Category Archives: Reviews

Four guys under a streetlamp: Jersey Boys at the Mayfield, a review

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca All jukebox musicals are not created equal. And there’s a notable example, currently running at the Mayfield, that rises above the others the way Frankie Valli’s legendary falsetto levitates off the stage and into your brain.  … Continue reading →

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Workin’ his way back to us: Danny Austin comes home to direct Jersey Boys at the Mayfield

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Life, like theatre, has its dramatic arcs. Here’s one: I’m sitting across the table with an artist who has heard the close harmonies of Big Girls Don’t Cry (-yi-yi) delivered from stages and in rehearsal halls … Continue reading →

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A family haunting: Jupiter, Colleen Murphy’s new Canadian epic at Theatre Network. A review

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “The future doesn’t happen ahead of time,” says a character in Jupiter, clinging to shards of hope for change. But the baleful grandeur, and dark vivid theatricality, of this new multi-generational family epic from the dauntless … Continue reading →

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High-level thievery in an elaborate plot: Heist at the Citadel, a review

Posted on March 28, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca There’s complicated high-level thievery going on at the Citadel. Just for fun, a genre has been lifted, improbably, right from under the nose of the cinema, its natural owner. Heist is a theft on behalf of … Continue reading →

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Artists need champions: After Mourning – Before Van Gogh at Shadow Theatre. A review.

Posted on March 22, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca After Mourning – Before Van Gogh, a new play by Michael Czuba  premiering in the Shadow Theatre season, sets itself a fascinating challenge. It takes us behind the thick paint, the distinctive brushstrokes, the glowing light and … Continue reading →

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But soft, what light through yonder Spotlight breaks? Romeo and Juliet’s Notebook, a review

Posted on March 16, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca You know that hyped-up dust-up between the Montagues and the Capulets? A mere suburban skirmish compared to the “ancient grudge” and “new mutiny” of the Hendays vs the Yellowheads — “the longest feud in Alberta history … … Continue reading →

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From tragedy to triumph: Tina Turner: The Tina Turner Musical, a review

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, now on the Jube stage in a Broadway Across Canada touring production, is framed by two images of the star, the famous lion mane in silhouette, from the back. The opener … Continue reading →

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Unleashing girl power: Dance Nation at SkirtsAfire, a review

Posted on March 11, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca Smarten up, world. That way you have of underestimating, sidelining, denying even, the sheer visceral power of pre-teen girls means you’re missing out, world. There’s a play now running at the SkirtsAfire Festival that’s all about … Continue reading →

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‘I have had a most rare vision’. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The 70s Musical at the Citadel, a review

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca “Welcome mortals!” declares the wandering “knavish sprite” in the glittering red jumpsuit (Luc Tellier as Puck) who bounds aerobically through the crowd on fabulous Fluevog platforms, with an orange mullet that makes other mullets look apologetic. … Continue reading →

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Party time in 19th century Russia: Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 at MacEwan

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Liz Nicholls

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca A black box theatre at MacEwan University (the Tim Ryan Theatre Lab) has been transformed into a red and black Russian cabaret — overhung with velvet  draperies, twinkling lights, a glittering chandelier, imperial insignia of the … Continue reading →

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