Toronto Newsdesk

The Windham-Campbell Prizes today announced the annual slate of nine prize recipients that have left their mark on the world of literature and theater or have been judged by their peers as exceedingly likely to do so.

Join four Toronto-based composers for an evening celebrating Canada's exciting new voices in contemporary musical theatre. Scott Christian, Colleen Dauncey, Akiva Romer-Segal and Kevin Wong are behind some of the biggest hits recently presented at the Fringe, SummerWorks and Next Stage festivals. Their songs have been enjoyed on recordings and in theatres, concert halls and cabarets worldwide. Discover compelling characters and stories brought to life by a whole new generation of musical theatre creators.

MAMMA MIA!* will play Toronto from May 5-10 2015 at The Princess of Wales Theatre via Mirvish Productions. MAMMA MIA! is the ultimate feel-good show that has audiences coming back again and again to relive the thrill.

BroadwayWorld Toronto is pleased to bring the first video in a series of acceptance speeches from our 2014 BroadwayWorld Award Winners! The BroadwayWorld Awards are an award decided by the fans - from nominations all the way to selecting the final winner.

BroadwayWorld Toronto is pleased to bring the first video in a series of acceptance speeches from our 2014 BroadwayWorld Award Winners! The BroadwayWorld Awards are an award decided by the fans - from nominations all the way to selecting the final winner.

BroadwayWorld Toronto is pleased to bring the first video in a series of acceptance speeches from our 2014 BroadwayWorld Award Winners! The BroadwayWorld Awards are an award decided by the fans - from nominations all the way to selecting the final winner.

When a 23-year-old first-time playwright named Michel Tremblay wrote Les Belles-soeurs in 1965, no one could have predicted how it would turn into an international sensation over the next four decades and go on to be produced in over 30 languages.

Being on tour in the first violin section of the TSO , one might think I would be limited to the notes on a page, but I am also a jazz violinist and bluegrass fiddler and have no musical limits. Today's rare day off for the TSO tour means exploring the city and it's music. I hop in a taxi to meet up with a local friend and her gypsy jazz band with whom I'll play tonight.

BroadwayWorld's Twitter Watch brings you the latest rumors surrounding the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Globe and Mail Theatre Critic J. Kelly Nestruck tweeted earlier today that the two musicals to be presented at the festival during the 2015 season are THE SOUND OF MUSIC and CAROUSEL. Both musicals are by the legendary composing team of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Where are men most vulnerable? That's not just a joke about anatomy, though it does sit nicely with the theme of Mark H. Albert's THE URINAL DIALOGUES, a fictional expose of what men would say if they let their guard down at the same time as their flies. Catch the conversation at the Al Green Theatre July 2-13 as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival.Tickets for this bathroom comedy about finding camaraderie are available beginning June 12 via www.fringetoronto.com, by telephone at 416-966-1062 (ext.1), or at the door.

Anybody expecting a 'museum piece' from the Peter Pasyk-directed production of The Trojan Women at the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival will be disappointed. While based on Euripides' 2,500-year-old classical text, the 1978 adaptation by celebrated poet Gwendolyn MacEwen also examines faith and individual choice through the experiences of the survivors. Dora-nominated director Pasyk and 16 emerging artists will honour the universal--and startlingly contemporary--themes inherent in the work but present it in a world that audiences find familiar: the here and now or, as Pasyk describes it, 'tomorrow'.

It was like a scene from Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys." `I came from the people; they need to adore me /So Christian Dior me from my head to my toes.' What kind of a lyric is that?" kvetched lyricist Fred Ebb as he got into the taxi. "You remembered it," quipped his songwriting partner, composer John Kander, with a shrug. The song? "Rainbow High." The show? "Evita."

It was like a scene from Neil Simon's “The Sunshine Boys.” `I came from the people; they need to adore me /So Christian Dior me from my head to my toes.' What kind of a lyric is that?” kvetched lyricist Fred Ebb as he got into the taxi. “You remembered it,” quipped his songwriting partner, composer John Kander, with a shrug. The song? “Rainbow High.” The show? “Evita.”

In a blend of sharp writing and improvisation 52 PICK UP swerves from romantic comedy to heartbreak at the drop of a card, as two people navigate through their relationship. How it works: 52 scene titles are written on an ordinary deck of playing cards. At the top of each show two actors toss the cards in the air and the story unfolds in the order in they are picked up. No two shows will ever be the same!

'You don't know what a call is going to be like until you get there,' says Anna the paramedic. The same can be said of playwright Rosamund Small's new one-person drama Vitals, produced by Outside the March with support from Theatre Passe Muraille. This site-specific show about the arduous work of paramedics is not for the faint of heart. There are three ways in which Vitals is not easy for the audience. First, you don't just sit there; you are on-site and at various points you must be on your feet or climb stairs. Second, you are not pointed at a stage having the performance spoon-fed to you; for a period, you are swimming in the experience, which can be disorienting but also mind-expanding. Third, the subject matter-disturbing experiences that a paramedic encounters on the job-is traumatic even just to hear about.

Last night Theatre20 hosted A Tase of 20: A Speakeasy Social at The National Club. The venue was transformed into a Speakeasy ('Singeasy') lounge where patrons got a 'taste' of what's coming up next for Theatre 20! Performers included founding artists Adam Brazier, Brent Carver and Nora McLellan, a Sondheim Jazz Project, Cadence, the Upper Canada Chorus and Theatre 20's 2014 Emerging Artist Ensemble.

Join us for a one night only musical tribute to Colm Wilkinson featuring Broadway stars Adam Brazier, Chilina Kennedy, Aaron Walpole, Tony nominee Josh Young, internationally acclaimed Jennie Such, and more artists performing the gorgeous songs he made famous.

Three emerging theatre companies have come together to present "3 Shows", three separate new works of physical theatre, each about an hour long, playing in rotation at The Theatre Centre until May 18th Business as Usual depicts a "corporate Twilight Zone" of big business insiders trying to carry on in a "post-crash world". The bouffon-inspired satire Death Married My Daughter (Best of Fringe 2013) brings Shakespeare's Ophelia and Desdemona back from death to take on the patriarchy. In Ralph + Lina, Christina Serra and her co-star tell the charming true romance of her Italian grandparents.

Sex can be a touchy subject, something many people have trouble talking about. The topic can get messier when discussing sex as a profession and, more so, the murky industry of sex tourism in which privileged westerners exploit the egregiously disadvantaged youth of the third world. This is the subject of Soliciting Temptation, the newest play by Governor General's Award winner Erin Shields, a two-hander now having its world premiere at Tarragon Extra Space.

Toronto gets one more blast of snow as I settle in at Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs to watch blustery Chekhov characters spend a summer holiday in the Russian countryside. A group of actors called The Chekhov Collective formed a year ago and began developing this production of The Seagull using the methods of Michael Chekhov, nephew of Anton Chekhov. The Seagull, which is heavy on theme and light on levity, is a self-referential play wherein Chekhov's characters examine what makes good theatre, good art, and good life.