Thousand Islands Playhouse — Attraction in Ontario

Last night we went to the Playhouse to watch "The Music Man". All in all the performance was excellent. The theatre is rather unique and very intimate.

My issue was with good ol Covid rules. After arriving in town we grabbed a couple last minute tickets. We ended up front row for the 7:30 P.M. show. Upon arrival, which was about 10 minutes prior to the show we took a quick walk around the boardwalk and went to find our seats.

Once seated we began to see an overwhelming amount of people masked up. I figured with the average age being 65 that it was a age demographic thing. The show started after staff interacting with us, handing us a program, and the weirdness began.

An actor came out and did his introduction, explaining that they don't have to wear masks but thanks to us for wearing ours. Same actor threw along stare in my direction after the speech and even managed to break character and give me some judge eyes during the show.

At intermission my wife went to the washroom near the main entrance and mentioned she saw a sign there that stated a mask mandate was still in place at this location. We were simply uninformed, a staff member came to us and said "the actors are quite mad, can you guys throw this on please, especially since you're in the front row".

The thing is that the website, where I ordered the tickets, the box office that I called and listened to the voice-mail, and the entrance that was used to enter the venue had zero signage or mention of this. Had I known I would not have minded. Being stared down by one of their actors felt real weird. We popped our mask on and enjoyed the second act, though somewhat salty as it doesn't feel good to be confused and singled out.

If you're going to maintain an outdated rule just put up a couple more signs, make it known, or say something before some middle aged ego case is standing on the stage while having his ego stroked, as needed by typical personality type gains the confidence to throw glares at a person that is trying to enjoy an evening and paid money to do so please.

It seemed to me that nobody else cared, and I certainly didn't care what anyone thought if I was being a maskless rebel, problem was that the true enjoyment was lost due to the incident and the pat on the back and thank you from the usher as we left was just weird too.

Actors and theatre 4/5 Rules and how they...

Saw 'The Sound of Music' here. I wasn't a big fan of the movie but my parents were. We all liked this production though. It felt shorter than the movie.

Ellen Denny was good as Maria, and Douglas Hughes was as good as Max. Both were as good as their film counterparts. The children were adorable too. Although I didn't feel the chemistry between the two leads. Eric Craig played the Captain part and sang and performed well, but I didn't get the tenderness from him necessary for the part (that Christopher Plummer played) and thought he was miscast for this version.

Overall it was an enjoyable night and I liked the layout of the play house. The one downside was the monitor showing the conductor is visible from the side seating, and a lot of people around us had Apple watches that would go off. The announcer said to put phones in airplane mode (rather than turn them off like the signs said) and the lady behind me had hers on with the brightness turned up sitting in her purse but beyond those small things didn't affect the performance too much.

Overall I'd recommend going to the show if you can find one at the right price that...

Recently attended a performance of Mary Poppins with my neighbour. The musical is based more closely on the books than the film, and was altogether delightful!

The venue itself is a real gem, perched over the water, with mooring spots right there if you want to attend by boat. The Theatre is an excellent size to host meaningful performances. There are no bad seats! And while the stage initially seems quite small, it is amazing how a good sized troupe, such as that involved in Mary Poppins managed to sing and dance all over the place without any apparent compromise! Performers generally are "miked", so it is a little hard to tell about the acoustic qualities of the hall. Generally however, there were no problems with hearing dialogue.

If the TIP regularly provides quality entertainment as I witnessed in Mary Poppins, I would gladly attend other performances there.

The only downside to this venue is that there is no parking except for Wheelchair accessible spots. So you have to arrive early enough to drive all around looking for a legal spot to leave the car. A bit of a strain on the local citizens, I...