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Canadian entertainment

Play Review: Forever Plaid

Photo Source: Racheal McCaig

What would you do if you could realize your dreams a few decades after you die? For the Plaids, this is not a ridiculous notion—it’s reality. Most fans of the fictitious 1950s male quartet think they died in an emergency room, but patrons in Toronto can experience their music live at the Panasonic Theatre until June 12!

At the beginning of the show, the group explains that they want to seize the opportunity to perform the show they never could when they were alive. This enables the show’s escapist quality, as the oldies music and out-dated costumes make the audience feel like they’re travelling through time with the performers.

May 30, 2016 by Sarah Prince

Movie Review: Obit

Hot Docs - Obit - Bruce Weber and Vanessa Gould

Director & Producer Vanessa Gould and Reporter Bruce Weber

What do you consider a newsworthy death?

Well, the New York Times’ obituaries section is not limited to celebrities and politicians, as there are many ordinary people doing extraordinary things and their stories deserve to be told in print and online. By flipping to the obits section, you can access history from the perspective of a skilful reporter who wrote a retrospective about a person who led a meaningful life. That’s something worth reading.

After job shadowing a movie critic at The Globe and Mail during high school, I was intrigued by the movie Obit, as it promises to offer a behind the scenes look at The New York Times. Thankfully, Vanessa Gould’s movie is insightful and engaging and you don’t need to be a journalist to enjoy this documentary at Hot Docs. After all, the obits are written for everyone. One of the reporters communicated this effectively when he said that their challenge is to craft an entertaining piece about history for people who don’t know history.

May 5, 2016 by Sarah Prince

Q&A With Dustin Brown, Co-Creator Of The Brief

Toronto-based advertising and communications agency Elemental recently launched a four-part web series called The Brief. Dustin Brown is a partner at the agency who co-created the series.

Why did you decide to make a web series about agency life?

We have always tried to do promotional pieces about the agency to either attract new clients or new employees, bring on new talent and [create] stuff to show our clients what we’re capable of doing. We have run some campaigns in the past and then when one of our new copywriters came on board, he was a director and had the background. I had toyed around with making a full-length series once upon a time and he had some ideas about how to do a web series, which I had never really explored. We brought these two things together and created these shorts and we just had fun with it. From there, it grew into this four-part series, which is great.

March 15, 2016 by Sarah Prince

Concert Review: Shania Twain

Shania came back to Toronto for her third visit on the Rock This Country tour and she’s clearly on a mission to reconnect with fans that have noticed her absence from the concert circuit.

Gavin DeGraw, who rose to fame thanks to the beloved show One Tree Hill, was the opening act and he started the evening on a powerful note. He began behind the piano to perform Soldier and then continued to play hits like Sweeter and Chariot. His cover of Bryan Adams’ Heaven was a notable highlight.

He really got the crowd riled up when he stepped off the stage to sing I Don’t Wanna Be with fans on the floor. He shook fans’ hands as he walked around with security and I watched with envy from the nosebleed section. At the time, I didn’t know that he was prepared to get so personal with fans that he would surprise a lucky bride and groom’s guests at a local wedding the same night! Gavin and Shania were both sentimental about their last night on tour together and I was delighted to see Gavin come back on stage to sing Party for Two as a duet with her.

October 13, 2015 by Sarah Prince

Concert Review: Celine Dion

There’s nowhere I’d rather spend the night before my birthday than the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. In 2010, I saw Cher and Chelsea Handler – two amazing shows in one night! This year, I went to see Celine Dion and it was a good decision because her latest show is phenomenal.

September 11, 2015 by Sarah Prince

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