Nostalgia buffs get ready to flip out. With this winner you’ll be transported to the golden days of the American Songbook and the golden days of TV’s “Your Hit Parade.”

By Gary Smith | Special to The Hamilton Spectator

September 25th, 2025

I hate tribute shows. Why would I want to watch performers pretend to be someone else?

That’s what I always thought, until “Memories of The Rat Pack,” Christopher McHarge’s terrific celebration of the irreplaceable Frankie, Dean and Sammy.

Nostalgia buffs get ready to flip out — with this winner, you’ll be transported to the golden days of the American Songbook and the golden days of TV’s “Your Hit Parade.”

Remember when you could understand every word your favourite star sang? Remember a world when music wasn’t just a thumpity-thump-thump of four-letter words? Remember when gold-plated stars had personalities that reached right off the stage?

Instead of assaulting your ears, they invaded your heart.

Well, get ready for Frankie, Dean and Sammy, three of the greatest male pop stars in the world of entertainment.

This is no cheesy imitation show with three phoneys struggling to create sketchy impersonations. No, this is an honest-to-goodness reminder of how terrific the old stars were. It’s all about the way they caressed the lyrics of those wonderful old songs by the likes of Cole Porter, Jimmy McHugh and George Gershwin.

And it’s also about the fun they had on stage, performing at those great watering holes of yesteryear, the Copa Room at the Sands, or The New Frontier in Las Vegas. Or maybe way back east in New York at Jules Podell’s Copacabana and those lavish hotels, such as the Waldorf and The Plaza .

Of course, it’s pretty much all gone today. Places like Toronto’s Imperial Room, where stars like Peggy Lee and those cuties The McGuire Sisters held sway, have turned into boring convention halls.

That’s why a nostalgic look at the likes of the guys known as The Rat Pack is so much fun.

For one thing, they could really sing. There was no messing around about that. When they cut loose on any one of their hit tunes, it was every bit as good as the record you treasured at home.

Thankfully, the stars of the show now in Port Dover mostly don’t try to imitate their voices. They don’t have to, they’ve got terrific voices of their own, so instead they interpret, rather than impersonate, the fab three.

When Dean Hollin leans into Sinatra’s “My Way,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “One More for the Road,” you know those songs have been superbly sung. Hollin has an ingratiating — no, make that charming — way about him. He fills the stage with his voice and his presence. He makes you glad you’re listening.

Originally from Hamilton, where he sang in a handful of musicals at Hamilton Theatre Inc., and acted the hell out of some dramatic shows at Burlington Little Theatre, Hollin is worth the trip to Dover all on his own.

But then, so are the guys who share the stage with him.

Derek Marshall is the real cutup of the trio, finding both the comic zest of Dean Martin, as well as the wonderful laid-back quality of his voice. He has fun with “That’s Amore” and “You’re Nobody ‘til Somebody Loves You,” and he conjures perfectly the charm of Italy with “An Evening in Roma.”

Shane Phillips comes into his own as Sammy Davis Jr. with “Mr. Bojangles” and “What Kind of Fool Am I.” And when the three singers come together on one of the oldies but goodies, they rock the roof off the theatre.

The show is supported by a live six-piece band led by Stephen Ingram, a Hamilton lad who’s well on his way to becoming a super hot musical director and pianist.

Things deflate a little late in the second act, when McHarge tries to resurrect the kind of madcap comedy the original Rat Pack did on the Vegas stage.

Imagine sitting ringside at The Sands after a few drinks, watching Sammy, Dean and Frank kibitzing on stage, pulling down each other’s pants, interrupting each other’s big numbers, and generally acting like goons. Of course it worked.

But it’s not easy to create that same supercharged atmosphere on stage in Port Dover. The guys work a touch too hard to be funny and the nonsense goes on a tad too long. Worse yet, this distraction interrupts the show’s build at a crucial point, so it takes a while to get things back on track.

It’s the songs, and the way these guys sing them, that holds “Memories of The Rat Pack” together, and fortunately there’s plenty to enjoy.

For my money, cavils aside, this is one of the best entertainments I’ve seen this year. Go celebrate the genius of three of the best male entertainers in Vegas history. This one deserves full houses all through its run.

_{Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details}

Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.

This is vintage Foster. It’s the popular Canadian playwright at his best. He’s not afraid here to let us feel a little something — cry a little, even — for the sometimes-bewildering way life knocks us around.

By Gary Smith | Special to The Hamilton Spectator

September 3rd, 2025

I’m tired of all those theatre snobs who snub Norm Foster. They like to downgrade the work of Canada’s main funnyman.

Too bad.

When it comes to theatre, Foster is our kingpin of comedy. The guy knows how to make us laugh. After all, he’s written 74 plays. And yes, I know, they’re not all terrific. But plenty of them are, and they’ll tickle your funny bone while they warm the cockles of your heart.

Take “Here On The Flight Path,” the Foster comedy currently packing the Lighthouse Festival Theatre in Port Dover. It’s a real corker.

Just ask Foster himself, who says it’s his funniest play.

“I think there are more laugh lines in that play than anything I’ve produced before or since,” he says. When you consider the impact of other big Foster winners, like “The Melville Boys” and “The Foursome” that’s saying something.

“Here On The Flight Path,” is about relationships. It’s all about trying to connect. Three women are at a crossroads in their lives. There’s sweet and sassy Fay, a hooker who works out on her balcony. She’s lots of fun and catches the eye of John Cummings, her on-the-make next door neighbour.

Then there’s Angel, a bit of a goofus who fancies herself something of a Streisand-style singer and has Cummings in her eye line. Add down in the dumps Gwen. Divorced and bored, she’s looking for someone who’ll give her spirits a lift.

And guess what? In director Derek Ritschel’s compelling Lighthouse production, all three of these very different ladies are played by the same terrific actress.

That’s the way Foster wrote the play. And frankly, it’s the only way to do justice to this warm-hearted comedy. A lot of theatres don’t trust a trifecta performance, so they tend to cast three actresses to play the women who move in one at a time to the apartment next to John Cummings. And that robs the play of its real punch.

Certainly, Julia Dyan makes all three of Foster’s women believable, finding under Ritschel’s sometimes pushed, but always assured direction, a trio of characters who not only lean on the play’s comic surface, but find in its undertow an important, underlying heartbeat.

Foster told me he believes, “These women are at a crossroads in their lives and Cummings is the lovable loser on hand to help each of them through a crisis.”

This centres the play’s undercurrent of truth squarely on the relationship each of them has with friendly neighbour Cummings. Any actor tackling Foster’s male role must have a charming exterior, as well as the ability to engage us in an understanding of his own vulnerability.

Even when he’s acting like a know-it-all male, looking for the main chance, puffing out his chest like some randy rooster, this guy’s got to be to be likable.

Happily, Reid Janisse is just that sort of actor. He’s a guy with a lot of heart, even when he’s putting the make on his female neighbours. I guess you could call it chemistry. That’s what works in each of the encounters Cummings has with his vulnerable neighbours.

And it’s what gives Foster’s play something a lot more than a series of jokes and one-liners.

The play is set on adjoining apartment balconies, designed by Eric Bunnell. They look like a place where Angel, Gwen, Fay and John would actually live. There is nothing spectacular in these realistic outdoor spaces, but they have a lived-in look about them that is perfect.

As usual, designer Alex Amini provides costumes that cling to a play’s characters like a second skin. We just know, for instance, Angel would dress with a flair for kookiness that’s a signal of an obvious cry for attention. And we know too, that Fay would dress with a sexy sophisticated edge that announces she’s available, even if it is at a cost.

Because “Here On The Flight Path” is a play about male-female relationships it never avoids finding the funny side of sexual flirtation and expectation.

At the same time, it doesn’t ignore the undertow of truth that makes you care about its vulnerable characters, caught in a need for companionship, human longing and maybe even love.

This is vintage Foster. It’s the popular Canadian playwright at his best. He’s not afraid here to let us feel a little something — cry a little, even — for the sometimes-bewildering way life knocks us around.

When Foster is at his best, the worlds of comedy and drama ally nicely. That means theatre exists at the sweet spot, somewhere where we can sit in our seat and sigh contentedly.

This one is easily 10 out of 10.

_{Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details}

Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.

Whether you ever cared for western movies or not, you’ll find much to like in this well-paced Canadian comedy.

By Gary Smith | Special to The Hamilton Spectator

August 8th, 2025

Like mistaken identities and shootouts in saloons? Like a lily-white good guy who’s fighting for truth and justice in a town where six-shooters define the kind of law and order that ruled the Old West?

Want to watch the good guy, handsome as a hoot owl on a hot summer night, make a sweet bid for the perky, but emancipated town dream queen?

Well then, I’ve got a comedy for you.

“Pinkerton Comes to Prospect” is old-time nostalgia knocked right into the 21st century. It sits quite nicely on the Lighthouse Festival Theatre stage at Port Dover against set designer Megan Cinel’s nostalgic-looking set, washed over by Alex Sykes’ painterly lighting.

Everyone is dressed appropriately in costume designer Alex Amini’s worn western duds, looking like folks out of a vintage John Huston movie. It’s easy to believe, in fact, that we are in some 1890 town somewhere in North America.

Fortunately, a strong acting cast is on hand to get us through some rather broad comedy of the most physical kind, before Jamie Williams’ rather schizophrenic play decides to settle down and look for a modicum of truth in the better-constructed second act.

It’s worth the wait.

Director Steven Gallagher is a dab hand at the sort of choreography that makes the physical nonsense of the outrageous sort work. With “Pinkerton Comes to Prospect” he’s even better at making the romantic warmth of the relationships in playwright Williams’ last act navigate some leftover silliness.

This allows us to walk out of the theatre feeling such old-fashioned values as family, love and loyalty to relations and friends are, at the same time, thoroughly modern and worth caring about.

Even so, it’s difficult to understand what Williams is trying to do early on with so much overt comedy. He tends to swamp the play with laugh lines before finally settling down to make his characters believable.

Of course, in many ways the play is a farce, with all the madness and outrageous invention of such a genre.When young and handsome Herschel Penkerton comes to town with his cartographer’s equipment to do some survey work, he is mistaken for a tough gunslinger called Pinkerton, hired by Prospect’s town mayor to protect him from a bold gunfighter who plans to do him in.

Now, I wouldn’t dream of telling you how things turn out. And you probably wouldn’t believe me if I did. Let’s just say you’ll have fun watching the craziness work itself out and more reality creep in.

Ryan Bommarito is perfect as the poor put-upon Penkerton falling for the outspoken Miss Lacey of Evelyn Wiebe. She’s spot-on as the emancipated woman he chooses to share his cartographer’s tools with.

Matthew Olver has fun with the role of Doc, the mayor, doctor, slightly sadistic dentist, and a bit of a selfish cad. Because this is a comedy he, of course, straightens up and finally comes to terms with happiness.

Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski, who was terrific in “Bed and Breakfast” in Dover, works a tad too hard here at the role of Amos, the saloon dogsbody. He isn’t helped by being handed laugh lines that just don’t land and by being made to perform visual shtick that becomes tiresome.

It’s not his fault, either, that the role has been written with a very heavy hand.

I can’t tell you a lot about the character Jessica Sherman plays without giving away a key surprise and spoiling your enjoyment of the play. Let’s just say Sherman gives a terrific performance and helps to give this comedy its second act resuscitation that gives the play its rapidly beating heart.

“Pinkerton Comes to Prospect” begins as an outrageous comedy with physical high-jinks and plenty of comic situations.

It finishes by becoming a rather gentle and loving look at romance, friendship and truth, and suggests the need to embrace the world with hope and humane intentions. What starts out as a frantic, overly busy comedy, becomes a warm and tender realization of how necessary family and union really are.

Whether you ever cared for western movies or not, you’ll find much to like in this well-paced Canadian comedy.

Go have fun.

_{Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details}

Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.

Right now, Foster is busy looking to the past. He’s pulled two one-act plays from his theatre trunk and they’ll be performed in tandem at Port Dover’s Lighthouse Festival Theatre.

By Gary Smith | Special to the Hamilton Spectator

July 8th, 2025

Norm Foster is without a doubt Canada’s favourite playwright.

The fact is, in many ways, Foster’s comedies express indelibly what you might call a Canadian sense of humour.

“I am certainly Canadian, and I write as a Canadian,” Foster says. “I think that just naturally comes through in my work. I don’t try to sound like a Canadian. I don’t have to. It’s there in my DNA. I love it when people refer to me as that, ‘Canadian playwright Norm Foster.’”

He loves working with Canadian theatre companies and the talented folks who make his plays so successful here on his home turf.

“All those talented actors, actresses, designers and directors are terrific. There is such a wealth of talent here on the Canadian theatre scene, and I’m lucky I get to experience it firsthand. It’s just so satisfying.”

So far, Foster has written 83 plays, and he’s not planning on stopping any time soon.

“They’ve all been produced at least once,” Foster says, “Except for the latest ‘Kate Pays a Visit.’ It’s up for grabs,” he says. “Anyone interested?”

Right now, Foster is busy looking to the past. He’s pulled two one-act plays from his theatre trunk and they’ll be performed in tandem at Port Dover’s Lighthouse Festival Theatre.

“Written around the same time in my career, they weren’t meant to be performed together. But they have a similar feel about them, so they should work as a pair.”

Foster believes they’ll give audiences big things to laugh at.

“I hope these are laugh-out-loud comedies,” he says. “I don’t write plays people are meant to snicker at.”

Performed under the blanket title, “Hidden Treasures,” “My Narrator” and “The Death of Me” are comedies all right, but with a darker edge.

“It was Lighthouse artistic director Jane Spence’s idea to call the pair ‘Hidden Treasures,’” Foster says. “And I suppose in a way they are. One-act plays are not performed that often today. Written in 2007 and 2010 these two are like extended sketches.

“I wrote ‘My Narrator’ because I thought it was a good idea to have characters who have a narrator telling them what to do. The other play, ‘The Death of Me,’ is about a man who dies and doesn’t realize he’s dead, until the Angel of Death breaks the news to him.”

Foster says he writes to please himself, not to fulfil the expectations of his audience.

“If I think something is funny, chances are audiences will find it funny, too. I’m a middle-of-the-road kind of a guy. And I’m sure if I tried to write to please an audience I would fail.” 

Foster believes his writing style has changed over the years.

“When I first started I would map out a play from start to finish before I began writing it. But now, with growing confidence, I just start with an idea and begin without knowing where it’s going. And yes, the characters take over and almost write themselves. I was finishing a play last month, and as I got to the point where a play usually finishes up, around page 80 or 85, I thought to myself, ‘I can’t wait to see how this ends.’”

Foster believes audiences come to his plays because they can identify with them. They see someone on stage they know. He doesn’t like to name favourites, but he definitely has some.

“‘The Melville Boys’ is near to my heart because that’s the play that put me on the map, the one I’m best known for. ‘Jonas and Barry in the Home’ is up there, too, because I toured with it as Jonas, doing hundreds of performances. ‘On A First Name Basis’ is what I consider to be my most intelligent play. I punched way above my weight with that one. I’m proud of it.

“The one that surprised me most though was, ‘Halfway There’ which has become my most produced play. It’s about the friendship between 4 women. Four nice people. Good human beings. And I am very happy that it has caught on with audiences.”

Foster is philosophical about success.

“If I have a play that doesn’t do as well as the others I can usually tell you why. It just wasn’t as good. It can be for a number of reasons. Subject matter. Character development. Not funny enough. The reasons become very obvious to me.”

Foster’s new work now frequently has a darker undertow that battles the comedy for attention.

“I guess that comes from living life. We’ve all gone through dark periods. I’m fortunate I can use those as fodder for the heartfelt moments in my plays. I am a firm believer if you haven’t had any difficult times you can’t be a complete writer,” Foster says.

“The greatest pleasure in my life has been to be able to earn a living and support a family writing plays. I don’t consider it work. But it is work, of course. I’m very lucky. I’ve never had to work as hard as my parents did, not for one day in my life.”

When you ask Foster if he feels we value our playwrights and artists in this country, he demurs.

“I can’t say for sure. I feel valued, but I’m one of the lucky ones.”

_{Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details}

Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.

This is the second time in three years that Lighthouse Festival Theatre has included a Sherlock Holmes play as part of its season.

By Gary Smith | Special to the Hamilton Spectator

Saturday, June 28th, 2025

The great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is no doubt spinning in his grave.

The master of moody mystery surely never intended his dark and demonic work about a howling hound to give voice to peals of exuberant laughter. Death on the English Moors cloaked by fog and fear is surely more what this 19th-century author had in mind.

No matter, Sir Arthur and his fearsome Baskerville Hound are served up by British playwrights Steven Canny and John Nicholson in a boldly comic vision that is sending audiences home happy.

In a slam-bang Lighthouse Theatre production, directed with style and intentional hambone histrionics by Derek Ritschel, you might wonder if the essence of Sir Arthur’s frightening tale survives in this arc of fresh new laughter.

Mostly, I’d say yes, though the original story does get somewhat lost in the non-stop silliness.

There’s plenty of gratuitous humour, for instance, of a pretty flimsy kind. If you think seeing a man shuffling across the stage in his underwear, trousers around his ankles is hilarious, this one’s for you.

If you think a man with a beard, wearing a dress and seductively flapping a fan is the height of comic invention, you just might laugh yourself silly.

You get the picture. The comedy here is of a British pantomime level that’s aimed at adults rather than children.

Don’t look for witty repartee; this Hound doesn’t run to that. But if you can satisfy yourself with bombast and visual high jinks, you just might have a swell time.

Director Ritschel keeps things in perpetual motion and his skilful cast of three makes the 17 characters they play entertaining.

Thank heavens for these mitigating factors. The pace of the shenanigans here suggests perpetual motion. There’s no time to stop and question the ridiculous goings on.

If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, however, you might not enjoy seeing this classic one sent so far up the comedy scale. You might not be so willing to suspend annoyance with the way Arthur Conan Doyle’s play has been frantically massaged in this comic version that kids the pants off everything.

If, however, you’re willing to play along, three fine actors with handsome pedigrees will make you woof with laughter.

In truth, these guys work like dogs to make this Hound bark. All three actors have terrific credits with major international theatres, and they work here like some finely oiled machine that keeps right on ticking through multiple costume changes and physical action.

Andrew Scanlon is wily Sherlock Holmes, imbuing the character with appropriate ego and panache. Jonathan Ellul is his canny Watson, trying to be in charge, even when we know he’s clearly not. And Sweeney Macarthur plays Sir Henry Baskerville with bravado and style.

Of course, all three have fun with the other rambunctious characters who turn up on the Lighthouse Festival stage. It would be wrong to spoil your fun by telling you who they are. If you want to know you’ll have to head to Port Dover, or Port Colborne, to find out.

Set designer William Chesney’s suggestion of the play’s multiple settings is definitely more functional than inspired. Its parameters also forced Ritschel’s staging too frequently to the stage right side of the theatre. There was a blandness to the look of this production that is unusual for Chesney, who is normally a designer of great style. Similarly, Emerson Kafarowski’s lighting failed to suggest vital mood and atmosphere.

This is the second time in three years that Lighthouse Festival Theatre has included a Sherlock Holmes play as part of its season. Last time it was Canadian playwright Peter Colley’s “The Real Sherlock Holmes” that brought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the sleuth in the deerstalker hat, to Port Dover in a play that posed some interesting thoughts about how Holmes came to be such a quintessential character.

Of course, the old black and white films starring Basil Rathbone and the TV series with elegant Jeremy Brett inhabiting the heart and mind of Holmes still remain perfect Holmes nostalgia.

I don’t think anyone has come up with such an outrageous spoof about the man with the pipe and the big time ego, as Canny and Nicholson have with their slapstick take on “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”

So, is this “Hound” a dog? Not if you like comedy that chases its tale to make you laugh.

_{Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details}

Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.

The bikers are on to something. Port Dover is described as having a clean, sandy beach and a romantic pier that make it one of Ontario’s best kept secrets.

By Mike Pearson | Reporter with InsideHalton.com

Tuesday, June 10th, 2025

Friday, June 13th is just around the corner, and that means tens of thousands of people — and bikers — will visit Port Dover, a town of 8,000 people on the north shore of Lake Erie.

The town’s famous motorcycle rallies attract bikers from across Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern United States.

Port Dover Friday the 13th tradition

The tradition began in 1981, when a few friends got together at a downtown hotel and pledged to return whenever the calendar flipped to Friday the 13th, regardless of weather.

Today, Friday the 13th is more than just a motorcycle rally.

The event attracts visitors of all ages for main stage entertainment at Main and Walker streets, starting Thursday (June 12) at 7 p.m.

The action continues for the main event on Friday, with musical entertainment beginning at 11 a.m. This year’s performers include Tragically Hip, Motley Crue and Guns N’ Roses tribute bands.

Plenty of food options are available, from hot dogs, fries, pizza and burgers to Port Dover’s famous perch, pickerel and celery bread.

In recent years, Friday the 13th has grown so big that organizers have closed Port Dover’s downtown area to vehicle parking. Out-of-town parking is available on the outskirts of Port Dover (468 Concession 2) for $10 per person, with shuttle service by the Port Dover Kinsmen Club.

Expect increased OPP presence 

With another influx of guests expected June 13, Ontario Provincial Police have announced an increased police presence in Port Dover.

Motorcyclists and other drivers are reminded to share the road, especially with the higher traffic volumes expected over the weekend.

Parking in prohibited areas may result in towing and fines exceeding $400, the OPP warn.

More to offer

While Friday the 13th happens just one to three times a year, the Port Dover Board of Trade notes the community has a lot to offer throughout the summer.

“Port Dover offers a remarkable array of festivals, beautiful scenery and unique experiences,” the group notes online. “From surprisingly affordable family fun in the sun to sophisticated dining and acclaimed professional live theatre, Port Dover’s warmth, charm and unique history will excite your imagination … and capture your heart.”

The downtown area features one-of-a-kind shops and boutiques and heritage hotels.

A clean, sandy beach and a romantic pier make this lakeside town one of Ontario’s best kept secrets, the Port Dover Board of Trade notes.

It’s just two hours away from Toronto and 45 minutes from Brantford.

The ultimate resort town

Ontario’s Southwest Tourism raves about Port Dover.

“Walk the beach in Port Dover and you’ll feel like you’ve arrived in the ultimate Ontario resort town,” the group notes. “The scenic pier is the place to be for fishing, taking a romantic stroll or watching the tugboats return with their daily catch.”

While only a small portion of the beach is open to the public, tourists can also visit nearby beaches like Turkey Point and Long Point.

Where to eat in Port Dover

Knechtel’s on the Beach (15 Walker St., Port Dover) is known for its perch snack box, halibut, pickerel, burgers, hot dogs and poutine.

A Port Dover staple since 1919, The Arbor (101 Main St.) is famous for its foot-long hot dogs and “Golden Glow” fresh fruit drinks.

The Fisherman’s Catch Bar and Restaurant (18 Walker St.) is known for perch and pickerel as well as combo dinners.

DeKoning’s Restaurant (1768 Hwy. 6) is popular for reasonably priced breakfast, lunch or dinner with large portions.

Visit Schofield’s Bistro (243 Main St.) for a full brunch menu, appetizers like crispy cauliflower and crab cakes, plus dinner entrees like maple chili glazed Atlantic salmon and beef tenderloin.

Where to stay in Port Dover

The Erie Beach Hotel (19 Walker St.) is already fully booked for Friday the 13th, but you can still enjoy a weekend getaway later in the summer. Dine in the hotel’s Cove Room or Terrace Room, featuring tableside salads and hot celery bread. The landmark features a wooden sculpture of a mariner, which has been welcoming guests to downtown Port Dover since 1946.

The Brant Hill Inn (30 John St.) features majestic harbour views from 12 modern rooms and affordable nightly rates during the tourist season.

Shore Acres is a quiet, well-maintained seasonal trailer park on the Lake Erie shoreline (574 Radical Rd.) within walking distance to downtown Port Dover. Seasonal and overnight space is available.

Shopping in Port Dover

Cashmere & Cobwebs boutique (339 Main St.) offers, affordable and stylish ladies’ fashions, accessories, jewelry and one-of-a-kind gifts, with new arrivals daily.

North Shore Soapworks (359 Main St.) has natural bath and body care products, soaps and lotions, jewelry and more.

Liberty Home and Gifts (19 Harbour St.) has souvenirs, nautical decor, puzzles, shells, cast iron, salt water taffy and other keepsakes to remind you of your trip to Port Dover.

Port Dover Jewellery & Gifts (343 Main St.) has a wide selection of gold and silver jewelry, watches and giftware in the heart of the downtown.

Things to do in Port Dover

Arbortown Mini Golf (100 Main St.) features 18 holes of family fun and excitement.

Lighthouse Festival Theatre promises a summer of laughter in its historic downtown location at 247 Main St. The summer season includes “Hidden Treasures,” a showcase of two one-act plays by Norm Foster. Other shows include “The New Canadian Curling Club,” “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and “Pinkerton Comes to Prospect.” See ticket information and showtimes online.

The South Coast Jazz 2025 music festival runs from Aug. 8 to 10 in Port Dover and Brantford. The all-Canadian lineup features Lighthouse, known for such hits as hits such as “One Fine Morning,” “Sunny Days” and “Hats Off to the Stranger.” Tickets are now available online.

— With files from J.P. Antonacci, The Hamilton Spectator

The New Canadian Curling Club is a comedy with something serious to say. It’s so worth your time. Don’t miss it.

By Gary Smith | Special to the Hamilton Spectator

Thursday, May 29th, 2025

Hurry hard to Port Dover.

“The New Canadian Curling Club” has opened and it’s a doozy of a play. If you can’t get a seat at Dover, try Port Colborne, but do it fast. This one’s going to be a hot ticket.

The Lighthouse Festival Theatre is known as a home to plays with a decidedly Canuck point of view. This one’s no exception.

You don’t have to know a fig about curling. Rocks and ice are just the backdrop here for warm-hearted comedy.

It’s a feel-good sort of play. And yes, it pushes the right buttons as playwright Mark Crawford makes curling the backdrop for some insightful thoughts on immigration and Canada. More than anything he pricks our social conscience, celebrating the sometime troubled experience immigrants can have searching for the good life in Canada.

Crawford makes us empathize with four ingratiating immigrant characters who find challenges as they assimilate into Canadian culture. Always there is a serious undertow beneath the comedy. Then too, Crawford plays devil’s advocate, making us wince when we catch ourselves laughing at obvious, purposely placed racist jokes that cause us to catch our collected breath.

Crawford builds his characters so well. We acknowledge the fact they’ve come to Canada with open hearts and open minds. And we remember that the melting pot of our nation, our “true north strong and free,” is the fabric of our future.

The skill here is the way he does this without a heavy hand, without ever forcing a depressing political context.

So, here’s the skinny. Four new Canadians, living somewhere in small-town Ontario, sign up for a weekly class in curling. The notion is that meeting once a week at the local curling club, might make them feel more welcome, maybe even more Canadian.

But whoops. There are problems here from the get-go. Slipping and sliding around on a cold, icy surface and navigating a difficult challenge makes for a frosty experience.

Speaking of frosty, these nervous participants soon meet the hard-nosed Stuart McPhail, a crusty old curler and wily caretaker of the rink. Coerced into training the raw, but willing newcomers he isn’t too happy. Not exactly a full-blown redneck, cantankerous McPhail can still snap out quasi-racist remarks like “All in the Family’s” Archie Bunker.

Played to perfection by craggy John Jarvis, McPhail makes the man funny, irascible and vitriolic. He is, however, the glue that holds this comedy together. His overt snap and crackle keep the play from becoming too serious and sentimental, too much of a bald polemic.

The quartet of newbies that turn up for his tutelage are superbly well-rounded, never just mouthpieces for resentment, annoyance and a need for change.

Charmaine Bailey is the tough-talking Jamaican, played with sass and sizzle by lovable Chiamaka Glory. Charmaine’s lived in Canada for many years, but her feathers still ruffle appropriately when she’s condescendingly asked where she’s from.

Mike Chang, played with quiet intensity by Frank Chung, is finishing up a residency at a local hospital. He wants to stay in Canada after his internship is over. He also wants to marry his girlfriend, who just happens to be McPhail’s granddaughter.

Does the girl’s family want the name Chang on the embroidered pillowcases? Given this play’s context what do you think?

Add Anoopjeet Singh, played with warmth and sublimated anger by handsome Andrew Prashad. Passed over yet again for advancement at a local Tim Hortons, he’s lived in Canada for 10 lean years, and still isn’t debt-free and unplagued by racist epithets that taunt him as he’s serving up those smoothies and doughnuts.

Finally, there’s Fatima, a teenager from Syria, played with passion by Mahsa Ershadifar. She’s really the only new Canadian in this quartet. She’s trying hard to assimilate into a new land, even though she’s living with issues from her troubled past.

How these diverse Canadians learn to face humiliation on the ice and still sweep a rock isn’t the main point of Crawford’s play. What we cheer for at the predictable conclusion isn’t their earnest, rather rudimentary skill at a Scottish game brought to Canada by earlier immigrants. No, it’s rather how they’ve found a connection, not only with each other, but with their life in a sometimes-cold new land.

When they sing a rousing verse of “O Canada” near the play’s emotional finish, you could feel the audience in Dover wanting to rise up and sing with them. And isn’t that just the point?

Directed with sensitivity and skill by Jane Spence, this production never shies from the play’s darker, less felicitous moments.

Spence cements the fragmented scenes of the play’s busy second act into a unified whole, helping it build to a satisfying, believable conclusion.

Beckie Morris’s perfect setting — a red, white and blue arena, with a prominent Canadian flag, as well as a Tim Hortons sign or two — suggests the slightly shopworn reality of a local community rink. And you’ll actually believe these folks are working on real ice, even though if you stay in your seat, you’ll see an assistant stage manager spray the fake ice surface at intermission with something that stinks like lemon chemical and makes things awful slippery.

Alex Amini does her usual fine job of providing lived-in-looking costumes and Steven Lucas adds lighting that gives the show a warm enticing glow.

“The New Canadian Curling Club” is a comedy with something serious to say. It’s so worth your time. Don’t miss it.

_{Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details}

Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.

Here’s to a better 2025 and a major return to prosperity in the theatre world.

By Gary Smith | Special to the Hamilton Spectator

Tuesday, December 24th, 2024

Theatre has survived another year, and audiences are returning to performances in greater numbers. But there are still too many empty seats to celebrate a return to pre-pandemic levels.

Only the most popular shows sell out these days and the uncertainty of sales is frightening to even the most celebrated companies.

Here’s to a better 2025 and a major return to prosperity in the theatre world. And here’s to seeing you in a theatre soon.

In no particular order, here are the 13 best shows I saw this past year.

“Ragtime” at Encores City Center New York. This rangy, sprawling musical with its passionate score and stunning cast was a magnificent reminder of how powerful great theatre can be. Hamilton-born star Caissie Levy played Mother and she stopped the show cold for six minutes while the audience stomped, cheered and screamed the place down. Her version of “Never Go Back to Before” was riveting.

“Salesman in China” at the Stratford Festival. This was the most compelling theatre experience of the Stratford season, recalling the great playwright Arthur Miller’s experience directing his heartbreaking play “Death of a Salesman” in Beijing with an all-Chinese cast. At Stratford, Tom McCamus, Ying Ruocheng, Sarah Orenstein and George Chiang gave stirring performances that buried themselves deep into the imagination. An illuminating experience.

“Maggie” at Goodspeed Opera House in Goodspeed, Conn. This musical, originally produced at Hamilton’s Theatre Aquarius, was even better in its American iteration with the astounding Christine Dwyer in its titular role. Everything about Mary Francis Moore’s elegant direction was braver and richer in Connecticut.

“Something Rotten!” at Stratford Festival Theatre. Yes, this is only a so-so musical with a lot of silly business and not so memorable songs, but director Donna Feore made up for that with smart staging and stunning choreography. She is a wizard at making the ordinary spectacular. Long may she set folks dancing at Stratford.

“The Master Plan” at Theatre Aquarius Hamilton. No, not everyone liked this powerhouse play by Michael Healey, but it was sensational theatre, acted by a crack cast and directed by the gifted Chris Abraham. The energy, pace and star power of its cast, led by Mike Shara, Philippa Domville and Ben Carlson, was superb. The show deserved sold-out houses in Hamilton — sadly, it didn’t get them. Great theatre is hard to come by and this was great theatre.

“Next to Normal” at Wyndham’s Theatre London, England. Hamilton’s Caissie Levy was again burning a patch off the stage in a power-packed performance as a woman haunted by the death of her son. This was Levy’s second time in this role and she led an amazing cast. She was nominated for an Olivier Award as Best Actress. She didn’t win. Doesn’t matter. She was terrific.

“Mary’s Wedding” at Lighthouse Festival Theatre Port Dover. Forget the perch at the restaurant, this was the reason to go to Dover this summer. A first-class production of Stephen Massicotte’s Canadian play was directed beautifully by Derek Ritschel. Every shade and nuance was carefully etched into exquisite performances by Daniel Reale and Evelyn Wiebe.

“Water for Elephants” at New York ‘s Imperial Theatre. Burlington-born choreographer Jesse Robb was nominated for a Tony for his work on this stunning show and Paul Alexander Nolan, who has starred at Theatre Aquarius, was superb in it. This show has everything: fine music, a great story about finding yourself and dance to die for. It’s closed now after a good run. Maybe it will come to Toronto. We can always hope.

“Beautiful Scars” at Theatre Aquarius Hamilton. This rangy musical about the epiphany that gave Hamilton musician and writer Tom Wilson a whole new world was written alongside Shaun Smyth, with larger than life music by Wilson. It was a knockout in a visual kaleidoscope of a production smartly directed by Mary Francis Moore.

“The Hills of California” at the Broadhurst Theatre, New York. It’s too late to catch this one in its outstanding U.S. premiere, but someone will do it in Toronto, or maybe even Hamilton. Jez Butterworth’s script about a dysfunctional family is excoriating and Sam Mendes directed a brilliant cast that shone through the play’s hills and valleys of hope and despair. A real stunner.

“Come From Away” at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. OK, it’s been around the block and just won’t go away — and that’s because it’s good. Back in Toronto, the show is still telling a heartwarming story about pluck and courage and Canadian good manners. And Hamilton’s Kristen Peace is still in it and terrific as usual.

“The Marilyn Conspiracy” at Park Theatre in London, England. This play about what might have happened to Marilyn Monroe is a real shocker, with some heavyweight accusations about some very famous people. Performed at a small theatre in London, it was riveting theatre with Genevieve Gaunt as a clone of Monroe. The Kennedys would certainly never endorse this stunning conclusion to the mystery of Marilyn’s death. Maybe someone will do the play here. It will certainly shock you silly.

“A Christmas Story The Musical.” Hamilton’s Theatre Aquarius offered a terrific production of what is really just a so-so musical to bring family entertainment back to their stage. Performers Jamie McRoberts, Adam Brazier, Finn Kirk and Addison Wagman made it work, along with some smart direction by Mary Francis Moore.

And that’s it. The best of 2024. Have a very happy 2025 and support theatres everywhere. They need us more than ever.

_{Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details}

Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.

Norm Foster and a terrific cast make senior passion dance at The Lighthouse.

By Gary Smith | Special to the Hamilton Spectator

Thursday, August 29th, 2024

Canada’s favourite playwright, the guy who knows mirth-making better than anyone else, has a sweet comedy on his hands.

In our world of increasing tensions, we all need someone like Norm Foster to kick back and make us laugh.

Over the years, Foster has had some heavyweight successes. His comedies, “Here on The Flightpath,” “The Melville Boys” and “The Affections of May,” have been golden.

This time out, with the world premiere of his comedy “Lakefront” in Port Dover, he’s in a warmer, nostalgic mood.

His characters here are weathered, touched with a tinge of time. Feeling the rush even of “that enemy time,” something Tennessee Williams called the windstorm of regret and a fear of impending mortality.

But 70-year-old Robert and 68-year-old Christina, Foster’s aging risk-takers in “Lakefront,” are not through with life, not by a long-shot. Neither are they past the notion of romance’s soft caress. And maybe, just maybe, they’re ready to kick over the traces and risk a wild weekend together, somewhere nostalgic, like a worn-out old cabin, with its shabby furniture and tasteless orange cushions.

There’s a feel here everything’s tugged from some weather-beaten past. Fringed with dollops of clean white snow resting on its eaves and piled up around its extremities like globs of sugary marshmallow, it’s well, a tad surreal.

Somehow it suggests a world of old love, a world that needs the kindling flame of a roaring flame to ignite stilled passion.

Happily, Foster creates a necessary undertow in his excellent first act of this ultimately sweet and funny play.

Looking for love on the sunny side of 70, his characters are insecure, frightened and lonely. They’re also a tad rambunctious. They may be frightened of where they’re going and what they might do when they get there, but they’re going just the same.

The sadly worn cabin they rent for their tryst is of course a metaphor for the way time erodes everything.

There’s little decoration, faded furniture and a decided whiff of the ‘70s about the place. Those dobs of snow I’ve talked about already stretch across the roof and rest like waves of regret round the outer limits of the flimsy door.

Into this world, Robert and Christina stumble with their pasts as tightly held as their roller bags and shoulder cases. Of course, they’re looking for a second, or is that a third chance at happiness?

They’re likable people, especially in the nicely calibrated, oh so truthful performances from Melodee Finlay and Ralph Small. She’s waifish and vulnerable. He’s bullish and loud. Both are believable for every moment of the first act of Foster’s play.

Finlay has never looked lovelier. She wears her maturity and well, let’s say it, age, like a translucent skin that gives her a slightly fuller frame and more mature appeal.

Over the years, Finlay has starred in a number of plays at Dover, but she’s never been better than right now.

When she walks out of the bedroom door of Eric Bunnell’s weathered old set, hair tousled, eyes lit up like blinking stars, her little shuffle of love, joy and contentment is so endearing you just long to hold her hand and squeeze hard.

Small, who began his theatre career in Hamilton, and about a year ago was so polished and perfect in Sky Gilbert’s wonderful play “Pat and Skee” at Theatre Aquarius, finds such revelatory moments in Foster’s Robert that you ache for his masculine fears about sex, life and the whole damn thing.

You don’t quite want to laugh at his slightly distended paunch wrapped in perfectly outlandish pyjamas, but of course you do. But the laugh is bittersweet, because we know he’s trying so hard to recapture what might be left of his youth.

Together, these two wonderful actors find everything exquisite in Foster’s play and more.

They’re aided and abetted by rubber-faced Derek Ritschel’s comedy turn as Duane, the cabin park’s babysitting factotum.

Ritschel has this role down so well that with every pop-eyed twitch and double take he makes us laugh. It’s not his fault his character simply wears out before the end of the play’s problematic and protracted second act

It is, after all, that second act that’s the problem here. It doesn’t quite equal the authenticity of Foster’s first one. So, the play nosedives into a series of short, awkward scenes that neither flesh out the play, nor its characters. Not even the fine performances, nor the felicitous direction of Jeffrey Wetsch can prevent this happening.

As always, costume wizard Alex Amini has given the characters perfect duds to wear. As always, too, all the production values at Dover are first class.

So, let’s not be churlish, Foster has given us characters to care about and a play worth watching. If “Lakefront” had the power and punch of its first act, right up to its rambunctious curtain call, we’d be dancing out of the theatre on a wave of love.

It doesn’t. No matter. Half a wave is better than none. And Finlay and Small will make you dance anyway, until the final moment, just like some latter day Rogers and Astaire, no matter what they say or do.

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Lakefront

Who Lighthouse Festival Theatre

Where 247 Main St. Port Dover and Roselawn Theatre, 296 Fielden Ave. Port Colborne.

When In Dover until Sept. 7 then Port Colborne from Sept. 11 through Sept. 22. Evenings at 8 p.m. most days. With matinees at 2 p.m. some days, Call the box office for details.

Tickets Port Dover, $46 to $51; Port Colborne $45. Students and equity members reduced to $18 at both theatres. For either theatre call 1-888-7703 to purchase.

Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.

Theatre that asks you to believe in dreams fills the stage with wonder at The Lighthouse, writes Gary Smith.

By Gary Smith | Special to the Hamilton Spectator

Saturday, July 6, 2024

If you only see one play this summer, for goodness sake make it Lighthouse Theatre’s ravishing production of Mary’s Wedding.

The Lighthouse in Port Dover is primarily known for its relentless comedies that are mostly laugh-out-loud funny.

Yet, every so often, one of these whiz-bang laugh machines combines laughter with serious thought. Norm Foster’s Halfway There and the heartwarming gay comedy Bed and Breakfast from last season come instantly to mind for the way they do that.

But this year there is something more. When you least expected it, something special has come along.

Mary’s Wedding, a tender, heartbreaking drama by Canadian playwright Stephen Massicotte, has just opened to elevate the theatre season.

It’s a richly written, poetic drama that will make you sit bolt upright in your seat. You’ll care for its characters, Mary and Charles, strangers who meet by serendipity one stormy night in a weathered old barn. As the thunder growls outside sheltering walls, and blinding lightning pierces the gloomy darkness, these ingratiating souls long for their lives to intersect in a way that might suggest a welcoming, happy ever after moment.

So, why do we sit in our seats for the play’s bracing two acts knowing this is not likely to happen?

Call it intuition.

We soon realize playwright Massicotte is refusing to make the world a welcoming place for such willing young lovers. We follow his wayward path as he allows fate to intervene. The horror of the trenches and the bayonet attacks of the First World War become a cruel, intrusive part of the story.

Massicotte takes us down some frightening paths precisely because he is a playwright who, in the end, writes truth, not fantasy.

Mary’s Wedding is not a linear play where one moment necessarily leads logically to the next. There is poetry at work here. It’s not for nothing that Mary quotes from The Lady of Shalott and Charles relates the rougher, masculine world of Rudyard Kipling’s rallying cries for empire and false heroics.

Much of Massicotte’s play is filled with the exotic world of the great poets. Nothing is truly what it seems. And this playwright has us wandering the labyrinth of the human imagination, lost and fearful as we seek the elusive exit from some frightening maze.

This is theatre that is gripping and passionate. You can’t let your mind wander for an instant. Better pay attention. This one’s filled with the grace notes of a remarkable imagination.

Now, none of this would matter a whiff, if Mary’s Wedding were given anything less than a superlative production. It’s not the sort of play to survive half measures.

Fortunately, it has at its helm in Port Dover a director deeply invested in the play’s rich poetic heartbeat.

Derek Ritschel, who also happens to be the artistic director of the Lighthouse Festival Theatre, has taken a breathtaking risk in scheduling such an elegant and thoughtful play for inclusion in a summer theatre season normally predicated on more pedestrian, lightweight fare.

But it goes deeper than that.

Ritschel has directed this anti-war, love story brooding with fantasy and surreal thought, and given the play’s sometimes dark and demonic themes, a sweet coating of romantic truth. It’s something that resonates in the imagination long after you’ve left the theatre.

Ritschel has wisely liberated the poetic fantasy of this riveting work. More importantly perhaps, he has cannily unleashed from his talented young actors, Daniel Reale and Evelyn Wiebe, performances that reverberate with the wondrous ring of truth.

These are star turns that would not be out of place on a Broadway or West End London stage. Yes, dear friends, they are just that good.

Reale and Wiebe unlock in Massicotte’s exquisite drama such thrilling moments of tenderness, fear and passionate longing that we cling to faint hopes their lives will have some glorious happy ending.

Here is where Massicotte exercises reality. By the time the last lingering shadows of Wendy Lundgren’s painterly lighting have vanished from William Chesney’s stunning, battered barn of a setting, and we have surrendered completely to the fantasy landscape that is the surreal world of Mary’s Wedding, we are wed to hopes of happiness, but will they happen?

Go see Mary’s Wedding.

Go dream the dream. It is after all a play about dreams, desires and passionate longings. This one asks you to travel through time and space and totally suspend disbelief. It’s a remarkable journey to the outer limits of the imagination.

Plays like this don’t come along all that often. And when they are directed and acted with a kind of powerful charisma that leaps right off the stage, well, you need to be there to catch them.

Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.

This late-life look at love and companionship is funny, well-acted and smartly directed.

By Gary Smith | Special to the Hamilton Spectator

Saturday, June 1, 2024

You won’t find a funnier playwright than Norm Foster. He’s written close to 80 comedies over a long and prolific career. And he’s still on his mark as far as laughter goes with “Doris and Ivy in the Home,” a late-life look at love and companionship.

Doris is a retired prison guard from a tough correctional facility who has lived in a mostly imperfect marriage. Ivy, soon to become her good friend, is a shamed skier who 54 years later is still trying to live down a disastrous finish in the big downhill competition in her native Austria.

They meet in a classy retirement home where the residents are treated to sushi nights and art classes.

Ivy is rather sweet, but has a bit of chip on her shoulder. Doris is abrasive and nosy and has absolutely no social filter.

They stand on the back patio of the Paradise Village Retirement Home, an unfortunate nomenclature for a home where folks are closer to the end than they are to the beginning.

They spy on residents out in the garden having ferocious coitus in the cucumber patch. They trade stories, and sometimes insults, about life in general and Doris, ever a meddler, soon makes it her prerogative to fix up Ivy with Arthur, the home’s handsome and available nice guy.

Most of Foster’s play is concerned with how this is going to happen, since Ivy is just not attracted to handsome Arthur in “that way.” After all, she’s been burned three times by unholy marriages.

Oh, and did I mention, poor Arthur, though looking robust and healthy, has only two years, or is it months, to live?

For all this, “Doris and Ivy in the Home” is a very funny play. It perks along at a crack pace in Jane Spence’s nicely staged production.

It’s played on an attractive set from William Chesney, complete with light-up gazebo and comfy furniture and the cast is clad in costumes by Alex Amini that suit their personalities and look lived in.

If you go to see this laugh-fest be ready to laugh right out loud. It’s that kind of play.

Troubles don’t actually start to creep into the narrative until the second act, when the play detours a bit too much from reality trying to foist a happy ending on the characters and on us.

Foster is in fine fettle with the comedy but unlike his better plays like “Halfway There” and “Jonas and Barry in the Home,” he’s so much in laughter mode he veers toward comic laugh lines at the expense of truth.

Now, what do the actors at Port Dover make of Foster’s play? Well, actually quite a bit.

Director Spence has assembled a first-class cast that lob home the comedy and laugh off the weaker aspects of Foster’s story.

The best performance comes from Brigitte Robinson’s, nicely balanced Ivy. She gets her laughs without working too hard. In truth, she has the best written role in Foster’s play.

There is something vulnerable and sweet about this Ivy, so beneath the chit-chat and the need to time a comic line, Robinson creates a believable world of a woman who has made the best of bad luck and choices. Any production of Foster’s play requires someone like Robinson to provide a necessary balance.

Melanie Janzen is a tremendous comedienne. She has warmth and plenty of zing. She gets her laughs and then some.

Her Doris, however, has a tad too many facial tics and kinetic wriggles and jiggles for my liking. Yes, it’s hilarious, but she doesn’t let Doris settle down enough to let us see as much of her undercurrent of vulnerability as necessary. She does however suggest brilliantly a woman who is always “on” because she doesn’t know who she is and what she wants.

Ian Deakin, a fine actor, has the task here of trying to flesh out a mostly underwritten role. We don’t learn quite enough about this Arthur so Deakin is saddled with being a plot function, rather than a real person.

After all this, you might be wondering whether I liked “Doris and Ivy in the Home?”

Well, yes I did. It’s funny, well-acted and smartly directed. What it isn’t is a play that finds its feet in its final act to provide a serious enough counterpoint to the laugh machine that has been driving it for two hours.

For folks who just want to have fun, I’d say you’ll find it with Doris, Ivy and Arthur. Go laugh yourself silly.

Gary Smith has written about theatre and dance for The Hamilton Spectator, as well as a variety of international publications, for more than 40 years.

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Doris and Ivy in the Home

Who Lighthouse Festival Theatre

Where Lighthouse Festival Theatre, 247 Main St. Port Dover. Roselawn Theatre Port Colborne. 296 Fielden Ave. Port Colborne

When At Port Dover until June 8. At Port Colborne June 12-23. Evenings at 8 most days with matinees at 2 p.m. some days. Call the box office to check on performance details.

Tickets Port Dover $51, at Port Colborne $45. Students and equity members reduced to $18 at both theatres. For either theatre, call 1-888-779-7703 to purchase.