All stories by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Stratford Festival’s ‘Women of the Fur Trade’ is a side-splitting comedy that offers truths for this moment by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Frances Koncan’s uproarious comedy, now playing at the 2023 Stratford Festival’s Studio Theatre, is sharp, smart and timeless.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:00PM
Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Toronto Fringe Festival: Your complete guide with reviews and commentary from the 12-day theatrical event by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The Toronto Star’s theatre critics Joshua Chong and Karen Fricker will review dozens of shows throughout the 2023 Toronto Fringe Festival.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 04:19PM
Thursday, June 29, 2023

Folk musical ‘Hadestown’ comes to Toronto: It took 13 years to become the ‘generous act of dramatic storytelling’ its creators dreamed of by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Anaïs Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin on how Edmonton was the site of ‘some of the hardest and biggest lessons’ in developing the show

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 11:42AM
Monday, June 26, 2023

Shaw Festival’s ‘The Apple Cart’ is a startling speculative fiction that makes the case for the monarchy by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Tom Rooney is brilliant as a king staring down a constitutional crisis in George Bernard Shaw’s 1928 play.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:17PM
Sunday, June 25, 2023

Shaw Festival’s ‘Playboy of the Western World’ is a century-old play that can teach us much about the folk heroes we idolize today by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

J.M. Synge’s 1907 romantic comedy, about a community that exalts a self-proclaimed murderer, feels perverse yet also strangely familiar.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:41PM
Friday, June 16, 2023

In ‘Dragon’s Tale’ at the Luminato Festival, a young woman looks to the past to help inform the present by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

This new opera by Chan Ka Nin and Mark Brownell moves across ancient China and contemporary Canada.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:37PM
Monday, June 12, 2023

2023 Tony Awards: The best moments from the history-making, unscripted show by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The Tony Awards saw ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ and Tom Stoppard’s ‘Leopoldstadt’ take top awards. J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell also became the first non-binary people to win Tony Awards…

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 07:23AM
Sunday, June 11, 2023

Ravishingly reborn, Scott Joplin’s ‘Treemonisha’ triumphs at the Luminato Festival by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Featuring a new libretto and a winning cast, this extraordinary production makes the case for the King of Ragtime’s long-forgotten opera.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:04PM
Wednesday, June 7, 2023

Luminato Festival 2023: Everything you need to know about Toronto’s eclectic art festival by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The 17th iteration of the festival features a lineup of world premieres and classic works seen through a new lens.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 03:14PM
Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Stratford Festival’s ‘Grand Magic’ mines existentialism, absurdism and nihilism to cast a riotous spell by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Geraint Wyn Davies, Gordon S. Miller and director Antoni Cimolino’s versatile ensemble don’t miss a beat in this Neapolitan tragicomedy.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:00PM
Thursday, June 1, 2023

Where feminism meets courthouse drama with a musical score: ‘Kelly v. Kelly’ at the Berkeley Street Theatre by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

This new musical by Britta Johnson and Sara Farb features a winning cast and some inventive direction but its narrative is muddled and uncompelling.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:52PM

Future of the iconic Toronto Fringe Festival is in jeopardy amid low attendance, rising costs and lack of sufficient revenue by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The Fringe’s struggles aren’t unique, industry experts warn, but rather indicative of issues affecting the wider performing arts sector.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 05:00AM
Thursday, May 25, 2023

Music for dreamers and strugglers: Eric McCormack, Cynthia Dale and more take on Sondheim’s ‘A Little Night Music’ by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Along with Dan Chameroy, the stars reflect on Stephen Sondheim’s legacy ahead of Friday’s Koerner Hall concert production.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 03:20PM
Saturday, May 13, 2023

In Coal Mine Theatre’s deftly directed ‘The Sound Inside,’ a professor and student languish in lonesome tragedy by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Moya O’Connell and Aidan Correia play a Yale creative writing educator and student whose lives intertwine in Adam Rapp’s riveting two-hander.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 07:40PM
Sunday, April 23, 2023

Meet opera’s super couple: a retired teacher and a broadcast technician who have performed in some of the COC’s largest productions by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Bruce Jakacki and Nancy Mellow are COC supernumeraries, amateur actors who appear as extras to fill out crowded scenes.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:32PM
Thursday, April 13, 2023

‘The Simon & Garfunkel Story’ soars with nostalgic harmonies, despite its aimless narrative frame by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Playing at Toronto’s CAA Theatre, Jonah Bobo and Brendan Jacob Smith brilliantly channel Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, but are bogged down with a laborious music history lesson

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:33PM
Thursday, April 6, 2023

Top 5 Stratford Festival 2023 must-see productions by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Theatre critic Joshua Chong spotlights five shows he can’t wait to watch, including “Rent,” “Richard II,” “King Lear,” “Grand Magic” and “Women of the Fur Trade.”

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 05:00AM

Five ways to save at the 2023 Stratford Festival by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

From rush tickets to two-for-one evenings, here’s how to make your money go further at this year’s Stratford Festival.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 05:00AM
Tuesday, April 4, 2023

“Hamilton” could halt in Toronto with strike threat by union representing theatre actors and stage managers by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The possible escalation in job action comes amid an impasse in negotiations between the Actors’ Equity Association and the Broadway League.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 03:21PM
Thursday, March 23, 2023

New theatre museum set to open this fall at historic Toronto site by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Canada’s Theatre Museum has found its new home at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre, with actor Colm Feore as its honorary patron

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 11:33AM
Monday, March 13, 2023

Epic ‘Mahabharata’ at the Shaw Festival feels urgent yet strikingly timeless by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The Why Not Theatre production offers something for all, no matter how familiar they are with the original Sanskrit stories.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 11:22AM
Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Broadway juggernaut ‘Six,’ new Roy Orbison musical will be part of upcoming Mirvish season by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

‘Les Misérables’ and Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ are also part of Mirvish’s seven-show, main subscription season, announced Tuesday.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 06:00AM
Tuesday, February 28, 2023

This century-old Mirvish theatre is slated for demolition and Toronto’s arts community says loss is significant by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Mirvish’s CAA Theatre, which often featured local artists and productions, may be turned into a 76-storey, mixed-use development

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 11:18AM
Friday, December 9, 2022

Ross Petty and Toronto pantomime favourites take one last bow in the delightful ‘Peter’s Final Flight’ by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Dan Chameroy, Eddie Glen and Sara-Jeanne Hosie return for a magical final goodbye.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 04:25PM
Thursday, December 8, 2022

Forget the ‘hoity-toity tuxes and gowns’ — at Opera Revue you can cheer and holler. No shushing allowed by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Events by companies like Opera Revue, Against the Grain and Tapestry Opera are part of an effort to make the art form more accessible.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 09:00AM
Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Cirque du Soleil will return to Toronto next spring with touring show ‘Kooza’ by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The Montreal-based circus company will bring their iconic big top to the site of the former Mr. Christie factory.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 08:00AM
Monday, December 5, 2022

The Second City has a swanky new venue, but its inaugural main stage show, ‘Home Sweet New Home,’ can’t compete by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The spirited ensemble draws some laughs from the material, but some of it feels stale and overlong.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 02:07PM
Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Actors’ union to assist performers with recovery of unpaid wages after criticism it did not warn members for weeks by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

ACTRA Toronto said in an email it was reaching out to the production companies involved to recover cheques that were cashed by a talent agency which has ceased operations.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 06:24PM

Meet the band behind Mirvish’s ‘Fisherman’s Friends’ musical by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

These sea shanty-singing Cornish men started a ‘buoy band,’ inked a million-dollar-plus record deal and now have a musical celebrating their unlikely story, playing at the Royal Alexandr…

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 09:00AM
Monday, November 28, 2022

After 14 years and performances in eight countries on four continents, this Canadian play takes its final bow by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

The company of ‘The Last 15 Seconds’ reflects on the play’s monumental run ahead of its final performance in Kitchener on Dec. 1.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 09:00AM
Friday, November 25, 2022

An imaginative and energetic ‘Snow White,’ led by a pair of dynamic performances, awakens at Young People’s Theatre by Joshua Chong - Staff Reporter

Two actors play all 14 characters in this brilliantly directed production that has something in stores for audiences of all ages.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 02:27PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards