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::THEATRE NEWS::
LE Newsletter - August 26, 2010
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Canadians Earn Rave Reviews In Edinburgh
Source:
www.thestar.com - Richard Ouzounian
(August 23, 2010) Some take the high road, some take the low
road, but our Toronto performers are all winding
up covered in glory at this year’s Edinburgh Festival.
Kristen Thomson’s I, Claudia has received glowing
reviews from every front, receiving accolades like “touching,
funny, sharply observed and poignant.” She was also nominated
for The Stage’s award as “Best Solo Performer.”
Sharron Matthews, with her modestly titled
Sharron Matthews Superstar
has proven to be a real favourite, with five star notices from
many reviewers. Kate Copstick, the outspoken critic from The
Scotsman, wrote simply, “How f---ing good are you??? Wow!”
Anthony Black’s Invisible Atom walked off with the
Herald Angel award for Best Production, while Alon Nashman’s
Kafka and Son has been hailed for its “emotional depth” and
“refreshing honesty.”
Matthews herself describes the non-stop excitement of the
Edinburgh Fringe scene as “a raging river, so fast and furious
that you just have to hold on or you will get swept away!”
But for the time being, it certainly seems like Matthews and
her colleagues are being swept onward and upward by a tide of
critical and popular success.
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING SARA: The dust has finally
cleared over the much contested Roundabout Theatre transfer of
the Stratford Festival 2009 hit production of The Importance
of Being Earnest, but it looks like only two of the original
cast members will be travelling down to New York: Brian Bedford
(both as director and as Lady Bracknell) and Sara Topham as the
lovely Gwendolyn.
It strikes most observers that the failure to cast the show’s
leading men, Ben Carlson and Mike Shara, shows a certain sort of
folly on the behalf of the Roundabout Theatre, but director
Bedford claims the matter is out of his hands. (Pity, the part
of Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar has already
been cast.)
But don’t cry for Carlson and Shara. Carlson will be appearing
as Feste in Twelfth Night and Alceste in The
Misanthrope, while Shara will be Orsino in Twelfth Night and
Teddy in The Homecoming.
So who’s going to appear as Algernon and Jack opposite Bedford
on Broadway? Well, knowing the Roundabout’s penchant for often
inappropriate celebrity casting, don’t be surprised if it turns
out to be Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.
NEWS FROM NIAGARA: Agent Fudge, my Niagara-on-the-Lake
secret operative, is grumbling that the Shaw Festival management
is keeping such a tight lid on next season that he’s worried
about having very little to report.
So far, he’s already told us that My Fair Lady and
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof will be part of the 2011 playbill and
now he can add that J.M. Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton
will join the list. It’s about the perfect butler whose overall
superiority as a man to the upper class twits he serves is
revealed when everyone is shipwrecked on a desert island.
The play has been seen before at Shaw in 1976, but surely 34
years has been enough time to dull everyone’s memories.
And there’s also a persistent rumour that the 2008 comedy hit,
The President, will be revived, hopefully with its superb
leading man, Lorne Kennedy.
But its delicious leading lady, Chilina Kennedy, is now
otherwise engaged at the Stratford Festival. |
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::LANGFIELD
ENTERTAINMENT:: ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADIAN TWIST::
