All stories by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic on BroadwayStars

Friday, March 10, 2023

Tawiah M'Carthy's career takes another leap as he directs Pulitzer-winning play 'Fairview' by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

M'Carthy has gone from one- or two-person shows to the Stratford Festival to a Canadian stage doubleheader " and he's ready for much more.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 10:17AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Making the 'Mahabharata': How do you bring a 4,000-year-old Sanskrit epic to the stage? by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes wrestled with serving both South Asian audiences familiar with the poem and people who wouldn't even know how to pronounce it.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 10:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, March 2, 2023

'The Darkest Dark' successfully brings Chris Hadfield's bestseller to the stage by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Gorgeous production at Young People's Theatre set in the days before the moon landing is about facing your fears head on.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:56PM[SHARE]
Friday, February 17, 2023

Sanaz Toossi's 'English' unpacks the complexity of navigating the world with an accent by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

In an English-language classroom in Iran, personalities emerge, relationships form, secrets are revealed.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:35PM[SHARE]

'Redbone Coonhound': A couple's heated disagreement about a racist dog name gets turned into a funny play by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Play weaves together scenes featuring an interracial couple modelled on playwrights Amy Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton with fanciful vignettes riffing on issues about race.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 10:48AM[SHARE]
Friday, February 10, 2023

Sarah Gadon brings intensity as a woman destructively obsessed with motherhood in 'Yerma' by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

This play about the pressures on women to reproduce is difficult and discomfiting, and evidence Coal Mine's commitment to bold texts in bold productions will continue.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:46PM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 2, 2023

'Pressure' starring Kevin Doyle is an engrossing story and a good old-fashioned play by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

The story about how two competing weather forecasts affected the D-Day invasion in the Second World War builds tension into the unscrolling of weather maps.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:25PM[SHARE]

Tom McCamus and Seana McKenna bring 50 years of friendship and performing to 'Things I Know To Be True' by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

The stage veterans play a husband and wife in Andrew Bovell's story of family relationships in its Canadian debut.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Saturday, January 28, 2023

The work that went into 'Fall on Your Knees' is inspiring and humbling by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Camellia Koo's set is visually striking " tall diagonal wooden slats create a frame over the stage " and Leigh Ann Vardy's lighting helps shift location and mood in sometimes naturalistic an…

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 06:51PM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 26, 2023

How do you solve a problem like an outdated play or musical? by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

"Some Like It Hot" on Broadway does a spectacular job of it. "Funny Girl" not so much, despite the star presence of Lea Michele.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 10:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 12, 2023

'Illuminated Text' brings Shakespeare and the Stratford experience to homes across Canada by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Interactive video experience offers deep dives into the Bard's works, allowing the festival to engage with people across the country and beyond.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:10PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 10, 2023

'Fifteen Dogs' at Crow's Theatre offers a dog's eye view of Toronto by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

This month Crow's Theatre is producing the world premiere stage version of "Fifteen Dogs," adapted and directed by Marie Farsi and featuring a cast of six.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Saturday, December 17, 2022

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a crowd-pleaser but shows its age at times by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

The show's simple, hooky premise " a song cycle in different pop genres retelling the Biblical story of Joseph " is an opportunity for one spectacular musical number after another

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:46PM[SHARE]
Monday, December 12, 2022

Entertaining and hard-hitting, ''da Kink in My Hair' still holds up 20 years later by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

New Soulpepper and TO Live production is updated with topical references while maintaining the dramatic situation and structure that are key to the play's success.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 02:09PM[SHARE]
Friday, December 2, 2022

Ross Petty couldn't leave 25 years of pantos behind without playing his 'favourite evil person' by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Now that his company's holiday pantos are coming to an end, Petty will take one final bow as Captain Hook in "Peter's Final Flight."

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Thursday, December 1, 2022

'Shenanigans and love happen': Alexis Gordon welcomes her role in 'White Christmas' after a year of darker theatre material by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Gordon won a Dora Award for "Room" and starred in "The Doctor's Dilemma," with more to come in 2023. She's tired, but it's a "champagne problem."

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

Allan Louis is excellent as pioneering Black actor Ira Aldridge in 'Red Velvet' by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Lolita Chakrabarti's 2012 play is an ambitious work of activist theatre history served up in an entertaining package of 19th-century backstage drama.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 02:30PM[SHARE]
Friday, November 18, 2022

Hannah Moscovitch's 'Post-Democracy' gives us a 'Succession'-like story of despicable behaviour among the super-rich by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

The actors impressively deliver the extreme naturalism of the performance style, but the play leaves us with little hope.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 02:04PM[SHARE]

The ballet 'MADDADDAM' should be like Margaret Atwood's novels: something you can't put down, says Wayne McGregor by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

McGregor's ballet based on the 'MaddAddam' book trilogy has its world premiere in Toronto Nov. 23 and Atwood's looking forward to being surprised.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 08:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, November 14, 2022

The music makes this Canadian Stage production of 'Choir Boy' soar by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

The play's plotting is not always strong, but its cast, led by Andrew Broderick, digs beautifully into its language and songs.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 03:31PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Here goes 'UnCovered' again with the music of ABBA by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Latest in Musical Stage Company's 'UnCovered' concert series puts a new spin on the songs of the Swedish supergroup Nov. 8 to 10.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, November 4, 2022

This excellently acted 'Three Sisters' doesn't always connect by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Cavernous theatre and raised stage can put emotional and psychological distance between actors and audience, but it's worth going for Robert Persichini's performance alone.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 02:12PM[SHARE]
Friday, October 28, 2022

'The Waltz' at Factory Theatre is a sweet romance with substance by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

This sequel to Marie Beath Badian's "Prairie Nurse" shows how the lives of that play's heroines diverged and shaped the experiences of their Filipino-Canadian offspring.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 04:24PM[SHARE]
Monday, October 10, 2022

Iraqi actor Ahmed Moneka came to Toronto in 2015 and couldn't go home. Now he's on stage in 'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo' by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Ahmed Moneka marks a professional milestone by playing a major role at a Toronto theatre " one in which he brings his life experience to bear.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Sunday, October 2, 2022

This 'Jaws' play didn't need a bigger theatre by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

The waves never peak, nor does the action in the intimate three-header 'The Shark is Broken,' now struggling to fill the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 01:30PM[SHARE]
Sunday, September 25, 2022

Family bickering and a current of violence keep things dark and edgy in 'Public Enemy' by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Canadian Stage boldly launches its 2022-23 season with a precise performance of a troubling play by Québécois provocateur Olivier Choinière

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 02:51PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Stratford's 'Hamlet-911' suffers from too many layers of issues and subplots by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

The riff-on-'Hamlet' play by Canadian novelist and playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald collapses under the weight of all it tries to achieve.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 07:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, September 12, 2022

Indigenous stories find expression through Shakespeare in the Stratford Festival's '1939' by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Jani Lauzon's and Kaitlyn Riordan's play shows Shakespeare may not necessarily always represent the cold, dead hand of colonialism.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 03:09PM[SHARE]
Monday, August 29, 2022

Wole Soyinka's masterpiece 'Death and the King's Horseman' gets a thrilling Stratford Festival production by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

The festival has provided the resources and time to do the script justice and Tawiah M'Carthy leads a world-class company in a staging as moving as it is thought-provoking.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 03:39PM[SHARE]
Sunday, August 28, 2022

Stratford's 'The Miser' gets a richly comic reward from star Colm Feore by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Thoroughly up-to-date script and a production right in director Antoni Cimolino's wheelhouse add up to a delight, writes Karen Fricker.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 12:45PM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 25, 2022

Making theatre safe, culturally specific and nuanced is the job of these professionals by Karen Fricker - Theatre Critic

Stratford and other theatres are turning frequently to consultants in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the global racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd.

SOURCE: Toronto Star at 08:00AM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off