TORONTO THEATER REVIEWS

The Second City unveiled its latest collection of sketch comedy in its Spring Mainstage revue, THE HOTLINE ALWAYS BLINGS TWICE. Directed by Chris Earle, the show is a tribute to Toronto; with six hilarious comedians playing tribute to The 6ix in sketches based on current issues and events facing...

The world premiere translation of the classic Spanish drama, BLOOD WEDDING is now playing at Soulpepper. Directed by Erin Brandenburg, the drama follows a young couple's troubled engagement as their love brings to life buried passions that threaten their relationship. Newly translated by Guillermo V...

Ted Dykstra's Soulpepper production of the David French comedy JITTERS first premiered in 2010, and is now thriving with a new revival currently playing at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Featuring many of the same members of Dykstra's original production, JITTERS is a crisp and refreshing...

The world premiere of Bobby Theodore's translation of THE JUST by Albert Camus is now playing at Soulpepper. Directed by Frank Cox-O'Connell, this new adaptation of the 1949 French play set in Russia, follows the paths of five socialist revolutionaries plotting terror attacks against the Grand Duke ...

Bobby Theodore's translation of the emotionally-driven Francois Archambault play, YOU WILL REMEMBER ME is now playing the Tarragon Theatre, in co-production with Studio 180 Theatre. Directed by Joel Greenberg, the stage drama follows the journey of a family dealing with the effects of dementia. Edou...

The next piece in Factory Theatre's Naked Season is Guillermo Verdecchia and Marcus Youssef's acclaimed play, A LINE IN THE SAND. Nigel Shawn Williams directs this stripped down and intimate production about a tense and unconventional relationship between a Canadian soldier and a young Palestinian t...

An unexpected knee injury had turned what was supposed to be TOROBAKA, a dynamic celebration of traditional kathak and flamenco dance performed by world-renowned dancers Israel Galvan and Akram Khan, into a different show. Due to Galvan's regrettable withdrawal from the production due to his injury,...

The next piece in Factory Theatre's Naked Season is an emotionally-driven and stunning production of SALT-WATER MOON by David French. Directed by Ravi Jain, the production features a diverse cast of Kawa Ada and Mayko Nguyen as post-war lovers in the villages of Newfoundland. Ania Soul serves as the...

ONE NIGHT ONLY: THE GREATEST MUSICAL NEVER WRITTEN is a unique night at a theatre; a fully improvised two-act musical featuring an all-star cast and a five-piece orchestra. As the name suggests, every night the musical is different based on audience interaction that drives the story. Every performan...

CHELSEA HOTEL: THE SONGS OF LEONARD COHEN is a celebration of the powerful and iconic anthems from Canadian music legend, Leonard Cohen. The production premiered in 2012 at Vancouver's Firehall Arts Centre and has since made stops across the country to critical acclaim. The Theatre 20 production is ...

The Edinburgh Festival hit and critically acclaimed BIGMOUTH has finally landed in Canada with its Canadian premiere at the Panasonic Theatre. Belgian actor Valentijn Dhaenens seamlessly weaves together iconic speeches from the past 2,500 years. BIGMOUTH illustrates the profound power of rhetoric an...

GASLIGHT, a thriller play which is the namesake for the term gaslighting (a form of psychological abuse in which false information is presented to the victim with the intent of making them doubt their sanity) opened in Toronto last week. The production stars Game of Thrones' Owen Teale and Ian M...

A new version of the iconic eighties mega musical, The Phantom of the Opera, opened tonight in Toronto at The Princess of Wales theatre - just a short distance away from what was once called The Pantages (now the Ed Mirvish) theatre where the original Canadian production of the musical ran for a dec...

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella has arrived in Toronto and she will indeed be the belle of the ball this season amongst all the family friendly holiday shows. This touring production, derived from the 2013 Broadway version, is magical, funny, quirky, and full of heart....

Theresa Rebeck's ambitious comedy, SEMINAR tells the story of four young writers who learn that sometimes the truth hurts after they hire Leonard, a famous novelist to mentor them for a 10-week master class. Rebeck is best known as the creator of the beloved television series Smash, and previous the...

The touring company of JERSEY BOYS has made its current stop in Kitchener, Ontario at Centre in The Square. I had the opportunity to catch the first performance last night, and 'Oh What a Night' it was! This musical is clearly still going strong and the audience loved every moment of it....

The second piece of Factory Theatre's Naked Season is Leon Aureus' BANANA BOYS, directed by Factory's artistic director Nina Lee Aquino. The ambitiously funny adaptation of the Terry Woo novel follows the lives of five Asian Canadians as they try to fit into the subculture of Canadian multiculturali...

If you're unfamiliar with The Coal Mine, venture off to Toronto's east-end for the best of indie theatre. Though their permanent space is currently under renovation, the new independent theatre company, entering their second season, shines in their temporary space in the heart of the Danforth. Descr...

Nina Lee Aquino, Artistic Director of the Factory Theatre describes their 2015/2016 Naked Season as 'pure theatrical encounters between the audience, the actor, the text, and the empty space that we all temporarily share'. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be reimagined, stripped down retelling of...

The “Barbra Question” can often plague theatre companies when the idea of producing a Funny Girl musical is brought up. How can one produce the show in a way that even comes close to the iconic version that Streisand led in her breakout role? They face the additional obstacle of satisfying audie...

Upside Downton, a parody of the hit television show Downton Abbey has made its way to Toronto after successful runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in London. Starring Luke Kempner, who provides all the voices for 36 characters, this innovative one man show clocks in at just over an hour and is...

Motown the Musical, the Broadway show which dramatizes the rise and fall of the record label of the same name, opened yesterday in Toronto at The Princess of Wales Theatre. Though full of hit songs you will recognize, overall the show was underwhelming and lacked enough exposition to hold the audien...

Another piece in Soulpepper's fall season is the sophomore production from Dora-Award winning playwright Pamela Mala Sinha....

The latest revival of THE PLAY'S THE THING is another take at the Soulpepper favourite. Based on P.G. Wodehouse's adaptation of the 1926 classic, The Play at the Castle, and directed by Laszlo Marton who also took a stab at this production in both 1999 and 2003, you are sure in for a treat....

The World Premiere of THE LAST WIFE, written by Kate Hennig and directed by Alan Dilworth, took place earlier this month at the Stratford Festival's Studio Theatre. BWW recently had the opportunity to see the show, and found it to present an intriguing combination of history, drama, humour and femin...