Toronto Theatre & Dance Listings March April May 2009

Long Runs

• 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!
• Indefinite run: 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!
• Indefinite run: 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!
• Indefinite run: 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!
  

Limited Runs

• To March 1: Ubuntu/The Capetown Project (Tarragon Theatre)
• To March 1: Toronto the Good by Andrew Moodie (Factory Theatre)—A tense tale of racial profiling and personal and professional ethics
• 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!
• 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
• 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.
• 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)
• 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!
• 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
• 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
• To March 21: Travesties (Soulpepper)—Tom Stoppard's classic comedy about an imaginary meeting of James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin and Tristan Tzara
• 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
• March 3 to 7: Blind Date (Rebecca Northan at (Harbourfront Centre World Stage)—A young Parisian woman waits for a blind date in a café somewhere along the banks of the Seine.
• 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 14: Choreographic Works 2009 (Ryerson Theatre School)—Contemporary dance
• 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 6 & 7: Afamafuna!, I Say and I’m the Girl (Theatre Revolve at Factory Studio Theatre)—A showcase of three works created by young women aged 14 to 24.
• March 7 to 9: The Las Vegas Megillah: What Happens in Shushan Stays in Shushan by Aliza Spiro and Simon Spiro (Beth Tzedec Synagogue and Jewish Family & Child)—An original Purim musical with proceeds to support children at risk
• 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 14: The Bundle by Edward Bond (Theatre at York)—Set in feudal China, the protagonists are faced with a series of ethical dilemmas that revolve around an abandoned baby.
• 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)—Inspired by and featuring Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata, this theatrical adaptation of a Tolstoy novella stars R.H. Thomson
• March 12 to 14: Dances for the Meanwhile (Tom Brouillette at Dancemakers)—Contemporary dance
• March 12 to 28: The Seagull by Anton Chekhov (Stage Centre Productions at Fairview Public Library Theatre)—The destructive force of time robs the famous actress Madame Arkadina, of her beauty, and her son Konstantin of his hope in this classic of Russian theatre.
• 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 14 to April 5: Katherine Mansfield (Theatre Smith-Gilmour at Factory Theatre Studio)—Based on four of Mansfield’s heartrending short stories.
• 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 16 to 21: Suddenly Shakespeare by Kim Selody (Shakespeare in Action at the Lillian H. Smith Library)—For March break, an exciting play in a Shakespearean environment inside the library that incorporates part of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Twelfth Night.
  March 17 to April 19: Spring Awakening (Mirvish Productions at the Canon Theatre)—The Broadway hit musical that updates Franz Wedekind’s explosively forward-looking 19th-century play about sexual awakening.
  March 18 to April 19: Another Home Invasion by Joan MacLeod (Tarragon Theatre) —Nicola Lipman stars as Jean, feisty caregiver for her husband Alec while they wait for the relief of hearing they’ve been admitted to the retirement home of their choice. The arrival of a stranger brings up questions of what home is and should be.
• March 19 to 21: Frames (Zata Omm at DanceWorks)—Choreographer William Yong explores shifting frames of reference.
• March 18 to 22: Disney on Ice Presents Worlds of Fantasy (Rogers Centre)
• March 24 to 28: Breu & Seven or Eight Pieces for a Ballet (Grupo Corpo at Harbourfront Centre World Stage)—Contemporary dance
• March 24 to 29: New Voices (Ryerson Theatre School)
• 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 12: Almighty Voice and His Wife by Daniel David Moses (Native Earth Performing Arts at Theatre Passe Muraille)—Revisits the history and legend of an iconic Native figure
• 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: Blood (DanceWorks presente The Chimera Project at Harbourfront Centre NextSteps)— Acts of tenderness and violence collide in Malgorzata Nowacka’s new dance work
• 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 7 to 19: Mourning Dove by Emil Sher (The Ark Collective at Tarragon Theatre Extra Space)—Parents confront a terrible dilemma when their severely disabled daughter faces surgery.
• 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 by Giuseppe Verdi (Canadian Opera Company)—About "a man of the people whose rise to power results in the loss of all he holds dear"
• April 16 to 26: AfterImage (Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland at Harbourfront Centre World Stage)
• April 16 to May 9: 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: Appetite by the ensemble (Volcano, Theatre Passe Muraille and the Exchange Rate Collective) —An intoxicating physical theatre creation that examines our various carnal desires and needs; a hit of the 2007 Summerworks Festival
• 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 21 to May 3: The Madness of the Square by Marjorie Chan (Cahoots Theatre and Factory Theatre)—An examination of the persistent impact of the events in Tiananmen Square based on interviews with witnesses
• April 23 to May 3: I Have AIDS! by Sky Gilbert (The Cabaret Company at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)—An out, gay standup comic tells his interior designer partner he has AIDS; a look at AIDS now.
• April 24 to May 10: Our Lady of Spills by Edwige Jean-Pierre (Theatre Archipelago at Papermill Theatre) —About the relationship between a domineering and prejudiced nursing home inmate and her nurse, a Haitian immigrant
• 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 & 7: Harmonia - City of Wine Festival (Nightswimming and Simon Fraser University at Theatre Passe Muraille)—Part of a seven-play festival about the ancient Greek city of Thebes. Each play was developed over three years with students at one of Canada’s most prestigious theatre training schools.
• May 5 & 8: Pentheus - City of Wine Festival (Nightswimming and Humber College at Theatre Passe Muraille)—Part of a seven-play festival about the ancient Greek city of Thebes. Each play was developed over three years with students at one of Canada’s most prestigious theatre training schools.
• 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 & 8: Laius - City of Wine Festival (sNightswimming and George Brown College at Theatre Passe Muraille)—Part of a seven-play festival about the ancient Greek city of Thebes. Each play was developed over three years with students at one of Canada’s most prestigious theatre training schools.
• May 6 & 8: Jocasta - City of Wine Festival (Nightswimming and Studio 58 at Langara College at Theatre Passe Muraille)—Part of a seven-play festival about the ancient Greek city of Thebes. Each play was developed over three years with students at one of Canada’s most prestigious theatre training schools.
• May 6 & 9: Oedipus - City of Wine Festival (Nightswimming and Concordia University at Theatre Passe Muraille)—Part of a seven-play festival about the ancient Greek city of Thebes. Each play was developed over three years with students at one of Canada’s most prestigious theatre training schools.
• 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 & 9: Creon - City of Wine Festival (Nightswimming and Memorial University at Theatre Passe Muraille)—Part of a seven-play festival about the ancient Greek city of Thebes. Each play was developed over three years with students at one of Canada’s most prestigious theatre training schools.
• May 7 & 9: Seven - City of Wine Festival (Nightswimming and York University at Theatre Passe Muraille)—Part of a seven-play festival about the ancient Greek city of Thebes. Each play was developed over three years with students at one of Canada’s most prestigious theatre training schools.
• 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