Toronto Theatre & Dance Listings Spring 2009

Long Runs

• To February 1: Jersey Boys (Dancap Productions at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts) – The musical story of '50s and '60s pop group Franki Valli and the Four Seasons – Read about it!


• To March 1: We Will Rock You (Mirvish Productions at the Panasonic Theatre) – The music of iconic rock group Queen reimagined as a musical about a repressive future world and the rebels who challenge it – Read about it!


• To March 29: The Sound of Music (Mirvish Productions at the Princess of Wales Theatre) – The beloved musical story of the Von Trapp Family Singers and their flight from Nazi-occupied Austria – Read about it!


• To March 29: Dirty Dancing (Mirvish Productions at the Royal Alexandra Theatre) – "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!" Everyone's favourite sexy dance movie comes to the stage. – Read about it!

Limited Runs

• January 7 to February 1: East of Berlin by Hannah Moscovitch (Tarragon Theatre) – About the legacy of the Holocaust


• January 9 to February 8: Medea (Mirvish Productions at the Canon Theatre) – The ancient Greek tragedy by Euripedes about the destructive anger of a woman scorned – pictured, with Seana McKenna & Michael Spencer-Davis. Photo by Bruce Monk, courtesy Mirvish Productions.


• January 24 to February 24: Fidelio (Canadian Opera Company) – Beethoven's only opera


• January 27 to February 14: You Fancy Yourself!! by Maja Ardal (Contrary Company at Theatre Passe Muraille) – A solo show about a young woman in the 1950s


• January 28 to February 8: Stranger by Simon Rice & Shaun McComb (Praxis Theatre at 1087 Queen W) – An original work that takes an existential view of a murder tale


• January 29 & 30: Erich Korngold: Source and Inspiration III (Art of Time Ensemble)


• January 29 to February 1: Well, I’ll Tell Ya (Deb Filler at All Green Theatre) – A night of comedy


• January 29 to March 1: Ubuntu/The Capetown Project (Tarragon Theatre)


• January 29 to February 7: Up Until Now (Deborah Hay at Toronto Dance Theatre) – Contemporary dance


• January 31 to February 23: Rusalka (Canadian Opera Company) The tragic tale of a water nymph who falls in love with a human – Read about it!


• January 31 to March 1: Toronto the Good by Andrew Moodie (Factory Theatre) – A tense tale of racial profiling and personal and professional ethics


• February 1 & 2: Nohayquiensepa/Nooneknows (Aluna Theatre at Harbourfront Centre HATCH emerging performers series)


• February 2 to March 11: The Forbidden Phoenix by Marty Chan (Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People) – The exciting fable of the Monkey King, told with music, martial arts and stage magic


• February 3 to 7: Weesageechak Begins to Dance XXI (Native Earth Performing Arts at Theatre Passe Muraille) – The annual festival of new works by First Nations writers


• February 3 to 15: Happy Days, A New Musical (Dancap Productions at the Elgin Theatre) Fonzy, Ritchie and the rest of the gang in a new stage musical – Read about it!


• February 4 to 7: Dance Marathon (bluemouth inc at Harbourfront Centre World Stage)


• February 4 to 12: Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertholt Brecht trans. David Hare (Ryerson Theatre) – The wry classic work about a woman who strives for the survival of her family in the face of war, death and danger


• February 5 to 14: A Flea in Her Ear (Amicus Productions) – Feydeau's 1907 farce about mistaken identities and bungled trysts


• February 5 to 15: Shakuntala (Pleiades Theatre at Harbourfront Centre World Stage) – The first-ever professional Canadian production of the immortal classic love story of Sanskrit theatre – Read about it!


• February 10 to March 14: The Colour Purple (Mirvish Productions at the Canon Theatre) – Oprah Winfrey presents a musical based on Alice Walker's book and Steven Spielberg's film of the same name about Celie, a young African-American woman who struggles to find love and her own self-worth in early 20th-century America


• February 11 to 14: 60 dances in 60 minutes (Dancemakers) – Contemporary dance


• February 12 to March 7: Miss Julie: Freedom Summer by Stephen Sachs (Playhouse Theatre at The Canadian Stage Company) – An adaptation of Strindberg's insightful and disturbing play about sex and power dynamics, translated into the Southern U.S. during the days of the Black Power struggle


• February 12 to March 21: Travesties (Soulpepper) – Tom Stoppard's classic comedy about an imaginary meeting of James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin and Tristan Tzara


• February 12 to March 1: A New Brain (Acting Up Stage Theatre Company) – A James Lepine & William Finn musical about a songwriter whose physical illness unlocks previously unrealized musical creativity – Read about it!
  
• February 18 to 21: Tshepang (Mopo Productions at Harbourfront Centre World Stage)


• February 18 to 22: The Wizard of Oz (Fallen Rock Productions at the Isabel Bader Theatre) – The beloved adventures of Dorothy from Kansas, staged as a benefit for children with cancer


• February 18 to 22: A Knickerbocker Holiday (Toronto Operetta Theatre) – Kurt Weill's seldom staged show, which introduced the now-standard "September Song"


• February 20 & 21: Banta (Collective of Black Artists - COBA at Harbourfront Centre NextSteps)


• February 20 to March 8: Wise.Woman by Rebecca Fisseha (b current at The Theatre Centre)—The legends of the Queen of Sheba entwine with the story of a contemporary woman who returns to Ethiopia from Canada to marry.


• February 25 to 28: That Night Follows Day by Tim Etchells (Harbourfront Centre World Stage)—An adult play performed by children that explores the architecture of achild's world.


• February 25 to 28: White Moon Dance Nights (AKA Dance) – Contemporary dance


• February 25 to March 8: Une maison face au nord (A North-Facing House) by Jean-Rock Gaudreault (Théâtre français de Toronto at Berkeley Street Theatre) – A French-language comic drama about the changing landscape of the French Canadian countryside (four performances surtitled in English)


• February 25 to March 8: Clyomon and Clamydes (Poculi Ludique Societas and the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at the Studio Theatre)—A lighthearted 16th-century script about wandering knights, a princess in disguise, a wicked king plus a little bit of magic... and a dragon!


• February 25 to March 28: The Patient Hour by Kristen Thomson (Tarragon Theatre) – A family coverges at the bedside of their mother, not knowing whether they are waiting for her recovery or her death


• February 26 to 28: The Part (Antonija Livingstone at Dancemakers) – Contemporary dance


• March 3 to 7: Blind Date (Rebecca Northan at (Harbourfront Centre World Stage) – Contemporary dance


• March 3 to 8: Letters to my Grandma by Anusree Roy (Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace) – A new one-woman show by the award-winning young writer/performer of Pyaasa about a granddaughter who learns on the day of her own wedding about her grandmother's life in India during the Second World War


• March 4 to 8: Innovation: Three World Premieres (National Ballet of Canada)


• March 4 to 22: Gay4Pay by Edward Roy (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)


• March 5 to 7: Older and Reckless (Claudia Moore at Dancemakers) – Contemporary dance


• March 5 to 7: Egypt (Arabesque Dance Company at Harbourfront Centre NextSteps) – Middle Eastern dance performance


• March 5 to 14: Comment on dit ça «t'es mort» en anglais? (How Do You Say "You're Dead" in English?) by Claude Guilmain, adapt. Louise Naubert (Théâtre La Tangente at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts)—A physics teacher mourning the death of two family members loses his sense of himself in the middle of a lecture.


• March 6 & 7: Takes Two Men to Make a Brother (Suburban Beast at Harbourfront Centre HATCH emerging performers series)


• March 6 & 7: Provincial Essays (Lola Dance at DanceWorks at the Enwave Theatre) – Contemporary dance


• March 8 to April 5: Missing by Florence Gibson (Factory Theatre) – When she begins the search for a woman who has disappeared, an inspector starts to lose herself


• March 9 to April 4: Blackbird by David Harrower (Studio 180 at The Canadian Stage Company)—A man who's forgotten an old relationship and a woman who thinks of nothing else are reunited, with shattering results.


• March 10 to 28: Tijuana Cure by Layne Coleman (Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace)—A semi-autobiographical journey that recalls a trip to Mexico in search of treatment for the playwright's wife, writer Carol Corbeil Coleman, who was striken with cancer
  
• March 11 to 22: Romeo and Juliet (National Ballet of Canada)


• March 11 to 29: The New Ideas Festival (Alumnae Theatre Company)


• March 12 to 14: The Kreutzer Sonata (Art of Time Ensemble)


• March 12 to 14: Dances for the Meanwhile (Tom Brouillette at Dancemakers) – Contemporary dance


• March 13 to 29: Someone is Going to Come by Jon Fosse (One Little Goat)—A man and a woman meet for a tryst in a remote location, but fear that they'll be observed.


• March 15 to 27: The Emperor's New Threads by Melody Anderson and Peter Anderson (Axis Theatre Company at Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People)


• March 18 to April 19: Another Home Invasion by Joan MacLeod (Tarragon Theatre)


• March 19 to 21: Frames (Zata Omm at DanceWorks)


• March 24 to 28: Breu & Seven or Eight Pieces for a Ballet (Grupo Corpo at Harbourfront Centre World Stage) – Contemporary dance


• March 26 to April 12: Fishbowl: A Concise, Expansive Theory of Everything by Mark Shyzer (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)


• March 26 to April 18: Shirley Valentine (Centaur Theatre at The Canadian Stage Company) – A middle-aged British woman finds a new lease on life during a Greek holiday


• March 27 & 28: All I Ever Wanted (Gale Allen & the All Girl Squadron at Harbourfront Centre HATCH emerging performers series)


• March 28 & 29: Kamouraska (Opera in Concert)


• March 28 to April 5: Almighty Voice and His Wife by Daniel David Moses (Native Earth Performing Arts at Theatre Passe Muraille)


• March 28 to April 12: Dedicated to the Revolutions (Small Wooden Shoe at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)


• March 31 to April 9: EARTH=home (Judith Marcuse Projects at Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People) – Contemporary dance


• April 2 to 4: Transformation (Ballet Creole at Harbourfront Centre NextSteps)


• April 2 to 4: The Chimera Project (DanceWorks at Harbourfront Centre NextSteps) – Contemporary dance


• April 2 to May 9: Glengarry Glen Ross (Soulpepper) – David Mamet's heartwrenching drama about the cutthroat business of car sales


• April 3 & 4: Make Me Stop Smoking (Rabih Mroué at Harbourfront Centre World Stage)


• April 9 to 11: evanescence: made in canada/fait au canada by Holly Small and Freya Olafson (princess productions at the Betty Oliphant Theatre)—Contemporary dance


• April 11 to May 7: Simon Boccanegra (Canadian Opera Company)


• April 16 to 26: AfterImage (Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland at Harbourfront Centre World Stage)


• April 16 to May 3: The Madness of the Square by Marjorie Chan (Factory Theatre) – An examination of the persistent impact of the events in Tiananmen Square


• April 16 to May 9, 2009: Hardsell by Daniel Brooks & Rick Miller (Necessary Angel & Wyrd at The Canadian Stage Company)


• April 17 to 24: La Bohème (Canadian Opera Company) – The tragic story of Mimi, the little seamstress who leaves her lover rather than telling him she is dying in Bohemian 19th-century Paris


• April 17 to 26: Iolanthe (Toronto Operetta Theatre) – The Gilbert and Sulivan operetta about the fairy in love with a mortal, against the wishes of the Fairy Queen


• April 17 to May 2: Closer (Alumnae Theatre Company)


• April 20 to 26: Jenn Goodwin (Dancemakers) – Contemporary dance


• April 20 to May 14: Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice adapt. Paula Wing (Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People)


• April 22 to May 3: I Have AIDS! by Sky Gilbert (Cabaret Co. at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)


• April 25 & 26: Petrichor (Kitchen Band Productions at Harbourfront Centre HATCH emerging performers series)


• April 25 to May 2: The Coronation of Poppea (Opera Atelier) – Claudio Montevedri's final masterpiece of intrigue and plots in the life of the Roman Emperor Nero's mistress Poppea


• April 29 to May 24: A Beautiful View by Daniel MacIvor (Tarragon Theatre)


• April 30 to May 2: Accidents for Every Occasion/Mischance and Fair Fortune (Jenn Goodwin & Susee Burpee at DanceWorks) – Contemporary dance


• May 1 to 10: The CrossCurrents Festival (Factory Theatre) – A festival of new plays by writers from diverse cultural backgrounds


• May 5 to 9: The Cleansing of Constance Brown (Stan's Cafe at Harbourfront Centre World Stage)


• May 5 to 23: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Canadian Opera Company)


• May 6 to June 7: House of Many Tongues by Jonathan Garfinkel (Tarragon Theatre)


• May 6 to 8: CanAsian International Dance Festival (Harbourfront Centre NextSteps) – A potpourri of traditional and contemporary dance from Asian artists working in a variety of forms


• May 7 to 30: Doubt, a Parable (The Canadian Stage Company)


• May 7 to 30: Tuesdays With Morrie (with Hal Linden) (Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company) – The former star of Barney Miller in the inspiring and sometimes comic drama about a man who learns life lessons from his dying mentor


• May 7 to 31: Anne of Green Gables, The Musical (Dancap Productions at the Elgin Theatre) – The perennial favourite from the Charlottetown Festival in PEI about the red-haired orphan whose cheerful courage changes the lives of her new family members


• May 13 to 24: Of All The People In All The World (Stan's Cafe at Harbourfront Centre World Stage)


• May 13 to 24: Fear of Flight (Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland at Factory Theatre) – One of Canada's top theatre directors, Jillian Keiley, soars into thin air on the wings of the best of this country's theatre writers, like Daniel MacIvor, Guillermo Verdecchia, Judith Thompson, Marie Clements and others


• May 15 to 30: You Are Here by Ivan Coyote (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)


• May 19 to 31: Eternal Hydra by Anton Piatgorsky (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)


• May 20 to October 24: Brief Encounters (Shaw Festival) – Noel Coward's sophisticated love story


• May 21 to October 9: In Good King Charles’s Golden Days (Shaw Festival)


• May 22 to November 1: Sunday in the Park with George (Shaw Festival) – The Stephen Sondheim musical inspired by a Georges Seurat painting


• May 23 to November 1: Born Yesterday (Shaw Festival)


• May 23 to November 9: A Moon for the Misbegotten (Shaw Festival)


• May 26 & 27: Songbook III (with Melanie Doane) (Art of Time Ensemble)


• May 27 to 31: Giselle (National Ballet of Canada)


• May 28 to 30: City of Tribes and Selected Repertoire (DanceWorks, Dance Immersion, Tavaziva Dance & COBA at Harbourfront Centre NextSteps) – Contemporary dance