Latest news with #all-Canadian
Toronto Star
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
Mirvish Productions has found its '& Juliet' star in a former Stratford Festival Juliet
Mirvish Productions has announced the all-Canadian cast of the Toronto run of hit pop musical '& Juliet' following a fiercely competitive audition process last year. Vanessa Sears will star as Juliet. It's a role she has already played in the 2024 Stratford Festival version of 'Romeo and Juliet,' albeit with a different ending than the one in the musical.
Hamilton Spectator
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Vanessa Sears takes another run at Shakepeare's Juliet in jukebox musical '& Juliet'
TORONTO - Canadian stage actress Vanessa Sears is resurrecting her role as hopeless romantic Juliet Capulet, with a playful pop music twist. Mirvish Productions says the Deep River, Ont., native leads the all-Canadian cast of jukebox musical '& Juliet,' which returns to Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre later this year. Sears is deeply familiar with William Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers. She played Juliet in the Stratford Festival's 2024 production of the dramatic love story. '& Juliet' will have her portray a more comedic version of the character. The musical imagines what might've happened if Romeo and Juliet had gone their separate ways. The book was penned by Toronto playwright David West Read and propelled by the pop hits of Swedish producer Max Martin, including tracks 'Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely,' 'Since U Been Gone' and 'Roar.' '& Juliet' has a limited run from Dec. 3, 2025 to March 22, 2026. Tickets are already on sale through the Mirvish website. Sears is a familiar face in Mirvish productions, having previously starred in their 2015 production of 'Kinky Boots' and is set to appear in 'Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812' this summer. Other Canadians in the new '& Juliet' cast include David Silvestri, who starred in 'Come From Away;' Julia McLellan, who had parts in 'Kinky Boots' and 'Six;' and Stratford and Shaw Festival veteran George Krissa. The musical made its North American premiere in July 2022, leading to a successful Broadway run later that year as theatre productions gradually resumed after COVID-19 closures. 'The cast consists of artists we know and love from past productions,' said theatre producers David and Hannah Mirvish in a joint statement. 'Others we've been following on stages around the city and beyond, and some exciting new talent (will make) their professional debuts.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Vanessa Sears takes another run at Shakepeare's Juliet in jukebox musical ‘& Juliet'
TORONTO – Canadian stage actress Vanessa Sears is resurrecting her role as hopeless romantic Juliet Capulet, with a playful pop music twist. Mirvish Productions says the Deep River, Ont., native leads the all-Canadian cast of jukebox musical '& Juliet,' which returns to Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre later this year. Sears is deeply familiar with William Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers. She played Juliet in the Stratford Festival's 2024 production of the dramatic love story. '& Juliet' will have her portray a more comedic version of the character. The musical imagines what might've happened if Romeo and Juliet had gone their separate ways. The book was penned by Toronto playwright David West Read and propelled by the pop hits of Swedish producer Max Martin, including tracks 'Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely,' 'Since U Been Gone' and 'Roar.' '& Juliet' has a limited run from Dec. 3, 2025 to March 22, 2026. Tickets are already on sale through the Mirvish website. Sears is a familiar face in Mirvish productions, having previously starred in their 2015 production of 'Kinky Boots' and is set to appear in 'Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812' this summer. Other Canadians in the new '& Juliet' cast include David Silvestri, who starred in 'Come From Away;' Julia McLellan, who had parts in 'Kinky Boots' and 'Six;' and Stratford and Shaw Festival veteran George Krissa. The musical made its North American premiere in July 2022, leading to a successful Broadway run later that year as theatre productions gradually resumed after COVID-19 closures. 'The cast consists of artists we know and love from past productions,' said theatre producers David and Hannah Mirvish in a joint statement. 'Others we've been following on stages around the city and beyond, and some exciting new talent (will make) their professional debuts.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2025.
Toronto Sun
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Sun
Which Canadian has best chance this week at PGA Championship?
Corey Conners is always a safe bet for a good week with his world-class tee-to-green game and local resident Mackenzie Hughes is getting hot at the right time. Get the latest from Jon McCarthy straight to your inbox Mackenzie Hughes walks over the bridge on the 13th hole prior to the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Country Club. Getty Images CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Five Canadian is less than four American with the exchange rate, but that didn't help the boys from north of border in trying to put together a practice round at the PGA Championship in Charlotte. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account With a quintet of Canadian golfers in the field for the tournament beginning Thursday at Quail Hollow, the major championship tradition of an all-Canadian practice round was slightly more complicated. 'We thought about playing a fivesome, but had to break it up,' Mackenzie Hughes said. Hughes played in a threesome with Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor on Tuesday and the trio caught up with Postmedia as they waited on the back of the 18th green for Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith in the group behind, perhaps in order to sort out some friendly wagers. 'We used to barely fill out a foursome and now we are splitting it into two groups,' Hadwin said. 'Guys are playing great. It's been incredible to see the growth of the game in Canada and the individual games of the guys out here.' Jon McCarthy has something for every golfer, with a notably Canadian slant. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Hughes is coming off a playoff loss to Ryan Fox at last week's Myrtle Beach Classic and the notoriously streaky player looks to have found his form at the right time heading into the season's second major, with three top tens in his past four starts. 'The things I've been working on with my full swing have been coming along nicely. That's been a nice progression over the past eight weeks,' Hughes said. 'I'm seeing signs of that with my strokes gained numbers improving. My putter is starting to come back around and I've just got to wait for one of those tournaments where I put it all together and I know that if I play like have the past few weeks I can have a chance to win.' As a Charlotte resident and a Quail Hollow member, Hughes is the de-facto tournament host for the Canadian contingent this week. On Tuesday evening, the entire gang — including wives, kids and caddies — headed over to Hughes' place for dinner. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Fifty dollars at the door,' Corey Conners joked as he came off the 18th green. 'BYOB,' Hughes responded. With the course being a regular stop on the PGA Tour for years, Hughes doesn't think he has much of a home-field advantage over the rest of the players, but says the added comfort of seeing familiar faces at the course and sleeping in his own bed has him feeling unusually comfortable for a major championship week. Five-time PGA Tour winner Taylor is trying his best to get comfortable at a weather-softened golf course that will play longer than its posted 7,626 yards and seems built for the game's biggest bombers. 'It's playing super long,' Taylor said. 'But you've still got to hit iron shots to the green and make putts. I feel like if I get it play I can compete with anybody with my iron game and putting and chipping. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I'm not trying to overpower anything because that's not my game,' he added. 'I'll try to draw back from weeks like Torrey Pines earlier this season which was playing brutally long and I had a nice week there doing my thing.' Taylor Pendrith is the longest hitter of the five, but will need to turn his game around this week with just one solid finish in the past two-and-a-half months. Conners always is a safe bet for a good week with his world-class tee-to-green game, as Canadians wait patiently for the ball-striking maestro to run into a hot putter for four days at a major championship. The popular Hadwin finds himself searching this season, with just one top-ten finish in 2025. 'Mentally, it's taken its toll,' Hadwin said. 'My game's probably been better than it's shown, but maybe it snowballs the wrong way sometimes.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That lack of form, mixed with the demanding length and soft conditions of Quail Hollow this week, could be tough to overcome for the tour veteran of modest distance. Read More 'It's really nice to go around a golf course and not have to learn much about it. Having played here so many times we have a general sense of where to hit it, where to miss it and all those sorts of thing,' Hadwin said. 'The biggest thing is the distance and how long the golf course is.' But those are problems for later in the week. Golf can be a lonely sport at times and, for this group of Canadians, it is practice rounds like this that remind them how far they've all come. Because once the balls are in the air on Thursday, it's every man for himself. With a few exceptions. 'If it's not going to be me, I want it to be one of them,' Hughes said. Relationships Toronto Maple Leafs Celebrity Editorial Cartoons Columnists
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
2025 PWHL playoff preview: Montreal vs. Ottawa, Toronto vs. Minnesota
The Professional Women's Hockey League's sophomore season has ended, and the playoffs have arrived. The Montreal Victoire officially selected the Ottawa Charge as their first-round opponent on Sunday night. As the No. 1 seed, Montreal earned the right to pick its opponent from the third- and fourth-place finishers. Advertisement That decision — made in part due to the proximity of their opponent — sets up a rematch between the Toronto Sceptres and Minnesota Frost. Last year, Toronto put Minnesota on the brink of elimination, only to lose the series in five games to the eventual champions. That series will kick off the postseason on Wednesday night in Toronto at Coca-Cola Coliseum. The Montreal-Ottawa series — the league's first all-Canadian playoff matchup — will start on Thursday in Montreal at Place Bell. Each series will be a best-of-five. Before the puck drops on the playoffs, has a comprehensive preview of each series. No. 1 Montreal versus No. 3 Ottawa The odds It looks like Montreal picked its semifinal opponent well — beyond just the benefit of bus travel — with a 63 percent chance of getting by Ottawa. The Victoire won the season series against the Charge 4-2, and should be able to take care of business in the playoffs. Advertisement Montreal has the best forward (Marie-Philip Poulin), the best goalie (Ann-Renée Desbiens) and arguably the best top line (Poulin, Laura Stacey and Jenn Gardiner) in the league. The team scored the second-most goals in the league (77) and allowed the fewest (67) for the best goal differential (9) in the PWHL. It's not an unwinnable series for Ottawa, which beat Montreal in regulation in the last two head-to-head matchups. But they will likely need to rely on a big series by Gwyneth Philips, just like Boston did with Aerin Frankel last year. The big question Maybe it's unfair to bring up last year's playoffs so much when the Victoire have several new players on their roster. But it's also hard to forget Montreal getting swept by Boston in three straight games that required overtime. It was a low-scoring series (Boston only outscored Montreal 7-4) and Frankel largely shut the door on Montreal's stars. Advertisement Poulin only scored once on 18 shots and Stacey was shut out on 17 shots. Montreal's depth wasn't able to score either, with only two other players (Kristin O'Neill and Maureen Murphy) finding the back of the net in the series. The question for Montreal is: Will this year be different? Frankly, it's hard to imagine Poulin being largely held off the scoresheet for a second straight postseason. She's the most clutch player in the sport and actually improved her goal-scoring rate this season with 19 goals in 30 games, which paced the league. Her line with Stacey and Gardiner has been highly productive — so much so that they were the top line for Team Canada at women's worlds last month. There's some more secondary scoring this time around, with Abby Boreen on the second line — though she hasn't scored since Feb. 15 — and Cayla Barnes on the top defense pair. While not a new face, Catherine Dubois has been a solid middle-six forward this season and could be very valuable in the postseason with her physicality and scoring touch — she has six goals on the season, including one in Montreal's final regular-season game. Still, Montreal's success has largely hinged on Poulin. She scored 25 percent of Montreal's goals this season. They're 11-2 when she scores and 8-9 when she doesn't. So either Poulin is going to need to keep up the pace, or some others will need to step up. The X-Factor Philips is highly capable of stealing this series from Montreal. She's won six of her last nine games since Ottawa's No. 1 goalie, Emerance Maschmeyer, was put on long-term injured reserve. She was also one of the stars of the championship game at women's worlds, stepping into the game cold in relief of Frankel and leading Team USA to a gold medal win — against several of the Victoire's top players. Advertisement On the other hand, Desbiens has been the best goalie in the PWHL this season. Nobody has more wins (15), a better goals against average (1.86) or save percentage (.932). Desbiens only lost one game against Ottawa this season and only allowed seven goals on 118 shots. Philips, meanwhile, got pulled in her first game against Montreal after allowing three goals on 12 shots. She rebounded well in her last two starts against Montreal with two wins, including one head-to-head matchup against Desbiens. It feels like this series could be yet another goalie battle between the world's best and a young American up-and-comer. The key matchup Given Montreal's success when Poulin gets on the scoresheet, trying to slow down her production will be priority No. 1 for the Charge. Ottawa has solid depth on the blue line, but it will likely be Jocelyne Larocque and her D partner Ashton Bell matching up against Poulin and Montreal's top line. Advertisement Larocque was acquired by Ottawa in the December blockbuster trade with the Sceptres and has added a veteran presence to the blue line and provided the team with a stable shutdown defender. The Charge have kept Larocque's minutes lower than what she typically played in Toronto, which has helped her game after a tough start to the season. Larocque was only on the ice for two goals against over her last nine games in Ottawa and was a career-high plus-three in a 3-2 regulation win against Montreal on April 26. Larocque plays a physical brand of hockey to take away space in the offensive zone and does well to get sticks into shooting lanes. Both she and Bell will be familiar with Poulin from going head-to-head in the PWHL, but also thanks to their time on the Canadian women's national team. What makes Montreal's top line tricky to defend, however, is that you can't focus all your energy on Poulin, otherwise, you'll risk leaving Stacey (who scored 11 goals this season) or Gardiner (who had 18 points as a rookie) wide open. The bottom line Montreal and Ottawa couldn't be more different. Advertisement One team has megawatt star power. The other has depth, but no major offensive standouts, though Tereza Vanišová has been very good this season. Montreal is all about sticking to its structure, while Ottawa opts for a fast, free and physical style of game. The stylistic differences — and strong goaltending — could prove to make the series more entertaining than the odds (fairly heavily in Montreal's favor) might suggest. No. 2 Toronto versus No. 4 Minnesota The defending champions are favored — no real surprise there. While Minnesota snuck into the playoffs on the final day of the season again — this time with an 8-1 win against Boston to clinch the fourth and final spot — nobody will really look at them as underdogs this time around. The Frost had the most potent offense in the league this season (85) and have proven, this year and last, that they can win when it matters most. Advertisement Not to mention, Minnesota won four of six regular-season games against Toronto, with three requiring overtime or a shootout. If nothing else, we can expect a close series that might (once again) go the distance. Last year, losing Spooner in Game 3 of the semifinals was a massive blow for Toronto. Without their MVP in the lineup, Toronto only scored one goal in three straight losses against Minnesota to get knocked out of the playoffs. After nine months of rehab and recovery, Spooner is 100 percent healthy, but is still trying to find her top form again. And that should be OK for the Sceptres in this series. Over the course of the season, Toronto has demonstrated the ability to produce and win games without Spooner scoring nearly every single night. Toronto's offense has more capable goal scorers this year than last, with players such as Daryl Watts, Hannah Miller and Jesse Compher stepping up on offense. Advertisement It would be great for Toronto if Spooner entered the 2025 playoffs in MVP form. But if she's not, and she's just fine, the Sceptres have proven that it's not a death knell for them. Not the way it was last year. Now, the status of Miller and Nurse complicates things a bit. Sarah Nurse just came off long-term injured reserve on March 23. Miller missed a game due to injury. And during a media availability on Sunday night, head coach Troy Ryan was actively trying to temper expectations for the trio of important players. 'I think it's really important to put (this) in perspective,' he said. 'All three of those players are coming off substantial injuries. And then the expectation is that they're able to perform at the level of when they left. And it's just not reality.' The hope, if you're Toronto, is that there's enough depth to weather another ill-timed injury bug. Advertisement A lot improved over Toronto's climb out of the basement of the standings, such as Kristen Campbell's performance, for example. But arguably nothing has fuelled the Sceptres more than their league-leading power play. Toronto has scored on just over 25 percent of its power play chances this season, and has scored nearly one-third of its goals (24) while on the advantage. Watts, Miller and Renata Fast are the leading power-play producers in the league. Meanwhile, Minnesota had the worst penalty kill percentage (78.4) in the regular season this year. It should be a priority to stay out of the penalty box as much as possible, which the Frost typically do well. No team took fewer penalties this season than the Frost. 'I think a big strength for us last year was our penalty kill really got dialled in come playoff time,' said Minnesota head coach Ken Klee. 'We need to have that same mindset (this year). When they get their opportunities, we need to do the best we can to shut them down, help our goalies, keep them to the outside, and not give them clean looks.' Advertisement To Klee's point, Minnesota's penalty kill looked much better over the last five games of the regular season (86 percent), and shut down three power-play attempts by Toronto in a 5-2 win on March 30. As important as special teams might be in this series, most of the game is played at five-on-five, and nobody has been better there this season than Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield. Her 24 points on the season rank fifth league-wide, but only two of those points came on the power play. Nobody in the league had more even-strength points than Coyne Schofield (22). Her 11 even-strength goals were third, behind only Poulin and Vanišová. No forward on the Frost plays more than Coyne Schofield in all situations. And nobody in the league plays more than Fast. So, it's probably safe to assume that we'll see Fast play head-to-head against Coyne Schofield in this series. Advertisement Fast has been the best all-around defender in the PWHL this season, with a punishing combination of speed, physicality and offense. She led the league in assists (16), hits (63) and was third in blocked shots (49). 'She brings everything,' said Ryan. 'She's a top offensive player. She's a top defensive player. She's a top physical player. She's a great leader. I guess to sum it up, I think she's the best defense in the world. 'So when we have her on our team, she gives us a chance to win.' Minnesota knows what it takes to win this time of year, and they might be peaking at the right time … again. Nicole Hensley — with two wins in two-straight must-win games — certainly is. Advertisement While they wouldn't say it themselves — it's a new year, new team, etc. — Toronto will be looking to exorcise some demons against the team that surged and knocked them out in the first round last year. Walter Cup projection This article originally appeared in The Athletic. NHL, Women's Hockey 2025 The Athletic Media Company
