Entertainment mogul Garth Drabinsky has filed a legal notice of claim against the Ontario government after learning that the provincial Anti-Racism Secretariat allegedly funnelled $200,000 to various groups that were part of an organized campaign to stop the musical Show Boat from opening at the North York Performing Arts Centre in October 1993. “They have…
Tag: stage
The making of Ragtime the musical
by •
Last week in Toronto (1996), arts journalists were given an exclusive first peek at four stage numbers from Ragtime, the musical-in-progress that Livent Inc. is developing from the best-selling 1975 novel by E.L. Doctorow. Given that the show isn’t set to open at North York’s Ford Center until next January, the pieces seemed surprisingly polished.…
Hath a Jew not . . .
by •
The excellent production of The Merchant of Venice, now in performance at the Stratford Festival, does not diminish the fact that this is one of Shakespeare’s more problematic and star-crossed plays. The most important thing to bear in mind when seeing this play is that Shakespeare had likely never seen a Jew when he wrote…
An Israeli actor prepares
by •
Israeli actor Amitai Kedar visited family in Toronto last week before beginning an 11-week North American road tour of the popular Gershwin musical My One and Only, in which he plays a Russian impresario, Prince Nikolai. Born in Toronto in 1969, Kedar grew up in Israel where he graduated from Tel Aviv University’s School of…
