
Blooming Flowers + Opera Plants
‘How does the Meadow-flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free Down to its root, and, in that freedom, bold.’ So wrote William Wordsworth in this excerpt from his 1842 poem: ‘A Poet! He hath put his heart to school.’ Bringing flowers inside – from a quick

The Alvin Ailey Dancers + Barton
On March 30th, 1958, the Alvin Ailey dancers performed for the first time at New York’s 92nd Street YM-YWHA. Audiences were shocked to see this troupe of young, technically trained African American dancers performing modern ballet choreography to a diverse range of music that included gospel, the blues and traditional

Palace Escape
We shelter safely in our homes. We squint into the screen and chat box to box. We are lucky in so many ways. But, sometimes it’s fun to dream of supersized rooms with impossibly high ceilings, sweeping views, wasted corners, and forbidden passageways. So, to roam free in gilded splendour

Smash’s Bombshell
If you watched the Emmy Award-winning show Smash, you’ll know it featured a serious range of Broadway and Hollywood talent. There was music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whittman, who also served as Executive Producers alongside Steven Spielberg and show creator and playwright, Theresa Reback. It was Joshua

Christian Dior, Designer of Dreams
‘Everything I know, see or hear, every part of my life is transformed into dresses,’ Christian Dior said in 1957. ‘They are my daydreams, but they have passed from dreamland into the world of everyday items to wear.’ In 2019, when the Christian Dior, Designer of Dreams exhibit came to London’s Victoria

@ Home With The Kanneh-Masons
Some of you might have been lucky enough to hear gifted siblings cellist Sheku and pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason perform at the Vancouver Recital Society Orpheum concert last December. 23 year old Isata was scheduled to perform the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 at the Royal Albert Hall on April 18th

Andrea Bocelli @ The Duomo
Online buzz has been building and today is the day. At 10 am PST, Andrea Bocelli will be performing his Easter concert – Music For Hope – live from Duomo di Milano. In the centre of a city besieged by Covid, the famed tenor will be alone, accompanied only by

Legally Blonde @ Feinstein’s/54 Below
You don’t have to wait long to find Legally Blonde playing on TV and an eager audience revisiting Reese Witherspoon in her signature 2001 role. . . It takes guts to re-mount a story people can recite from memory, vocal inflections and all, Yet, in 2007, Legally Blonde The Musical came

Basquiat + Haring
The crown, the barking dog, the crawling baby. Friends Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring developed their signature tags early. Both were enormously influential and politically provocative. Both died unthinkably young – Basquiat at 27, Haring at 31. Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria was to be running Crossing Lines – their

Andrew Lloyd Webber Fridays
Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber is opening up his vault. And there is some serious treasure inside. . . In a new online series entitled The Shows Must Go On, we’ll see a different, full ALW musical each Friday. First up: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat starring Donny Osmond. And it