, Shell will continue to own Redwater’s Scotford refinery alongside the upgrader, and will continue to operate both plants.
The sky is falling! All the world players who piled into the oilsands from 1990 to 2014 are getting out!
Whoa! The write-d ...
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