TORONTO THEATER REVIEWS

Defined as a "bio-mythical monodrama," 11:11 is an introspective and deeply personal look into writer and performer Samson Bonkeabantu Brown's life. From childhood to adolescence and into adulthood, Brown constructs his own paths as he discovers more about his gender, his family, and his ancestry. T...

In a new production of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, director Jackie Maxwell guides a 13-person cast through the highs and lows of the Weston family during a family tragedy. In Maxwell and the ensembles' capable hands, Tracy Letts's delicate balance of comedy and cruelty is presented as fully as possible....

WELCOME TO MY UNDERWORLD, directed by Judith Thompson and produced by RARE Theatre Company in partnership with Soulpepper, is an interesting anthology of human stories. Its diverse ensemble draws on personal experiences to explain their perspective on topics like mental health, transgender and LGBTQ...

THE BROTHERS SIZE, directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu and produced by Soulpepper, is a look into the lives of two brothers following the youngest's return home from prison. Tarell Alvin McCraney's 2000 work is an emotional examination of brotherhood and redemption in the deep south....

What would a world where women held power and men were nothing more than eye-candy and tools for reproduction look like? How would women maintain that power, and what would happen to the men who lived there? Factory Theatre's BEAUTIFUL MAN, directed by Andrea Donaldson, looks at all of this and mor...

Eraser Theatre's ERASER, presented as part of Why Not Theatre's RISER project, is a highly interactive piece of theatre that forces audiences to walk and talk with students in a sixth-grade classroom. Directed and choreographed by Bilal Baig and Sadie Epstein-Fine, ERASER explores the lives of six s...

Young People's Theatre closes their season with the world premiere of Jeff Ho's ANTIGONE, which stands as an impressive contemporary take on Sophocles' classic play. The story begins with the title character's brother Neikes (Jeff Yung) leading a breakout from the re-education facility he's held in ...

The women of The Second City return to the mainstage to present SHE THE PEOPLE: THE RESISTANCE CONTINUES, a follow-up to 2018's SHE THE PEOPLE. While the cast and creative team remains mostly the same as the original show, this reimagining explores a wider scope of true-to-life and absurd comedic sc...

A high standard of musical drama is expected from the Musical Stage Company that sadly wasn't present at opening night of NEXT TO NORMAL. The three-time Tony Award-winning, Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey is Musical Stage's latest undertaking in its line of family dr...

Dark comedy and puppets seem to be a natural link, given the number of film and theatre stories that have incorporated both in the last several years. Coal Mine Theatre's season-closing production of HAND TO GOD, written by Robert Askins, examines the duality of man and the struggle between good and...

End of the Century was the album that skyrocketed the Ramones into the public eye, and in FOUR CHORDS AND A GUN writer John Ross Bowie delves into the strain and tension that came with its recording sessions. The collaboration between the Queens, New York band and infamous producer Phil Spector exam...

Neptune Theatre's production of The Color Purple is an effortless, empowering production that will be remembered for decades. The show opened April 9th and will end June 2nd...

Late playwright Lorena Gale's ANGELIQUE makes its Toronto debut in this Black Theatre Workshop and Tableau D'Hote co-production, presented by Factory Theatre and Obsidian Theatre. The play follows the true story behind Marie Joseph Angelique, an enslaved black woman, as she attempts to navigate the ...

In director Soheil Parsa's THE CHERRY ORCHARD, produced by Modern Times Stage Company in association with Crow's Theatre, the concept of nostalgia versus progress seems to be the underlying message. At several moments throughout it's brought front and centre, however the sheer number of characters t...

Mirvish and Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre's production of A DOLL'S HOUSE PART 2 does for theatre what is usually reserved for blockbusters and novels - it provides a sequel, many years down the road, to one of Henrik Ibsen's more controversial works (A Doll's House). Written more than a hundred year...

Pull out your kleenex now. The international premiere of DEAR EVAN HANSEN, written by songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, with a book by Steven Levenson, has arrived in Toronto. The Grammy and Tony Award-winning musical comes to life at Mirvish's Royal Alex Theatre with an impressive, all-Canadi...

The Second City's 82nd revue WALKING ON BOMBSHELLS is undeniably a look into the many aspects of what it's like to live in Toronto. From the Osgoode subway station backdrop in its sad, dirty yellow glory and throughout every sketch performed in the show, the latest mainstage offering from the compan...

Rife with references to some of Alfred Hitchcock's best-known works, THE REAR WINDOW, based on Cornell Woolrich's short story, It Had To Be Murder, offers a tense look into solitude and desperation. ...

Making its world debut in the Project: Humanity and Crow's Theatre production, TOWARDS YOUTH brings five different drama classrooms from around the world, transitioning from Toronto to England, Greece, Taiwan, and India. Written by Andrew Kushnir based on his travels with Dr. Kathleen Gallagher to c...

Matthew MacKenzie's award-winning play BEARS has returned to Toronto, taking residency within Factory Theatre. Produced by Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts and Punctuate! Theatre, the play follows Floyd (Sheldon Elter) as he flees from the scene of a workplace accident. While on the run from the R...

Jeremy Jordan in concert was like meeting up with an old friend for coffee. An incredibly talented, handsome and funny friend… His ease and comfort in the delivery of small conversations with his equally talented and witty music director, Benjamin Rauhala, was refreshing. It felt honest and intima...

The Studio 180 production of OSLO, presented as part of the off-Mirvish season, tells the heavily-dramatized story behind the Oslo Accords. Written by J.T. Rogers and directed here by Joel Greenberg, the play receives a minimalistic interpretation of the 1990s backroom negotiations between Palestine...

The grandeur of the historic Elgin Theatre hasn't overwhelmed COME FROM AWAY. Mirvish's production of the smash-hit Canadian musical has officially moved from the Royal Alexandra Theatre to the Elgin Theatre, making space for the Canadian premiere of Dear Evan Hansen which opens at the Royal Alex in...

Soulpepper's production of Kate Hennig's THE VIRGIN TRIAL, originally produced by the Stratford Festival, brings an investigation of power, morals, and misconduct to the stage. The gripping re-imagining looks at Henry VIII's second daughter Elizabeth I (Bahia Watson), a 15-year-old princess who's a ...

ROSE follows the highs and lows of a nine-year-old on a journey to find herself, with a lively soundtrack and well-rounded cast pushing the plot through a busy storyline....