Rumspringa Break! is a lot like if Little Shop of Horrors, Book of Mormon and Sound of Music had some sort of polyamorous lovechild. Take two Amish girls determined to see the world before committing to their faith once and for all, add in the gritty city and an illegal weed growing operation, and the result is Rumspringa Break!, a new musical currently playing as part of the Next Stage Theatre Festival. Continue reading 2018 Next Stage Theatre Review: Rumspringa Break! (Marigon Productions)
Franco Nguyen is thirty years old and lives with his mother. The Toronto-based comedian’s complex relationship with his Vietnamese immigrant mom is the basis of his touching comedic memoir Good Morning, Viet Mom, now playing as part of the 2018 Next Stage Theatre Festival.
By this point, I’ve practically made a career of seeing and reviewing Sex T-Rex’s fantasy parody epic Swordplay, which is currently playing at the Factory Theatre as part of the Next Stage Theatre Festival. It’s the sort of play I saw initially at Fringe 2015, then took a friend to see, then bought tickets for my mother to see (conveniently with me), etc. Turns out, I’m still finding excuses to see this wild, chaotic, hilarious rush of a play again and again.
Continue reading 2018 Next Stage Theatre Review: Swordplay (Sex T-Rex)
Of course, the first thing that happened in the performance of The Harold Experience, an improvised comedy show based on true stories from the lives of audience members, playing as part of the 2018 Next Stage Festival (a sort of post-graduate Fringe experience, in theory) was director Rob Norman walking cheerfully down stage and explaining a) that he was not called Harold and b) what a Harold could possibly be. The audience mostly laughed appreciatively at his description, but I fear that we gave the cast the wrong impression about our values.
Continue reading 2018 Next Stage Theatre Festival Review: The Harold Experience (The Assembly)
JONNO opened on Wednesday evening as part of the Next Stage Theatre Festival at Factory Theatre. It’s described as an “An angry comedy about a famous radio personality, the women he assaults, and Mr. Donkey Long-Ears, his only friend.” Not much of a stretch to figure out the inspiration for the play. Continue reading 2018 Next Stage Theatre Review: JONNO (Rabbit in a Hat Productions)