At The Stanley until July 7, 2013
Just how glitzy is this show? Wear your sunglasses, folks. There’s so much silver lamé on the Stanley stage you could apply your makeup in the reflection.
Crystal Balint, Karen Holness and Starr Domingue in Dreamgirls. Credit: David Cooper
At Arts Club Granville Island Stage until May 25, 2013
Mark Leiren-Young is ballsy, I’ll give him that. Not until opening night of Never Shoot a Stampede Queen did I understand his shameless self-promotion – facebooking for weeks, posting audience and critical response every day from Western Canada Theatre in Kamloops where the show premiered: “Standing O” and “Sold out houses”. “Funnier than the book”, he promised.
Zachary Stevenson in Never Shoot a Stampede Queen. Credit: Tav Rayne
At Studio 16 until May 11, 2013
Cucci & Cabana is a clown show in the style of Mump & Smoot but, rather than speaking in gobbledygook as Smoot and Mump do, Cabana and Cucci speak French which, I’m ashamed to say, I understand only marginally better than those other two clowns. Thank goodness for surtitles in English.
Emilie Leclerc in Cucci & Cabana. Credit: James Loewen
At The Cultch until May 4, 2013
“Oh, Death, where is thy sting?” It isn’t at The Cultch from April 30-May 4 where brilliant dancer/choreographer Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg and four dancers perform the world premiere of Friedenberg’s new work, Highgate.
Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg in Highgate. Credit: clancy
At Pacific Theatre until May 25
I don’t know that the Bible needs a new book but Jesuit priest/ playwright Bill Cain has some ideas about what that book should look like.
Anthony F. Ingram in How To Write A New Book For The Bible. Credit Emily Cooper
At Performance Works until May 5, 2013
From the moment the Player and the Beggar, in white-face, black lipstick and bowler hats, soft-shoe it across the Performance Works stage, we know we are in for a very different production of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. Off the top, Daniel Deorksen (Beggar) and Phyllis Ho (Player), rigged out like vaudeville clowns tell us, “You’ve never seen anything like this.”
Tallulah Winkelman and Nick Fontaine in The Beggar’s Opera. Credit: David Newham
At Waterfront Theatre until April 28, 2013
Arthur may have been the king of all Britain, but in this Carousel Theatre for Young People production Kayvon Kelly (as Kay) rules the stage: the kids love him.
Kayvon Kelly in Arthur: Boy King. Credit: Tim Matheson
At The Cultch until April 20, 2013
I’m not one for epiphanies. But Evalyn Parry, SPIN creator/performer/spoken word poet, sent me freewheeling back to my nine-year-old self.
Evalyn Parry in SPIN. Credit: Jeremy Mimnagh
At CBC Studio 700 until April 20, 2013
“Creep”. “Moron”. “Drip”. “Eunuch”. Why does Ben, after rescuing a naked, delusional woman out of the surf in the middle of the night, put up with her abuse?
Morgana Wyllie and Blake Cuthbertson in Seascape With Sharks and Dancer.
Credit: William W. Ting
At the Arts Club Granville Island Stage until May 4, 2013
Written by Vancouver Island writer Marion Farrant, My Turquoise Years will be a blast from the past – especially for women who grew up in the 50s and 60s. Remember hearing, “Boys are only after one thing”, “If you get boobs early you turn into a slut” or “Girls don’t carry beer. It looks cheap”.
Bridget Esler in My Turquoise Years. Credit: David Cooper