Glenn Sumi

"You have too many opinions," a high school bully told me. Guilty! I've been writing abt the arts for more than 25 years. Now that my regular outlet is dying a painful death, I'm doing it here.

Theatre

Spring season offers two must-see shows

Lucas Hnath's Dana H. and Matthew López's The Inheritance are as powerful as people say

Film

Former Hobbits do Stoppard and a mother-daughter film parodies 70s variety shows

Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd discuss taking on a Tom Stoppard classic, and Melissa D'Agostino debuts film about a deeply dysfunctional mother-daughter combo

Theatre

Classics revisited: Vanya on Yonge St, Macbeth with puppets, a twisty Don Giovanni and lots more

Long overdue reviews of winter shows, including Uncle Vanya, MacBeth: A Tale Told by an Idiot, Dion, As I Must Live It and more

Theatre

Reviews: Casey and Diana and Rockabye

Nick Green's Stratford Festival hit transfers successfully to Soulpepper, while Australian Joanna Murray-Smith's music satire sounds some wrong notes

Theatre

Two bold, fresh takes on late Shakespeare plays

Inventive indie companies Theatre Rusticle and Shakespeare BASH'd bring lots of surprises to the Bard

Paid-members only

Theatre

Toronto's Andrea Scott on loving theatre, leaving it for TV and then moving to L.A.

Now based in L.A. and working on a new ABC/Disney series, the in-demand writer discusses the pitching process, the differences between TV and theatre and believing in herself when others didn't

Theatre

Review: Heartless wraps up an ambitious, epic trilogy

Early Canadian settler history and its connection to Indigenous populations comes alive in the conclusion of Genevieve Adam's lively New France trilogy

TV and streaming

D.J. Demers sitcom One More Time needs more time to settle

New CBC workplace comedy featuring hard-of-hearing stand-up Demers and a talented supporting cast is promising but is no slam dunk

Theatre

Taking Talk is Free Theatre halfway around the world

Artistic producer Arkady Spivak discusses moving three shows from Barrie, Ont. to Auckland, and several holiday openings have been extended through January

Theatre

The Top 10 Toronto theatre artists of 2023

Paolo Santalucia, Hailey Gillis, Philip Akin, Peter Fernandes and others delivered five-star work this year

Theatre

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

Reflecting on one full year of reviews, news and interviews about the Toronto theatre scene

Theatre

'Tis the season for holiday shows

Reviews of Chris, Mrs., Jack: A Beanstalk Panto and It's a Wonderful Life

Theatre

Letters From Max delivers powerful emotions

Necessary Angel's production of Sarah Ruhl's Letters From Max illustrates the persuasive power of live theatre

Theatre

A Roy Orbison musical, a Pulitzer-winning two-hander and a sizzling Almodóvar short

Reviews of In Dreams, Topdog/Underdog, Spaciousness, Six The Musical, Appropriate, Heroes of the Fourth Turning and more

Theatre

Soulpepper's 2024 season includes world premieres, reimagined classics, revivals

Nick Green's Casey and Diana, Haley McGee's Age is a Feeling and revivals of A Streetcar Named Desire and First Métis Man of Odesa are part of company's 2024 season

Comedy

Bonus post: Patti Harrison at Just for Laughs Toronto

Strap yourself in – the hour-long set by the biracial, trans comic goes to some unexpected places

Theatre

Toronto's new theatre season begins with a bang

Reivews of Michael Healey's The Master Plan, daniel jelani ellis's speaking of sneaking and Simon Stephens's Sea Wall

TIFF 2023

TIFF 2023 reviews: two approaches to biopics, one unclassifiable musical

A few final notes about some of the movies I saw at the 48th annual film festival

TIFF 2023

TIFF 2023 reviews: Sing Sing and The Critic

Experienced stage actors Ian McKellen and Colman Domingo deliver two of the most nuanced performances at the festival

TIFF 2023

TIFF 2023 reviews: Days of Happiness and Seven Veils

Two Canadian dramas explore women in the performing arts at career crossroads – but only one succeeds

TIFF 2023

TIFF 2023 review: Swan Song is a thrilling arts doc – with some odd editing choices

Chelsea McMullan's absorbing documentary about the lead-up to the National Ballet of Canada's Swan Lake has some weird omissions

Out-of-town Theatre

Two rarely performed plays take centre stage at the Shaw Festival

Works by James Baldwin and Edith Wharton add novelty – if not great drama – to Niagara-on-the-Lake

TIFF 2023

10 stage-related offerings at TIFF

From Ian McKellan as a bitchy gay drama critic to an Atom Egoyan film about an opera director, there are lots of stage-related films at this year's festival

Paid-members only

Theatre

Taking a chance on theatre and improv

Improv ace Rebecca Northan and Shaw Festival veteran Deborah Hay discuss making things up in The Game of Love and Chance and beyond

Theatre

Review: Let's Dance stumbles at the Winter Garden

New jukebox musical set in the early 1960s reminds you of other, better shows