It isn’t uncommon for a restaurant to boast a signature dish, but how is an unsuspecting public to know who really has the sweetest pasta sauce or the tenderest filet mignon? With a head-to-head battle royale, of course. Food blogger Jacob Younan is orchestrating just that by putting Toronto restaurants to the test with Dish Duel.
Younan, who began his food blog Restos in TO a mere three months ago, had the idea to challenge popular restaurants in Toronto to see how their best compared to the rest.
The next step was to recruit other judges, whom he’d met through Twitter and other social media: food bloggers Stella Yu, Amy Lu and Jess Wan. The four set out to create the ultimate taste test, and Dish Duel was born.
“At first it was difficult to get restaurants into it,” says Younan. “Ascari and Table 17 were the first ones to commit, and then it was easier to get the rest.”
The contest began on Feb. 18, with 16 of the city’s best restaurants — including Cowbell, Cava, Beast, Acadia, George and more — putting out their best dishes. The judges have already tried each dish and foodies around Toronto now have the option to go to the competing restaurants and vote for their favorite dish on the Dish Duel website.
Once the voting is complete, the judges’ scores are amalgamated with votes from the public to come up with a final tally. The winning dish then moves on to the next round in a bracket-style tournament, with the winner being announced on March 17.
Voting for the first round of Dish Duels closes tomorrow.
It’s safe to say that those who love vintage and those who love lingerie are generally happy when the two are combined. There’s only one problem with this: good vintage lingerie is hard to come by. Intricate details and delicate fabrics rarely last long, or, if found intact, they’re hard to fit.
So, to come across a local brand sold at a local boutique whose lingerie line is inspired by vintage pieces and is sized for the modern woman (with a range to match!) is really quite something. For this reason, we’re ecstatic about our latest discovery: Fortnight Lingerie, made right here in Canada.
While every well-crafted piece had us drooling over its gorgeous design and durability, we were particularly smitten over the Jolene, perhaps because we really love when a bra can double as a top!
Grace Carroll is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in ELLE UK, ELLEcanada.com, Plaid magazine and FILLER magazine. Keep up with her daily blog at www.graciecarroll.com.
Seeds, which officially opens at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts on Thursday, is not typical theatre — it’s documentary theatre. Montreal playwright Annabel Soutar created her script using exclusively the words of real people, including herself (portrayed by Liisa Repo-Martell). The dialogue is taken verbatim from court transcripts, news broadcasts and recorded interviews.
Soutar has teamed up with Toronto director Chris Abraham of Crow’s Theatre and star Eric Peterson to tell the epic story of Saskatchewan canola farmer Percy Schmeiser versus that notorious corporate superweed Monsanto. The resultant concoction of science and fury is like David Suzuki meets Jerry Springer. Is it theatre? Is it dramatic? Yes and yes. The Michael Young theatre was packed last night. The Saturday preview was sold out, as are opening night and the final three performances.
The broad stage is set to take you seamlessly — without scene changes and prop shuffling — from biotech lab to farmhouse to the Supreme Court to press conferences around the world. Five of the seven actors play multiple roles, often playing cross-gender but without confusion or parody. To help the audience keep on top of the frequent and sudden shifts of speaker and location, (transitions typical of screen documentaries but rarely attempted on stage), names, dates and images appear on a panoramic video screen behind the actors, providing clarity without distraction.
It’s easy to see Goliath (Monsanto) as a monster, but this David (Schmeiser) may not be a saint. An audience is often set up to root for the underdog, but Soutar takes a look at the underside of this “dog.” She interviews his neighbours and colleagues, some of whom claim he is an attention seeker and a liar. But how many of his detractors have been wined and dined or even employed by Monsanto?
As Soutar says in a Q&A after the show, alongside the director and most of the cast, each person in the audience will have to come to their own conclusions, and because of the nuances that theatre allows, a person could come to different conclusions on different nights.
Seeds is about more than the guilt or innocence of one man. It is about where the rights of farmers end and the rights of corporations begin; it’s about wondering how an individual can get a fair trial when targeted by a corporation with the wealth and power to dominate the media, to influence government policies, to sideline undesirable research, to potentially intimidate and bribe scientists, judges, and entire towns and communities. It’s also about addressing the fact that all of these issues are too complex to be quickly sorted out in a news story or even in a two hour documentary play.
But since the play is centered around Percy Schmeiser, we asked Soutar, after her years of research and interaction with the farmer, what she thinks of him. “I don’t like to answer that question. What do you [the audience] think?” she asks. Then she adds, “I will say this. My opinion of him evolves.”
Cast members say they too discuss the implications of various facts and contradictions on a nightly basis. It is clear they are all deeply involved in the material far beyond the performance.
As for Soutar, she has this message for her audience: “Go forth. Do some research on your own.”
Evan Andrew Mackay is a Toronto playwright and humorist who writes about culture and social justice.
The impossible dream — like that recurring one where you’re a skilled hacker who not only knows how to kick some serious butt, but can also throw down some killer beats — isn’t all that far from reality when you’re a student at Parkdale’s Academy of the Impossible. In just over a month since it opened, the new school is quickly creating believers out of the city’s wildest dreamers.
Initially, the academy itself was an impossible dream of sorts. Beginning two years ago, the institute grew as an extension of the works of its co-founders, Jesse Hirsch, who created the Metaviews media firm, and his wife, Emily Pohl-Weary, who runs Toronto Street Writers.
“Every year, [the Toronto Street Writers] would grow and more people would come out,” says Hirsch. “So much expansion came out of it: a hip hop group, a poetry group.”
Soon, the duo were running events at the Toronto Reference Library, but they didn’t want the overheads and dreamed of running their own place.
The idea of merging Hirsch’s technological know-how and Polh-Weary’s passion for expression and creativity sprung the idea to make a new kind of educational institute. Hirsch says the academy aims to “meet the attention levels that the Internet has nurtured and the skills one needs to acquire to survive in a society.”
So what are these skills? They range from public speaking to self-defense to even running a political campaign. Computer courses run the gamut from learning how to upload YouTube videos to hacking (conscientiously and legally, of course). Upcoming programs will include workshops on graphic novels and comic books.
“In a word, [our] mandate is empowerment,” says Hirsch. “Generally, it’s about helping people. If they can express themselves, if they can create a strategy with whatever their impossible idea is, then we will be better off.”
As for the ultimate academy student, Hirsch’s ideal is “someone who is open-minded and who is curious about the times we live in, especially someone who is interested in the Internet and the media and the accessibility of it.” Hirsch is looking for students of any age, but says they must not be “a passive recipient but an active and engaged individual.”
The prices for the classes vary. Pohl-Weary’s writers group is funded by arts agencies and other grants, so they’re free for everyone. Hirsch’s programs are free for academy members; some programs are available to non-members, who usually pay an entry fee.
The Academy is purposely made to be accessible to all. “It’s about helping society beyond the economy,” says Hirsch. “It’s about helping people adapt to a changing world.”
And, it’s about achieving impossible dreams, of course.
After nine years of wining and dining Queen West denizens, Charles Khabouth and the folks at INK Entertainment have decided to close Ultra Supper Club and open a nightclub in its place. The new venue, designed by Canadian design firm Munge Leung, will be known as Cube.
The club will be a modern take on the ‘70s, with custom designed brass fixtures, black velour walls, a d&b German sound system, floating brass panel lights and a continuous LED wall that will wrap around the entire club, mimicking a film strip. All this is meant to entice the senses and create an intimate and provocative experience.
Cube will open its doors for the first time Thursday for a VIP friends and family event. The hotspot will no longer offer sit-down meals, but will have an hors d’oeuvres menu. The DJ booth has been moved and booths for bottle service have been completely re-upholstered. Oh, and did we mention that staff will be outfitted in custom uniforms designed by Danier?
Some things, however, remain the same. The venue is still aiming for a 25 and older crowd and a definite dress code will be in place. But don’t worry guys, appropriate jeans will be allowed.
There’s something so sweet about the TheElwins that listening to them is kind of like eating too much candy and spoiling your dinner. And not feeling bad about it. Sugary melodies wrap around jangly guitars and jaunty drums to create a playful vibe, but there’s a touch of moroseness buried in lead vocalist Matthew Sweeney’s delivery that gives the songs a delicate quality; the type of thing you cherish and return to.
This quartet has been working hard of late, embarking on a tour of Ontario summer camps, preparing for a tour into the southern US and recording their latest album, And I Thank You, in Seattle. We caught up with guitarist/keyboardist Feurd as the band gears up for its album release show this Friday.
How long has the band been together? The current line-up has been since maybe July of last year, but the band has been playing since probably 2008. There have been different stages I suppose. After May of 2010, that’s kind of when we all got together, making it full time and making it the thing that we were going to do.
You all live together in Keswick together? Yes, we do. The three of us — myself, Travis our drummer and Chris our bass player — we all live together in the same house; and Matt lives, like, a five minute walk down the street from us.
And why Keswick and not a bigger city? In Keswick, right now, we live with family and it’s very easy on our wallets. And it’s also a beautiful town and a great place where we can spend a lot of time working on different aspects of the band and things like that.
Last summer you guys did a summer camp tour. Could you talk a bit about that? It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had in my life. We played almost 30 shows at different camps around Ontario. And it’s just amazing playing to kids every day for so long — it’s so heart-warming and they get so enthusiastic and go crazy. We would do dance competitions and stuff like that with the kids, or they’d get a pin and they’d freak out. They’d go totally nuts.
How old were the kids? I think we played with kids anywhere from six to 19. Anywhere in there, so the shows would definitely range. We had to put on a lot of different kinds of shows.
Was that hard to set up? It wasn’t the easiest. We’ve never carried so many extension chords in our van before. And we’ve also never carried so much gear in our van either, because at a lot of the camps we would bring and set up our own sound system. So we would bring the sound system from our rehearsal space out to the camp and at the point we were driving around in a mini van. So we would have our drums, a big bass amp, guitar amps, all of our instruments and our sound system. It was cramped.
How long did it take for you to record this album? It was a pretty long process. We actually did all of the recording at the end of 2010. We recorded it in Seattle in late Oct. to early Nov. of 2010. But even before that, the pre-production process was very long because all the songs came out of this exercise called Song of the Week, where we would all write a song a week and then send it to each other. So at the end of it we had this huge bank of, like, 50 songs that we’d take to producers and show them all, and we brought it down to 14 that we recorded and then 10 on the record. So that was going on for a while. Then we mixed it back in Toronto in later spring — Feb.-March of 2011. So the music’s been done for a while, so we’ve been showing it to people and talking to people about it. Then, finally, we did the artwork just early this year, just at the very start of January. So we’ve actually had it for a while.
So your album release is coming up this week? Yeah, it’s on Friday. We’ve got the Bicycles and the Meligrove Band. We couldn’t be happier about the lineup. And then some of the guys from Tokyo Police Club are going to be DJing after the bands are done. It’s at the Burroughes Building, which is this really cool loft space at Queen and Bathurst. So it’s up on the sixth floor, and there’s an amazing cityscape and we’re totally doing it all up with lights and sound and everything. It’s going to look really cool. And there will be some special stuff going on.
The Elwins are:
Matt Sweeney – vocals/guitar Travis Stokl – drums Feurd – guitar/keyboards Christopher Shannon – bass
Protesters from the Canadian Horse Defence Coalitionpaced back and forth in front of La Palette on Monday, holding signs that read “Stable to Table in One Week” and “Pet & Athlete Not Food.” The dozen or so activists were protesting the restaurant’s decision to return horsemeat to its menu earlier this month.
Holding placards and handing out leaflets, the protesters did their best to let passersby know that La Palette had resumed selling its horsemeat dishes after a seven-month hiatus prompted by concerns over the safety of meat from imported horses. Though the protesters were dedicated, reaction from the public was muted, with most people seeming more concerned with Family Day than debating horsemeat.
La Palette had originally removed horse from its menu in August 2011, after a Toronto Starinvestigation claimed that some of the horsemeat sold in Canada was coming from potentially contaminated animals imported from the US, where the government had stopped allotting funds for inspections of plants providing horsemeat for human consumption.
According to Marie Dean, protest organizer and coalition member, the biggest concern over horses from the US is that their meat may contain a drug called phenylbutazone (more regularly known as bute), an anti-inflammatory and painkiller.
“I’ve given bute to my own horses,” she said. “But if I choose to sell [my horses], I don’t have to put that on record because it’s such a common drug.”
“Horses are a cut above other animals,” she continued. “They are not raised for human consumption. They serve our society. Policemen ride them. They’ve gone to war for us and now they help our handicapped.”
Though he could not be immediately reached for comment, owner Shamez Amlani has long maintained that he is not ethically opposed to the consumption of horsemeat. Earlier this year he told Post City that he had stopped serving horse for safety reasons, choosing to err on the side of caution. He’s now confident that the meat he’s serving is safe.
“We’ve spoken at length with officials here in Ontario who do the testing,” he said. “We’ve spent the past six months doing as much research as we can. We’re very certain that we’ll be serving our customers high-quality meat.”
With less than a month to go before the start of Toronto Fashion Week, the Fashion Design Council of Canada has released its preliminary schedule. Although it’s bound to change (take note of the 9 “TBA” marked spots) the skeleton allows for penciling in basic dates and important shows.
Changes to note in this year’s schedule include, most notably, the separation of Joe Fresh and Pink Tartan. Notorious for being two of the biggest draws, these normally back-to-back shows now have a full day between them to allow for some breathing room.
An exciting new addition is Rad by Rad Hourani on closing night; the Parisian designer (by way of Jordan and Montreal) normally reserves his secondary line for New York, and his presence this year is quite a big deal for the FDCC.
Style-savvy men can also rejoice in the first stand-alone show of Greta Constantine’s brother line, Ezra Constantine, showing in between Rudsak and Pink Tartan on Thursday.
Canadian up-and-comers such as Chloé Comme Parris, Sid Neigum and Melissa Nepton are back and pleasantly placed, however, noticeably absent are downtown favourites Klaxon Howl, Juma and Michi (to name a few).
Still, we have a feeling that more of The Fashion Collective’s indie favourites will be popping up on the calendar in due time (and if not, they’ll at least be making some form of appearance in the tents).
Four morphine-addicted criminals try to rob a bank, and it all goes wrong. Why hasn’t Quentin Tarantino made this into a movie yet? Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Mill Street, 416-866-8666. Feb. 21 – March 28.
Shorter plays by acclaimed Irish playwright Samuel Beckett are juxtaposed with Irish contemporary classical music. Basically, it’s a night of Irish madness, and you can rest assured you aren’t going crazy: that’s just Beckett. Berkeley Street Theatre, 26 Berkeley Street, 416-368-3110. Feb. 17 – 25.
Amy Nostbakken’s original and award-winning one-woman show is inspired by the lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, so you know what that means: a talented female artist battles with depression, and may or may not, eventually, put her head inside an oven. Factory Theatre, Studio Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, 416-504-9971. Feb. 22 – March 4.
In what is considered one of the greatest American plays ever written, a dysfunctional family’s future hangs in the balance over the course of one fateful day, helped fueled by — what else? — drugs and alcohol. (It seems Soulpepper’s got a taste for the darkness recently, no?) Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Mill Street, 416-866-8666. Feb. 23 – March 28.
If you’re a fan of Doctor Who, Marty McFly and Quantum Leap, chances are you’ll love this time travel-themed improv show featuring Ken Hall, Sean Tabares, Isaac Kesler and Janet Davidson. Kudos to anyone who pulls off a killer Stephen Hawking impression. The Black Swan Tavern, 154 Danforth Avenue, 416-903-5388. February 22 @ 8pm.
One of the great under-the-radar talents in Canada is Eamon McGrath. With a new album on the way, the DIY punk folkie with the distinctive voice and relentless energy decided to play his entire new album before it is officially released at a special show on Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Bovine Sex Club. We caught up with McGrath to get all the details, and here are a few of the highlights:
• I want to raise some hype for the record and I want people to hear it in a setting that is exciting and visceral and punk.
• I come at it with the urgency of punk rock that's kind of my upbringing.
• It is kind of like Toronto's true punk room.
• Some songs are quiet, some loud. The record is pretty all over the map, and the show will be all over the map. Whenever I play with a band in Toronto, whenever the four of us get together, it is pretty heavy and energetic. They are like my Crazy Horse in a lot of ways,. It opens up an animal in me I don't otherwise get the chance to nurture if I'm playing alone. It always ends up being sweaty, drunken rock 'n' roll.
• The album does have some country and soul elements, but it is tied together under the hardcore punk banner.
• I put out Peace Maker in 2010 and almost immediately started touring Canada and Europe pretty much constantly for two years. I did a string of something like 180 shows.
• Really, the true theme, the thesis of the record, was the result of Sidney Crosby scoring that goal in the Olympics a couple years ago. It was noon in Edmonton, and I was having a Baileys with my Mom and watching the game. He scored and literally at that moment I reached over and wrote the title track, a song called "Young Canadians."
• I realized the whole point of what the record was — true Canadian moments. How, in this country, you can have something in common with someone who lives thousands of miles away. Canadian history is defined by moments that united people regardless of geographic and cultural differences, and I wrote it through that kind of lens.
• I'm 23, but I've been playing punk rock for over 10 years. I was in a band when I was 12, you know. I opened for The Evaporators when I was 14 in this hardcore punk band I was in. I've done a lot of touring, listened to a lot of music — age is kind of arbitrary.
• Yeah, I get compared to Chuck Ragan a lot (of Hot Water Music). It's a funny thing. I have a lot of friends that like them, but I don't really go for that style of punk rock, too much noodling. I like big cowboy chords and shit, power chords. The punk rock I always grew up on was stuff like GBH and Minor Threat. Hot Water was a little too complicated. I like it pretty cut and dry, black and white.
Strumming a new tune
Hot indie upstarts The Strumbellas are headlining a big night at the Rivoli on Feb. 17 in support of the release of their new — and killer — debut album, My Father and The Hunter. The band has slowly but surely amassed quite the following, and they'll be out in droves this weekend. But there is always room for a few newbies to the growing legions of Strumbell-ites who groove to the band's catchy blend of indie rock and bluegrass. And the album? I've heard it already, and even though I like every album that puts the banjo front and centre, it is more than good. This is a debut, mind you, so the folks hailing from Lindsay, Ontario have been working on these tunes, well, since birth. And it shows. You really feel like there is this small-town charm at work, but the band has the ability to turn on a dime and crank out a big rock sound. There is true depth. If you like bands such as The Sadies and Cuff the Duke, it is a no brainer — you'll love them.
She's so cold
Big news from the next-big-thing camp: a release date has been etched in stone for the debut album of the one-and-only Cold Specks. The album, entitled I Predict a Graceful Expulsion, will be released on May 22 on the Arts & Crafts label. Hailing from Etobicoke, Cold Specks (real name Al Spx) is riding a way of critical enthusiasm over her debut single "Holland." Aland who doesn't want to listen to some good old doom soul? Am I right? Apparently her music has been inspired by that of the deep south, and is characterized by sparse arrangements and chain gang rhythms. But the voice is the thing, and it'll just stop you in your tracks man. She's the real deal, and, as I've previously stated, she is going to blow up in a big way this year. She's pegged to open up for the Great Lake Swimmers on their tour later this year, and it is one not to miss.
Fire it up
Toronto band The Fires Of are celebrating the release of a new EP with a big show at Lee's Palace on Feb. 18. Fronted by vocalists Lisa Di Diodato and Graeme Donnelly, the band plays an upbeat blend of indie pop characterized by a rich sonic soundscape that utilizes all manner of instrumentation, including the occasional hit from a didgeridoo. The new EP, The Noise Around the Mean, contains five tracks, the strongest of which is the lead song "Memories In Flight," which has a cool little intro and then just soars with both vocalists harmonizing to dramatic effect. It is pretty sweet, and deserves a good crank of the volume dial/button/thing. Other members of the band include Steve Canning, Chris Hayward, Greg Heard, Peyton Leung and Larry Yuan. Preview tracks on the EP here and then go check them out this Saturday.
Sink or swim(mers)
One of the country's best bands, Tony Dekker's Great Lake Swimmers, have released another song from their upcoming album New Wild Everywhere. The song is sung entirely in French and is entitled "Les Champs De Progéniture." The new album, the band's fifth, is produced by London, Ontario's whiz kid Andy Magoffin, and is scheduled for release on April 3. The band is currently scheduled to play South by Southwest in March followed by a quick jaunt through Europe in April and then back for a long North American tour starting May 1 in Chicago. They'll be landing in Toronto on June 2.
Junk in your trunk
The venerable Toronto group Cowboy Junkies have announced March 27 as the release date for their new album, The Wilderness, thus concluding their stellar four-album series The Nomad. "The title, The Wilderness, in some odd way seemed to define what these songs were actually 'about:' fragility, emptiness, loneliness, beauty, chance, loss, desperation, the delicate balancing act that makes up a life," explains guitarist Michael Timmins, in a recent statement regarding the album. "They are about being lost in the wilderness of age, the wilderness of parenthood, in the wilderness of just trying to find meaning and substance, happiness and trash in one's day to day life. They are about standing alone in (the) middle of it all, breathing in the cold still air and wondering." Over the last 18 months, the band has released three very distinctive albums including Renmin Park, inspired by a visit to China; Demons, inspired by the late, great American singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt and the most recent Sing In My Meadow, which is a crazy psychedelic blues romp — can't go wrong with any of them. Go to their label, Latent Records, and have a listen.
Every week we gather our favourite tweets from in and around Toronto’s fashion scene. This week we’ve got news from London Fashion Week and a show invite from Mulberry, a celebrity twin spotting via Jeanne Beker and details on the Jason Wu for Target pop-up in Toronto.
Who better to represent British fashion than British style icon, Alexa Chung? No one, according to the British Fashion Council, says @ELLEUK:
Happy first day of London Fashion Week! Stuck on the wrong side of the pond? Show invites lost in the mail? Don’t worry says @Mulberry_Editor, they’ve got you covered:
Don't have a key invite? Don't worry! You can be front row and watch the show LIVE on mulberry.com on Sunday at 10AM (GMT) #LFW
You can go ahead and cancel that trip to the States because Jason Wu’s collection for Target is popping up in Toronto, says @Fashionotes:
Listen up Canadians!! Jason Wu for Target is coming, but only for one day!! ow.ly/98hCf
Twinsies alert! @Jeanne_Beker has found a celebrity twin in her celebrity idol (and they really do look alike):
With my idol Anjelica Huston…who actually said she sees our resemblance! YAY!!!!!!!! https://yfrog.com/h7q5hxij
Fashion’s Night Out may not have reached Toronto yet, but sounds like @PlaidMagazine is beating them to the punch, eco-friendly styles:
Lots of cool shops on board for @PlaidMagazine's Vintage's Night Out! More details to come soon… #PlaidVNO12
Hardly two months into the year and serious man-fashion crimes have already been committed. @gotstyle is pointing fingers, take a look and take note:
I admit it: I stopped reading the Harry Potter books after book four (the progressive thickness of the books, plus my adult ADHD kicking in, may have been a factor). So, you can understand my skepticism about watching Potted Potter, a parody that condenses all seven Potter books into a 70-minute performance. But, as it turns out, no prior knowledge of J.K. Rowling’s world of wizardry is necessary for watching this Mirvish production.
Once upon a time, Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner — or, simply, Dan and Jeff — were asked to create a five-minute street show in London summarizing the first five Potter books. As the series grew, so did the show, first expanding into 60 minutes for six Potter books, then finally 70 minutes to include the last installment in the septology. The show toured across the U.K. as a sort of travelling vaudeville show, even landing at the famed Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where, I feel, was probably the best place to see it.
The show’s humble Fringe beginnings are evident upon glancing at the stage for the first time when entering the Panasonic Theatre. Onstage lies a large, colourful, toy-like train, a Narnia-esque armoire, a simple side table, a weird coffin and a brightly painted poster of a tropical island with the words “Forbidden Forest” haphazardly spray-painted across it. What was once probably thought of as a cute and clever set in a smaller Fringe-like venue now just looks like a bunch of random items from your daft uncle’s basement, trumped by the theatre’s significant size.
But perhaps that’s the point. My initial concern with not being able to follow along is put to rest at the start of the show when Dan and Jeff immediately break the fourth wall, bringing the audience in on the joke: Dan and Jeff are actors, they are putting on a Harry Potter-type show, and they have no idea what’s going to happen. And that pretty much sums up Potted Potter in a nutshell.
Playing with the Dan-is-a-silly-nitwit and Jeff-is-a-Harry-Potter-know-it-all dynamic, the two are clearly having a ball with this show. In fact, it’s their amazing chemistry, mixed with their hilarious improvised bits, that makes the show as fun as it is. Their frenetically-paced “whiz-through” of the books, with Jeff playing Harry Potter and Dan playing the remaining 300+ characters, is more like a variety show than an actual theatrical experience, and it grows tiresome around book four (funnily enough).
I love kooky costumes as much as the next person, but as Dan pulled out more and more cutesy hand puppets and wigs from behind the armoire, I would have put a Deletrius spell on him if I could. The audience-engaged game of Quidditch at the half-way mark was a welcomed reprieve if only because the woman representing the Slytherin team pulled one heck of a tackle on Jeff’s ridiculously-dressed Snitch.
Though Harry Potter fans will probably be disappointed that the narrative of Dan and Jeff’s condensed retelling isn’t very close to Rowling’s world at all, the evening is still a fun one for both wizards and muggles alike — even if the show would be better suited for a pub, with a glass of Butterbeer in hand.
