Fringe 2017 – Hicksbiz.com –The Charm Offensive: Review by GRAHAM HICKS 4 of 5 stars
The Charm Offensive
Novus Actors
Venue 12, Varscona Theatre
10329 83 Avenue
Fri. Aug. 18 – 1 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 20 – 1 p.m.
Mon. Aug. 21 – 7 p.m.
Tues. Aug. 22 – 9 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 23 – 1 p.m.
Thurs. Aug. 24 – 3 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 25 – 1 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27 – 7 p.m.
Duration: 60 minutes
4 of 5 stars
Beneath their legal armour, it's been said that many lawyers secretly yearn to be poets and actors and writers. But as practical under-graduate arts students in university, they opted for law school rather than the uncertainties of a bohemian life.
Which is partially why the Stewart Lemoine-penned Charm Offensive is so much fun. By day, the cast are all engaged in the legal profession, but weeknights, weekends and during the Fringe, they are actors.
And by George, they are very good actors, certainly a much better ensemble of hob ...
Read the rest of entry »
Fringe 2017 – Hicksbiz.com - 6 Quick Dick Tricks: A Dirk Darrow Investigation
Review by GRAHAM HICKS
Venue 5, King Edward Elementary School,
8530 101 St.
Fri. Aug. 18 – 2:15 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 19 – 9 p.m.
Tues. Aug. 22 – 4 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 23 – 12:15 p.m.
Thurs. Aug. 24 – 7:15 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 25 – 11:15 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27 – 4 p.m.
Duration: 60 minutes
3.5 of 5 stars
A pleasant hour is to be spent at the Fringe, enjoying Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer – or at least Mike’s private-eye cousin Dirk Darrow – do conjuring tricks.
Dirk Darrow is actually Tim Motley – an Australia-based American actor who has found an enduring character in Dirk Darrow, a classic cigarette-smoking, trench-coat and fedora, ‘30s or ‘40s private investigator with a plethora of one-liners.
Dirk’s shtick is the fact that he’s just as much a card-trick magician as he is a comedic private eye.
Motley stays st ...
Read the rest of entry »
Fringe 2017 – Hickbiz.com – Die-Nasty in A Midsummer Night's Fringe – review by GRAHAM HICKS
Venue #12, Varscona Theatre
10329 83 Ave.
August 18 to 26, 10:30 p.m.
80 minutes with no intermission.
4 of 5 stars
They are so funny.
They have been doing this for soooo long, yet the show just keeps getting better and better and better, and now it's in a beautiful new (renovated) theatre, and for the A Midsummer Night's Fringe the Die Nasty collective has decided to offer a week-long running improv riffing off of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
If you are still able to grab tix for any of the remaining 10:30 p.m. shows, do so at once!
The guarantee is you will laugh harder and louder at Die Nasty than at just about any other Fringe comedy.
Fringe 2017 – Hickbiz.com – Cut! – review by GRAHAM HICKS
Venue 4, Academy at King Edward
8525 101 St. (east side of school)
Thurs. Aug. 17, 9:45 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 18, 7:30 p.m.
Mon. Aug. 21, 12 noon
Tues. Aug. 22, 5:30p.m.
Sat. Aug. 26, 11:15 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27, 1:45 p.m.
Duration 60 minutes
2.5 of 5 stars
Not worth your time.
Cut! Is an amusing script, written many years ago by Alberta playwright Lyle Victor Albert and originally produced at the fourth Fringe festival in 1985.
The plot is truly original. The setting is some kind of purgatory where characters that have been deleted/cut/left out of the final version of famous plays are sent to commensurate and lament with one another on how they should have been stars.
The script is fun, and as the plot progresses there’s some playfulness around the theme of if-I-am-thought-of, do-I-exist?
But this version – at least at the second show – just didn’t gell. There w ...
Read the rest of entry »
Fringe 2017 – Hickbiz.com – Romeo & Juliet – review by GRAHAM HICKS
Edmonton Dance Theatre (AKA Toy Guns Dance Theatre)
Stage 1, Westbury Theatre
Arts Barns building, 10330 84 Ave.
Performances:
Fri. Aug. 18, 12:15 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 19, 4:30 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 20, 11:15 p.m.|
Wed. Aug. 23, 2:45 p.m.
Thurs. Aug. 24, 9:15 p.m.
Sat. Aug. 26, 11:59 p.m.
75 minutes
3.5 of 5 stars
Whimsy, fantasy and old-fashioned fun slathered on top of ballet dance technique has always been the Toy Guns Dance Theatre’s stock in trade.
It was what made Toy Guns’ first major Fringe appearance - where a dozen dancer/actors shared the spotlight with a stage full of pillows - such a hit in 2014, and made successive Jake Hastey and former partner Richelle Thoreson’s Fringe shows must-see productions.
Life changes. Thoreson is no longer associated with Toy Guns. The name of the dance company itself has mysteriously changed to Edmonton Dance Theatre, at least for the purpose ...
Read the rest of entry »
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 ...
Read the rest of entry »
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 ...
Read the rest of entry »
When my latest Enmax utilities bill arrived, I went on Facebook with my concerns.
The monthly energy costs for my house, for June, were dirt cheap — $20.05 for electricity, $7.19 for natural gas.
But the other costs, exquisitely detailed, seemed outrageous in comparison.
Another $57.48 for other electricity costs, being the administration, distribution, transmission, balancing pool allocation, rate riders and Edmonton local access fees.
An extra $66.57 for other natural gas costs: Administration charge, transaction fee, fixed delivery charge, variable delivery charge, rate riders, municipal franchise fee … and the dreaded carbon levy.
Why, I asked on Facebook, so much billing gobbledygook? Are we being hosed? Is it meant to hopelessly confuse the customer, so we shrug our shoulders and pay?
These complex bills have been around for 10 years. Yet the Facebook reaction was astounding.
Some 60 comments ricocheted back, along with hundreds of likes. “A crock of confusion &he ...
Read the rest of entry »
Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse Ellerslie
9626 Ellerslie Road SW
780-249-2000
Pampasteakhouse.com
Monday to Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. (Friday to 10 p.m.)
Saturday, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Sunday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 4 p.m. to 8 p.m..
Dinner for two, excluding tip and beverages: $100
Food: 4 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Sabor – Seafood Festival to Sept. 3, 2017
10220 103 St.
780-757-1114
Sabor.com
Monday to Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Dinner for two, excluding tip and beverages: basic, $60, loaded $120
Food: 4.5 of 5 Suns
Ambience: 4 of 5 Suns
Service: 4 of 5 Suns
Seafood or meat?
Why be forced to choose? Go out twice, enjoy the best of both!
Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse – firmly established after six years downtown – has just expanded. Pampa Brazilian Steakhouse Ellerslie is in a new, spacious, stand-alone buildi ...
Read the rest of entry »
“The environmental agenda has hijacked Alberta’s resource industry and our politicians,” wrote Craig Copeland, one of many readers responding to last week’s Hicks on Biz column entitled “Alberta’s economic suicide.”
“It gained traction in the early 2000s but has escalated lately with the new provincial and federal governments,” Copeland continued, “even though Alberta already had some of the strictest industrial environmental policies in the world. I fear we could be witnessing one of the greatest economic tragedies in Canadian history.”
Just another redneck opinion to be ignored, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and her advisers would likely say. The current New Democrat government appears to put a higher priority on its climate change action plan than on the dismal state of the provincial economy, everywhere other than Edmonton.
Copeland, however, is no redneck.
He’s the long-time mayor of Cold Lake, one of Alberta’s more ...
Read the rest of entry »