Joseph Ziegler says the gloom in his latest show, Ring Round the Moon, is a life-affirming force

Book-ended by Jean-Paul Sartre's bleak No Exit and Samuel Beckett's 1948 landmark Waiting for Godot, French dramatist Jean Anouilh wrote a strange whimsical comedy, L'Invitation au Chateau. The young director Peter Brook saw it in Paris, brought it to London and persuaded playwright Christopher Fry to have a go at a translation.

The Real Inspector Hound/Black Comedy Written by Tom Stoppard/Peter Shaffer Directed by Jim Warren Starring Mike Shara, Caroline Cave, Oliver Dennisand Michael SimpsonAt the Young Centre in Toronto

Stage version of novel to be part of commemorations to mark 90th anniversary of 1918 armistice

In a double bill of 1960s comedies by two of Britain's headiest playwrights, the Soulpepper ensemble shows how to do pull it off brilliantly and, well, not so brilliantly

CONTINUINGSUBURBIA**1/2In the postwar, oil-dependent sleep that many Americans slipped into, suburbia was the dream. Backyard barbecues, soccer practice and vacuum cleaners. Suburban youth, as painted by Eric Bogosian in his masterful 1996 tragicomedy SubUrbia, are the nightmare.

Mirvish Productions has at last sealed the deal to buy two downtown Toronto theatres from Key Brand Entertainment, mere days after winning a protracted court battle through which rival company Dancap Productions had sought to block the sale.

Today I will attempt to link blonde jokes, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and the Broadway musical. Omigod you guys. Just watch me.To begin, I had no idea that the movie Legally Blonde had been turned into a hit Broadway musical. I was clueless.

While there are some plot missteps, Jersey Boys: The Story of Frankie Valli and the Four Season moves a much-maligned genre forward, writes J. Kelly Nestruck

Jersey BoysBook by Marshall Brickmanand Rick EliceMusic by Bob GaudioLyrics by Bob Crewe Directed by Des McAnuff Starring Joseph Leo Bwarie, Steve Gouveia, Jeremy Kushnier and Andrew Rannells

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A serendipitous encounter with Laureen Harper in Cow Head, Nfld., this month gave one tiny theatre company the chance to lobby against Ottawa's recent cuts to arts funding.The opportunity to tout the benefits of the soon-to-vanish PromArt grant program for travelling artists was not lost on Theatre Newfoundland Labrador when it learned Aug. 13 that it had a Sussex Drive guest in the audience.

Serendipitous encounter with Laureen Harper gives one tiny theatre company the chance to lobby against Ottawa's recent cuts to arts funding

The artistic director of Ontario's Shaw Festival is keen to continue discussions with a noted African-Canadian playwright about making the festival more racially diverse but wants them to be ''direct'' and ''artist-to-artist,'' not in an online forum such as Facebook.

Sergio Trujillo, the choreographer of the Dancap production, Jersey Boys, can relate to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, the real-life heroes of the megahit musical that recounts the rags-to-riches tale of four Italian-American kids who became rock 'n' roll sensations in the 1960s.

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival will visit San Francisco in 2010. Its 2009 production of Jean Racine's Phedre will feature Stratford veteran Seana McKenna in the title role, and move to the non-profit American Conservatory Theater (ACT) after it completes it run in Stratford.

Morris Panych's new production of Moby Dick is ambitious and audacious – but it needs work

MOBY DICK Adapted and directed by Morris Panych from the novel by Herman MelvilleStarring David Ferry, Shaun Smyth, W. Joseph Mathesonand Marcus NanceAt the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ont.

Legal wrestling match with upstart Dancap Productions Inc. for ownership of the Canon and Panasonic theatres comes to an apparent end

Palmer ParkBy Joanna McClelland GlassDirected by Ron O.J. ParsonStarring Dan Chameroy, Kelli Fox, Yanna McIntosh, Nigel Shawn Williams **1/2In Lorraine Hansberry's landmark 1959 drama A Raisin in the Sun, the residents of an all-white Chicago suburb try to the prevent the black Younger family from buying a house in their neighbourhood.