encoreNOW is a bi-weekly column by Paul Rellinger where he features upcoming music, theatre, film, and performing arts events and news from across the Kawarthas.
This week, Paul highlights Fleetwood Mac Mania at Cobourg’s Concert Hall at Victoria Hall, Globus Theatre’s staging of Murder at the Match – World Cup Edition in Bobcaygeon, opening night for the 37th Peterborough Musicfest concert series featuring Gowan, the Tuned Up Tuesday series opener at Elmhirst’s Resort featuring Emily Burgess, Born to be Bad: The Villains of Broadway at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre and 4th Line Theatre’s season-opening reprisal of Schoolhouse at the Winslow Farm in Millbrook.
The “rumours” are true: Fleetwood Mac Mania is Cobourg-bound
VIDEO: “Don’t Stop” – Fleetwood Mac Mania (2024)
Yes, yes, cover bands are a dime a dozen … some are quite excellent, many are very good, and more than a few are but one step removed from a karaoke bar.
I’m not musical but I do know if you’re going to cover a singer or band’s music catalogue, there are few prerequisites for success: cover an act that has enduring wide appeal, has a huge catalogue of great songs to choose from, and is an act that you personally love to the point of wanting to share their music with as many as possible. I should add assembling top-notch musicians is a pretty good idea.
Fleetwood Mac Mania checks each of these boxes to the max. On Saturday, June 20 at Cobourg’s The Concert Hall at Victoria Hall, the tribute band will perform the hits of one of the most legendary and influential bands in rock history.
Formed in London in 1967, Fleetwood Mac was first a blues band, before the American folk duo Buckingham Nicks — guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks — joined drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, and keyboardist Christine McVie to give the band a more pop-rock sound. To say that paid an immediate dividend would be an understatement.
While Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 debut album topped the Billboard 200 chart, the follow-up Rumours took the quintet into another stratosphere. One of the best-selling albums of all time, it won a 1978 Grammy Award for Album of the Year on strength of its vocal harmonies and musical arrangements. That it was home to monster hit singles such as “Don’t Stop,” “Go Your Own Way,” “You Make Loving Fun,” “The Chain,” and “Dreams” certainly didn’t hurt matters.
Three more studio albums followed before things went askew in the late 1980s, but the band’s legacy was more than secure. More than a few reunions followed, but the magic of that 1975-to-1987 era couldn’t be rekindled. Still, there are enough of us around who remember with fondness the original lineup and will jump at the chance to relive the band’s heyday.
Enter Fleetwood Mac Mania, with Jenn Taylor, Connie Scriver, and Jeremy Stimers portraying Nicks, McVie, and Buckingham respectively, joined by drummer Eddie Cromwell. Fleetwood Mac Mania has rightfully earned its reputation as the most authentic-sounding Fleetwood Mac tribute band in North America.
Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. concert cost $40 plus taxes and fees, and can be ordered online at tickets.cobourg.ca … but be aware only a few tickets remain.
Murder mystery fun is a corner kick away at Globus Theatre in Bobcaygeon
The much-anticipated World Cup has kicked off, creating big-time excitement and passion in those North American cities hosting the spectacle, Toronto among them.
Why shouldn’t Bobcaygeon get in on the action? It should, and it is, via the stage at Globus Theatre on Pigeon Lake Road where Murder at the Match – World Cup Edition takes to the pitch on Thursday, June 25 for the first of seven performances.
Written by Globus Theatre artistic director Sarah Quick, the interactive murder mystery dinner theatre experience takes shape when a key player doesn’t make it to the kickoff for a 2026 World Cup game, igniting suspicion across three countries. Subsequently, every border crossing hides a clue and every match hides a motive. In the end, one thing is very clear: someone wants to take the coveted trophy home by eliminating the competition.
This isn’t Globus Theatre’s first murder mystery dinner theatre rodeo. There’s a reason for that. Quick and the theatre troupe is very good at staging such events. It follows that if you’re good at something, keep doing it. This is nothing short of a guaranteed fun night out that’ll keep you guessing right until the final whistle.
“What I love about creating these murder mysteries is the chance to capture a specific moment in time and build an entirely new story around it,” said Quick, who herself is quite the footie fan and also wrote a World Cup-theme murder mystery back in 2022, when Canada’s national soccer team appeared at the World Cup in Quatar for the first time in 36 years.
Curtain is 6:30 pm from June 25 to 27 and July 2 to 4, with a 12:30 p.m. matinee performance on June 27. Tickets for the buffet-style dinner and the show cost $100 at www.globustheatre.com.
Peterborough Musicfest-bound Gowan is still a wonderfully strange animal
VIDEO: “Strange Animal” – Gowan (2025)
Way back in the day, in a bid to expand my influence and social circle at Scarborough’s Neil McNeil High School, I ran for student council and subsequently served three terms as social convenor.
My main duty was organizing school dances. While securing The Stampeders was easily my biggest coup, bringing a then relatively unknown but huge talent to the stage is today my finest memory of that time: Larry Gowan, a Neil McNeil student a few grades ahead of me.
Gowan was an incredible piano banger with a soaring voice who made up one third of the band Rhinegold, which covered the music of Styx, Burton Cummings, and other popular acts of the day. Rhinegold met with considerable success as a bar band until the early 1980s, at which point its colourful front man launched his solo music career under the name Gowan.
A lot has happened since for the Scottish-born and Scarborough-raised singer, including five solo albums with hit songs such as “Criminal Mind,” “Moonlight Desires” and “(You’re A) Strange Animal,” and two Juno Awards to go along with a boatload of nominations. All this is in addition to his recording and touring with Styx since the 1999 departure of lead singer Dennis DeYoung. Yes, the teen that covered Styx songs so well all those years ago is now a member of that band.
In securing Gowan as the opening act for its 39th summer season opener on June 27, Peterborough Musicfest has chosen very well. Taking to the Del Crary Park stage shortly after 8 p.m., Gowan will make his fourth Musicfest appearance and will no doubt deliver the same boundless energy and superb musicianship that has been a hallmark of his long career, both as a solo act and alongside his Styx brethren.
This is the first of 16 free-admission concerts being presented this summer, on Wednesday and Saturday evenings until August 19. Watch for features on each act coming in kawarthaNOW, which is returning as a Musicfest media sponsor and will be giving away VIP seats for every concert (subscribe to the weekly VIP enews to qualify for the giveaways).
Tuned Up Tuesdays at Elmhirst’s Resort in Keene kick off with Emily Burgess
VIDEO: “I’ve Got Your Back” – Emily Burgess
If taking in the talent of a local musician on the shores of Rice Lake while enjoying a barbecue brisket or chicken dinner isn’t heaven on earth, it has to be pretty close.
With its annual “Tuned Up Tuesdays” series of live music performances, Elmhirst’s Resort off Settlers Line in Keene has nailed it for those looking for a great summer evening getaway.
Singer and guitarist Emily Burgess kicks off the series on June 30, performing after the 6 p.m. dinner bell at the resort’s Wild Blue Yonder Pub off the lakeside boardwalk.
Best known by locals for her ongoing work with The Weber Brothers Band, Burgess is also a Maple Blues Award winner and was nominated for a Juno Award as a member of The 24th Street Wailers for the album Wicked. In addition, Burgess has recorded three solo albums, the most recent being Arrow in 2023, and has proven equally adept at songwriting as she has at performing.
Elmhirst’s has pulled together a terrific series lineup, with Burgess followed by Carling Stephen (July 7 and August 25), The Detention Club (July 14), The Arrangements (July 21), Al Black and The Steady Band (July 28), Carl Jankowski (August 4), Keene Country (August 11), and Melissa Payne (August 18).
The cost for dinner and the show is $49.95 ($24.95 for kids) and reservations are requested. To book your seat, visit elmhirst.ca/packages_and_events/tuned-up-tuesdays/. Don’t worry about the weather — should it rain, the fun moves inside.
Something wicked this way sings at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre
VIDEO: “Born to be Bad: The Villains of Broadway” promo
There’s way too much evil in the world, but the wicked can be wickedly entertaining — at least when it comes to Broadway, where countless productions have introduced us to evildoers, scoundrels, and plain nasty people that we love to hiss, but love just the same.
Reasoning that a hero is only as good as their villain, and that there’s wide appeal behind that premise, Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre is staging Born To Be Bad: The Villains of Broadway.
Opening June 30 in the Sculthorpe Theatre with cabaret-style seating, the solo show created and performed by Capitol Theatre favourite Tahirih Vejdani with musical direction by Douglas Price is a celebration of all things bad, as depicted in many Broadway musicals.
Vejdani, whose past musical theatre credits at the Capitol include portraying Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty as well as performing in the Billboard in Concert series, will put her acclaimed singing voice to work as she shares the best of being bad.
Curtain is 7:30 p.m. from June 30 to July 4, with 2 p.m. matinee performances on July 2, 4 and 5. Visit capitoltheatre.com for tickets, which are priced at $45 ($35 for those under 30).
4th Line Theatre in Millbrook reprises “Schoolhouse” to open its 2026 season
Peterborough Musicfest isn’t the only annual harbinger of pleasant summer nights ahead. Since 1992, 4th Line Theatre has also gifted audiences with a spectacular summer backdrop at the Winslow Farm near Millbrook.
Season 34 will be no different for the outdoor theatre company, with two productions — both reprised from earlier seasons — being featured.
Last season’s hit, Megan Murphy’s Wild Irish Geese, is back, running August 4 to 29, but first up is Schoolhouse, returning to the farm almost two decades after back-to-back season runs in 2007 and 2008.
Opening June 30 and directed by Monica Dottor, Leanna Brodie’s play takes us to rural Ontario circa 1938 and S.S. #1 Jericho, a one-room school near the fictional village of Baxter’s Creek. Melita Linton, 18 years old and newly graduated from Normal School, is faced with a lively group of students from a community rooted in tradition.
Enter Ewart, a withdrawn youth recently released from reform school. As Linton works to reach him, she’s confronted by the deep bonds and quiet fears that are the hallmark of small-town life. With equal parts humour and humanity, Schoolhouse evokes a vanished era in Canadian rural history.
The play features a cast of 28 professional and volunteer actors/musicians, including Alex Pearce in her 4th Line Theatre debut in the role of Miss Linton. Alexei DeLuca and Rainbow Kester will also be making their 4th Line debut in the production, while returning to the 4th Line stage are Robert Winslow, Mark Hiscox, Darragh O’Connell, Padrick Wilson, Jasper Chesser, and Indigo Chesser.
The creative team of Schoolhouse includes musical director Justin Hiscox (who has also written original compositions for the play), costume designer Chelsea Day, set designer Michelle Chesser, fight director Edward Belanger, intimacy director Greg Carruthers, and sound designer Steáfán Hannigan.
Bringing uniquely Canadian history to life while giving local aspiring and veteran performers a wonderful outdoor stage to stretch their acting legs is something that 4th Line Theatre does better than anyone else. Founder Robert Winslow was onto a very good thing in 1992 that remains as fresh and relevant today as it was back then.
Curtain is 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays from June 30 to July 25, with preview nights on June 30 and July 1 and opening night on July 2 and an added performance on July 20. Single tickets are $55 for adults and $48 for children and youth ages 5 to 16, with preview nights $42.
Get your tickets at www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca, and stay tuned to kawarthaNOW later this week for a feature story on Schoolhouse.
Encore
- When I chaired the board of Peterborough Musicfest, one of the few criticisms fielded was the lack of opportunities for local musicians to play Del Crary Park. Fair enough, but there were a few things at play. Many big-name acts were adverse to acts opening for them, and the prospect of a local act bringing out a sizable crowd out was low. At the time, ideas were floated about how to address the local talent shortfall. The solution has been found in the Future Sound Series which, on concert nights this summer, will see local acts perform from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The stage, located just inside the George Street park entrance near the food trucks, will welcome 14 local acts this summer, starting with Irish Millie on June 27. Check it out. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.
- If I had half of Georgia Rose’s energy, I’d sleep a whole lot better. The ever-busy young Peterborough singer-songwriter is all over social media again, thanks to June 13 release of “leave,” her third single, at the 100 Acre Brewing Company. If that’s not enough, she’s been seriously in the running for the online vote-driven Emerging Artist Showcase at the North of Nowhere Music Festival set for July 16 to 18 in Lindsay. It doesn’t hurt that people gravitate to the amicable up-and-comer whose star is rising quicker than we can keep up. Years ago, when a young Elyse Saunders was performing on local stages, I had the same feeling about where she was headed that I have now for Georgia. We’ll see but so far so very good.
