Inside the Arts: Theatre Edition

Listen live on Radio Western CHRW 94.9 FM or visit Theatre in London’s podcast/archive of all of the previous shows.

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Evan’s mother has uprooted him from his home in New York right on the heels of his parents divorcing. What’s worse is that poor Evan is now friendless only weeks away from his Bar Mitzvah. Thus begins a young boy’s quest to become part of the cool crowd so that there will be someone at his party besides himself, his mother, and the Rabbi.

Tickets: adults $25, students $15; available by calling 519-281-8284 or 519-868-3539 or by emailing ac.evil@emimysion.
September 20 matinee is a special school performance; all tickets are $10.

Anything Goes

All aboard for hijinx on the S.S. American with Cole Porter’s 1930s musical comedy. Stowaway Billy Crocker is desperate to win the love of heiress Hope Harcourt. There’s just one problem, Hope is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh who isn’t likely to give up his fiancée. With the help of a group of some naughty nautical mates, Billy sets out on an adventurous quest to win Hope’s affections. With exuberant tap dancing and well-known songs Anything Goes, I Get a Kick Out of You, It’s Delovely and many more, the boat will be rocking with rollicking fun.

Oh Solo Mio

London’s one and only festival of innovative cutting edge performance spotlighting the solo artist.

Lineup:

• The Girl in the Picture Tries to Hang up the Phone
• More TBA

The Love List

Leon and Bill have been best friends for the past 25 years. Leon decides to find Bill his soulmate (so to speak) and presents him with the Love List—a match finding service. Before you know it Bill has everything he’s ever wanted—or does he?

Tickets: $15, matinee $10; Wednesday performance is pay-what-you-can.

How the Circus Vanished

A play about two people in a psychiatric institution who, by exploring their past, try to realize their “presence”. It touches on how they feel they are viewed by healthcare workers, their families and society in general.

This run is a precursor to the play’s New York City debut in October.

Tickets: $15
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The Three Musketeers

A swashbuckling romance that cleverly updates the Dumas novel, filled with humour, heroism and treachery! Take part in the pomp and pageantry with all the spectacular swordplay and excitement you’d expect, and the introduction of Sabine, d’Artagnan’s tomboy sister.

Tickets: adults $22, seniors $18, students $16, high school (EyeGo to the Arts) $5.
Public preview on Thursday September 23: $10

Top Hat Gala

A fundraiser for Child’s Play Theatre. This will be a fabulous catered dinner and silent auction. Child’s Play Theatre extends the work done by Noisy Mime in providing opportunities for youth up to age 25 in the arts. It is a registered charity in Ontario and is in the process of applying for its federal charitable number.

Tickets: $75, table of 10 $700; available by calling 519-868-3539 or by emailing rolyaP ahcsaD.

Rope

AlvegoRoot Theatre Company announces that its 2nd production of the 2010 Season, Rope by Patrick Hamilton, has been cancelled due to circumstances beyond AlvegoRoot’s control.

AlvegoRoot is exploring possibility of another production put in Rope’s time slot which was Oct.15-23.

AlvegoRoot is looking forward to its second annual Story Evening on November 12 at the Landon Library the line up will include: Carol Beynon, Peter Janes, Bill Paul and Deborah Mitchell.

In the early fall AlvegoRoot will be announcing its 2011 Season.

If you have any questions or comments please ztiwoloH-nagirroC madA tcatnoc.

Side by Side by Sondheim

A celebration of the music of legendary Stephen Sondheim, this lively review captures and celebrates the many landmark shows of the revolutionary Broadway and film composer’s early career. Selections include songs from Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum as well as the classics written with musical theatre giants Leonard Bernstein, Jules Styne and Richard Rodgers including West Side Story, and Gypsy.

Teenage Night of Living Horror

Celebrate Hallowe’en at our third production of the most popular play in Original Kids’ 20 years! You’ll (almost) die laughing at this wild and weird horror schlockfest. The local high-school grad class decide to take its traditional annual Halloween Ghoul Night Bash off-campus to a deserted farmhouse with a grisly and hair-raising history and an adjacent graveyard… Bad Decision!! The local frightening farmer warns them about the creepy doctor and his gothic nurse who used the farmhouse for experiments in re-animating the dead. Do the students pay attention to these warnings?? You know they don’t!! And you can bet that spine-chilling shocks will be in store for them-and for the audiences at Teenage Night of Living Horror!

The October 21 matinee is a student performance.

Tickets: $11 children & students; $16 adults. Available at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800, or OKTC.
Student matinees are $5 with adults accompanying free, and must be booked through htimS anigroeG, 519-679-0598.

Meet the Creeps

The famous creepy Addams Family is currently on Broadway and at Original Kids, we’ve got the real Creeps! You’ll love spending time with this loony family in their tumbledown mansion on Pilgrim Road. There are the parents, Sinbad and Tarantula Creep, their daughter Sally, their maid Lullaby, and their goatish butler. Their arch-enemy is society dragon-lady, Flora Limetree, who has a nasty plan to make outcasts of the Creeps. The developments are bizarre, to put it mildly! There’s an Egyptian prince, a dungeon filled with crocodiles, a talking clock, a ghostly portrait, and a pesky neighbourhood scamp, Scooter, raising all kinds of trouble. Let’s see if the Creeps can finally come out on top, and defeat the loathsome Limetree!

The October 22 matinee is a student performance.

Tickets: $11 children & students; $16 adults. Available at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800, or OKTC.
Student matinees are $5 with adults accompanying free, and must be booked through htimS anigroeG, 519-679-0598.

I’ll Be Back Before Midnight

A terrifying thriller besets an isolated farmhouse as a young husband and wife attempt to complete her convalescence after a nervous breakdown. This nightmare of frightening events has a heart-stopping conclusion that will have you screaming and hanging on to your seats.

Tickets: adults $22, seniors $18, students $16, high school (EyeGo to the Arts) $5.
Public preview on Thursday October 21: $10

The Headless Horseman

Welcome to the quaint community of Sleepy Hollow – filled with a weird collection of superstitious inhabitants who believe that their graveyard is packed with ghastly ghosts, including the notorious Headless Horseman! Ichabod Crane, an awkward, nerdy teacher, arrives in town to begin his career, and falls head over heels in love with stunning Katrina Van Tassel. Little does Ichabod know that she is also pursued by the bully, Brom Bones. Bones chases Crane out into a frightening night storm where evil spirits loom over the terrified schoolmaster and the ominous Horseman can be heard, galloping hard! Suspense, atmosphere, excellent character roles and comedy prevail in…The Headless Horseman!

The October 25 matinee is a student performance.

Tickets: $11 children & students; $16 adults. Available at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800, or OKTC.
Student matinees are $5 with adults accompanying free, and must be booked through htimS anigroeG, 519-679-0598.

Channel Surfing’s Double Play 2010

Now in its fourth year, Channel Surfing presents two new one act plays including Bridezombie by Leanne Olson and Souled Out by Matt Loop.

Bridezombie

A dark comedy about weddings, family and the unfortunate problem of having the woman you love turned into a zombie.

Souled Out

Dunstan Saint is the biggest Rock Star in the world. Now over 50, he’s still relevant, still a massive star and still dominating the top of the charts…how does he do it? What’s the dark secret to his success?

Spamalot

The Country Wife

The Lord of the Flies

Join the tribe….if you dare! A plane crashes on a deserted island. Some school children are the only ones left alive after the impact. To survive, they must create their own society. They live in an Eden of bright, exotic birds, lush jungle vegetation, and dark blue seas, but at night, their dreams are haunted by a terrifying beast. Gradually, this well-behaved, civilized group of school choir members turns into a nightmarishly bloodthirsty and savage tribe…

The November 5 matinee is a student performance.

Tickets: $11 children & students; $16 adults. Available at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800, or OKTC.
Student matinees are $5 with adults accompanying free, and must be booked through htimS anigroeG, 519-679-0598.

Our Shining Stars

Featuring three one-act plays—Killing Time by Len Cuthbert, The Mother Stories by Joan Clayton, and Lenny and Rich by Linda-Lee Armstrong—and cherished memory stories. Each evening members of the community will share their poetry and short stories in memory of their shining stars.

Tickets: $12; available at The ARTS Project, 519-642-2767.

The net proceeds of this evening will go to the Canadian Cancer Society in memory of Mr. Richard Morneau. The collection of cherished stories and poems will be put into book form to be sold at local outlets around the London area; the net proceeds from the books will also be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Stuart Little

You’ll love this musical version of the children’s classic tale about a mouse, Stuart Little, born into a normal New York family: the charming story of a determined underdog trying to survive in a real people’s world. The clever musical score contains melodic ballads and rousing chorus numbers, and the adventuresome plot, filled with surprising twists and turns, is jammed with wonderful characters, both animal and human, for our Original Kids to play. Here’s a show that will really get you rooting for the little guy in his struggle to rise to the top!

The November 11 matinee is a student performance.

Tickets: $11 children & students; $16 adults. Available at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800, or OKTC.
Student matinees are $5 with adults accompanying free, and must be booked through htimS anigroeG, 519-679-0598.

Story Evening

An evening of London Arts celebrities reading and telling stories along with gorgeous music

Tickets: $15

Follies

On the eve of its destruction, the once glorious Weissman Theatre is filled with the ghosts of its past as showgirls reunite to glamorize the old days and relive bygone memories of promise and splendour.

For two jaded middle-aged couples, coming face-to-face with what might have been proves to be a shattering experience. The genius script by Sondheim and Goldman makes a cinematic, dream-state of past and present blended together, employing lush era musical theatre pastiche and a deft eye for storytelling to tell not only the story of Ben, Phyllis, Sally and Buddy, but also the story of how the promise of America between the World Wars disintegrated into memory.

Considered by many to be one of the best American Musicals of all time, those that saw the original Broadway production in 1971 and the all-star Lincoln Center concert in 1985 remember it as one of the most dazzling and poignant shows ever.

Public preview on Thursday November 18

Marat/Sade

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the infamous Marquis de Sade stages a play about Jean Paul Marat or the asylum’s director, his family, and guests, using himself and his fellow inmates as the cast. The line between theatre and reality disintegrates as the violence onstage unleashes the madness and rage within.

Lies & Legends: The Musical Stories of Harry Chapin

When singer/songwriter Harry Chapin died all too young, he left behind his songs, the best known being the immortal Cat’s In The Cradle. More than any other popular songwriter in recent memory, Chapin was a storyteller. He celebrated the extraordinary lives of ordinary folk, and whether through comedy or sadness, reminded us of the emotions we all share. This very special revue assembles the most theatrical of Chapin’s musical stories to recapture the wistful, world-gone-by pathos and tattered-blue-jeans idealism of his work. Lies & Legends truly leaps from the stage and into your heart.

The November 19 matinee is a student performance.

Tickets: $11 children & students; $16 adults. Available at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800, or OKTC.
Student matinees are $5 with adults accompanying free, and must be booked through htimS anigroeG, 519-679-0598.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat

Journey to the sands of ancient Egypt. Joseph is a dreamer and an interpreter of dreams and his coat of many colors makes him the envy of his brothers. They sell him into slavery and ultimately Joseph is imprisoned. Things take a turn, however, when the all-powerful Pharoah is troubled by dreams and Joseph interprets Pharoah’s dream and saves Egypt. Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, this fun, family musical is told through a wide range of musical styles including Elvis-inspired rock’n'roll, 1920s Charleston, calypso and disco.

Nine

This spectacular musical delighted Broadway theatregoers in its original production, and also in its 2003 revival starring Antonio Banderas. In 2009, it was released as a film directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago). Nine is the story of celebrated film director, Guido Contini and his attempts to come up with a plot for his next film while being pursued by hordes of beautiful women clamouring to be loved by him. In flashbacks, he revisits his life from childhood, finally discovering the material that he can exploit.

The November 25 matinee is a student performance.

Tickets: $11 children & students; $16 adults. Available at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800, or OKTC.
Student matinees are $5 with adults accompanying free, and must be booked through htimS anigroeG, 519-679-0598.

Aladdin Jr.

In Agrabah, City of Enchantment, every beggar has a story and every camel has a tail. It’s the place where you’ll meet Aladdin, Jasmine, the Genie and all the interesting assortment of Arabian Nights characters once again! Filled with magic, mayhem, magic carpet rides, beautiful music, enjoyable comedy and colourful costumes, Aladdin Jr. will inspire our actors and energize our audiences!

The December 1 matinee is a student performance.

Tickets: $11 children & students; $16 adults. Available at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800, or OKTC.
Student matinees are $5 with adults accompanying free, and must be booked through htimS anigroeG, 519-679-0598.

The Producers

Tickets: available the the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800.

Annie

Annie introduces us to the orphan Annie and shows us her adventures up to what seems to be a happy conclusion with billionaire Oliver Warbucks and a joyous Christmas party at his Manhattan mansion.

Tickets: $11 children & students; $16 adults. Available at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800, or OKTC.
Student matinees are $5 with adults accompanying free, and must be booked through htimS anigroeG, 519-679-0598.

Annie Warbucks

Annie Warbucks begins at the very moment ending Annie, and we find that all is not as optimistic as we think. Annie has challenging troubles ahead.

Tickets: $11 children & students; $16 adults. Available at the Grand Theatre box office, 519-672-8800, or OKTC.
Student matinees are $5 with adults accompanying free, and must be booked through htimS anigroeG, 519-679-0598.

Kingfisher Days

Amidst the hectic pace of her life, Susan recalls those timeless and luxurious summers of her childhood at the lake. She recalls the summer when she was 5 years old and an inspiring teacher introduced her to a wildly imagined world where magical creatures inhabit and imagination soars instilling a life-long love of literature and the art of writing.

Mamma Mia!

The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife

Meet Marjorie, in a funk brought about by the death of her adored therapist and her public breakdown in a Disney store, her husband, Ira, with his clinic for the allergy-impaired homeless, and her aged, combative mother, Frieda who occupies her time obsessing about her digestive tract. A comedy of midlife malaise on the Upper West Side.

Tickets: adults $22, seniors $18, students $16, high school (EyeGo to the Arts) $5.
Public preview on Thursday January 20: $10

Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure

The game is afoot and the world’s greatest detective is on the case. Sherlock Holmes, the super sleuth, and his trusty companion, Dr. Watson, confront their greatest adversary, the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty. The King of Bohemia desperately needs Sherlock’s help, while the cunning Irene Adler captivates the affections of Holmes in this adventure filled with intrigue, wit and suspense.

The Duchess of Malfi

A young widowed duchess secretly marries her new love—a hidden pregnancy—her corrupt brothers—trickery, revenge, murder and ultimate retribution in this post-modern version of a 17th century macabre tragedy.

Warning: This production may contain content or actions that may be offensive to some audiences, including violence, nudity, coarse language and other potential nasty bits of business.

Tickets: adults $22, seniors $18, students $16, high school (EyeGo to the Arts) $5.
Public preview on Thursday February 17: $10

Western Ontario Drama League Festival

Five stellar productions from five western Ontario community theatres vie for Best Production in the Western Ontario Region. See them all and make your choice! Performances and ticketing information will be announced soon.

Shirley Valentine

When a middle-aged Liverpool housewife finds herself in a rut, talking to the wall and wondering what has happened to her life, she doesn’t think twice when a holiday in Greece presents itself. After leaving a note on the table and escaping to the warmth and beauty of Greece, Shirley finds a new perspective and ultimately, herself.

Bye Bye Birdie

The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins’ quiet, comfortable life in the safety of the Shire is quickly turned upside down when Gandalf the Wizard and a group of dwarves recruit him. The group sets off on a mission to reclaim the dwarves’ kingdom and treasure. Will this unassuming hobbit prove himself and triumph over the obstacles and live to return to the longed for comfort of home? On his quest through Middle Earth, Bilbo discovers a magical ring and encounters trolls, elves, goblins and ultimately, the fierce dragon Smaug.

Grease

Picnic

The moment he hit town…she knew it was just a matter of time. This Pulitzer Prize-winning drama explores personal discovery and our obsession with physical beauty when Hal Carter, a handsome, young drifter comes to a small town in Kansas and throws lives into disarray.

Tickets: adults $22, seniors $18, students $16, high school (EyeGo to the Arts) $5.
Public preview on Thursday May 5: $10

The Solid Gold Cadillac

This is a cheeky look at Main Street versus Wall Street. A hilarious satire from the golden age of American comedy, one of the funniest plays ever written about the foibles of big business and big businessmen as a widowed, feisty minority shareholder brings them to their knees.

Tickets: adults $22, seniors $18, students $16, high school (EyeGo to the Arts) $5.
Public preview on Thursday June 9: $10

Blue Man Group