All stories by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter on BroadwayStars

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Soulpepper’s ‘Bad Parent,’ by ‘Kim’s Convenience’ creator Ins Choi, feels as chaotic as its central marriage by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The new comedy, a co-production among three Canadian theatre companies, mostly cracks instead of crackles, despite strong performances.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:00AM
Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Ian Shaw hunts for the father who hunted for a great white shark in ‘Jaws’ in the stage comedy ‘The Shark Is Broken’ by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Ian Shaw plays his father, Robert Shaw, who died three years after starring as maniacal shark hunter Quint in the blockbuster thriller.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 07:00AM

‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ to play Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre this winter by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Jac Yarrow will star in the title role, with West End and Broadway actor Linzi Hateley as the narrator.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 06:00AM
Monday, September 19, 2022

‘Sweeney Todd,’ ‘Italian Mime Suicide’ and ‘Wildfire’ win big at 2022 Dora Awards by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The awards show marked the first in-person Dora ceremony since 2019. Check out the full list of winners here.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 10:29PM
Thursday, September 1, 2022

Like father, like son: For Pakistani-Canadian actor Ali Kazmi, ‘Uncle Vanya’ runs in the family by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Kazmi stars in the Crow’s Theatre production of the Chekhovian classic as Astrov, a role his father played 15 years ago.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 10:00AM
Tuesday, August 23, 2022

‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ coming to Toronto as a test run for possible Broadway revival by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The new production, which played London’s West End, is slated to start a two-month run in December at the Princess of Wales Theatre

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 06:00AM
Monday, August 22, 2022

Shakespeare wrote ‘King Lear’ during the plague. This Canadian playwright created its prequel during the COVID-19 lockdown by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Erin Shield’s ‘Queen Goneril,’ set seven years before ‘King Lear,’ is playing in repertory with the Bard’s bleak tragedy at Soulpepper

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 03:36PM
Sunday, August 14, 2022

Stratford Festival’s 2023 season will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical ‘Rent’ and Tony-winning comedy ‘Spamalot’ by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

‘Rent’ will be directed by Broadway veteran Thom Allison, a source close to the production told the Star.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 07:00AM
Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Chase Padgett’s ‘6 Guitars’ Toronto show features music and comedy by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The two-hour show weaves together music, comedy and improv into a story that follows six characters and their relationship with guitar music

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 09:21AM
Friday, July 15, 2022

Fringe festival thriller ‘Dead Broke’ starts off as your average kitchen-sink drama then takes a grisly turn by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Will King’s macabre play, about a broke student squatting in an abandoned house, has a winning script packed with dark humour.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 06:43PM
Thursday, July 14, 2022

Alia Ceniza Rasul unpacks a complicated identity in her heartfelt, hilarious Fringe show by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

She grew up as a Filipina Muslim with a Moro father and a Christian mother. Now in her mid-30s, Rasul reflects on her childhood and family

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:53PM
Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Jennifer Merchant’s solo Fringe festival show ‘A Whey You A Go? A Jamaican Sojourn’ is an epic story, intimately told by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

As Flo, Flo, Merchant traverses decades to tell a story about immigration, assimilation and family ties.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 02:46PM
Monday, July 11, 2022

‘9428’ is a young child’s compelling immigration story at this year’s Fringe festival by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Amin Shirazi’s powerful work, winner of the Fringe’s New Play Prize, is grounded by a sharp directorial vision and a riveting central performance

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:28PM
Friday, July 8, 2022

Paco Erhard holds nothing back in standup act ‘Paco Erhard: Worst. German. Ever’ by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Covering everything from nationalism, to geopolitics, to German recycling the comedian pushes the envelop and then some

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 03:32PM
Thursday, July 7, 2022

‘The Boy Who Cried’ is a gripping Fringe fest play about a young camper and his counsellor, and stars a formidable ensemble cast by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Brad Gira’s 85-minute dark comedy takes risks in form and structure that pay off in this slick production

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:17PM
Monday, June 13, 2022

New musical ‘Dixon Road’ is an extraordinary achievement and exaltation of Toronto’s diasporic communities by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Fatuma Adar’s semi-autobiographical musical about a Somali refugee family in Toronto is receiving a not-to-be-missed world premiere at the High Park Amphitheatre

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 10:43AM
Saturday, April 9, 2022

Visually arresting and emotionally rich, Emma Donoghue’s ‘Room’ is boldly realized for the stage by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Though lacking the playful humour of the novel and the propulsive drive of the Oscar-winning movie, the play with music still resonates.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 10:07AM
Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Award-winning Canadian musical ‘Life After’ heads to Chicago’s Goodman Theatre by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Britta Johnson’s musical draws on her own life story as a young woman coming to terms with her father’s sudden death.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 05:32PM
Thursday, October 14, 2021

Director X’s dance film ‘New Monuments’ reckons with Canada’s colonial past by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

In “New Monuments,” one of the headlining productions at this year’s Luminato Festival Toronto, over 40 artists from 10 dance companies join forces to “re-centre and re-evaluate the …

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:00AM

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