“Hamilton’s annual Street Art Crawl” Reply

by • commentary, Editorial comment, Festival

Review by Danny Gaisin

Hamilton Ontario used to be known as strictly a lunch bucket community with two major steel factories, the escarpment and a number of waterfalls. Today we have a competitive CFL team, a modern stadium; a renowned symphony orchestra and a vibrant cultural assemblage. And those 100+ waterfalls!. We also have something called an Art Crawl which is three days of terrific. The artisans, performers; food trucks and restaurants; patio bars and resident’s temperaments attracts visitors for not only the ‘Golden Horseshoe’ but other neighborhoods as far as the U.S . border. Unfortunately, most media reports about the event only mention statistics.

       ART CRAWL Visitors milling along James St. North

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Little Shop of Horrors, fun in a flower shop Reply

by • Comedy, Drama, Festival, Musical, Play, Theatre

Review by Marion Davis

NYC’ers know that there’s a hidden part of Manhattan known only to localites that’s acknowledged as ‘Off – Off Broadway’. It’s either basements or lofts or parking garages. Such was the origins of Alan Menken & Howard Ashman’s 1982 rock musical ‘LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS’. The story is about a ‘Venus Flytrap’ plant that develops a taste for humans.
Audrey 2 (the plant), who was raised at Mushnik’s Flower Shop, has unexpectedly, in a twisted and funny way, planned to take over the Earth. This light musical horror comedy from the 1960’s, is filled with catchy songs throughout the developing horror story while nurturing a love story.

Steve Ross (Mr. Mushnik) and his store clerk played by Andre Morin    Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

 

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“The Merry Wives of Windsor”; NOT Camilla; Sarah; Catherine or Meghan! Reply

by • Comedy, Drama, Festival, Play, Theatre

Review by Danny Gaisin

Old William Shakespeare had a thing about women getting the best of their men. Think of Beatrice; Rosalind; Titania and Portia. Having a controlling or out- maneuvering wife is something this scribe can certainly identify with (forgive the prepositional ending). Seems things haven’t changed much over the past four centuries. Some other ‘plus de change. Plus de meme-chose’ idioms; wanting to marry for money rather than love; and especially- social manipulations. All these delicious things appear in Merry Wives and artistic director Antoni Cimolino is able to bring out all humor, intricacies, convolutions  that make this comedy such an eternal favorite.  Say ‘Falstaffian’ and everyone knows what is meant.

Hughson, Davies & Ghajar plotting    Photo by David Hou

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“PRIVATE LIVES” a less–than-usual Stratford interpret. Reply

by • Comedy, Festival, Play, Theatre

Review by Danny Gaisin
From a set that looks like the entry to a fancy restaurant’s Ladies Room, to faulty blocking, to poor vocal projection, to some hammy acting, Noel Coward’s Private Lives deserves better. The plot deals with two newly-wed couples at the start of their respective honeymoons. Couple ‘A’s groom and couple ‘B’s bride were once couple ‘C’ but have been divorced for five years. They all reunite at the same Cote D’azure resort and the old sparks fly. Being a Coward play the dialogue is clever and memorable and especially re-quotable. I still include ‘don’t quibble, Sybil’ in conversations.    Photo courtesy of David Hou

Davies, Shara, Walker & Peacock discussing their ‘Private Lives’

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BILLY ELLIOT, the Musical, “Very Fokken Special” Reply

by • Ballet, Dance, Drama, Musical, Play, Theatre

Review by Danny Gaisin
For over a decade, I’ve had a love/like relationship with director Donna Feore. The lady’s background is classical dance and occasionally she allows her dedication to the art get the best of her. It happened with her work on ‘Oklahoma’, (OAR July ’07) and it’s the only flaw in Stratford’s amazing Billy Elliot, the Musical. Feore utilizes every inch of the Festival’s thrust stage with chorus numbers that are outstanding and definitively bear her imprimatur.
The play has two plots, the first deals with a pre-teen male who decides that he’d like to learn ballet; the other deals with the tragic U.K.’s miners’ strike.     Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

Nolen Dubuc (Billy) leading the miners; cops & ballerinas in a big chorus number

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Bienvenue to a visiting young French Choir Reply

by • Choir, Concert

Review by Judith Caldwell

 

Maitrise des Hauts de France, Young Singers of Lampersart, is a French boys choir who began their 2019 North American concert tour on July 12th at Burlington’s oldest church, St Luke’s Anglican, and will end their tour- after many stops in the United States – at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, the newest church in Waterdown on July 28th.  They are a group of about 40 singers in every regular register (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) who all come from the town of Lamersart, near Lille in northern France.  The choir was founded in 1970, performing regularly in Europe including at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and for Queen Elizabeth.                                                      The Choir = on stage

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