TORONTO THEATER REVIEWS

Christmas traditions may come and go, but watching the film WHITE CHRISTMAS has always been an obligatory part of the holiday season for me. And for the past 20 years or so, audiences can experience Irving Berlin's classic  live on stage. The Shaw Festival is presenting their joyous version this ye...

In Kanika Ambrose’s OUR PLACE at Theatre Passe Muraille, Andrea (Virgilia Griffith) and Niesha (Sophia Walker), immigrants without papers, dream of better lives for themselves and their children back home. Due to the pandemic, the show was postponed twice; now, like a dream deferred, it explodes o...

Moscovitch’s POST-DEMOCRACY, a new, tight one-hour drama at Tarragon Theatre, bares the seedy, nepotistic underbelly of the glistening penthouse. The bleak hour is gleefully biting in its criticism of a class invulnerable to consequence. However, it bites off a little more than it can chew in addr...

As far as coming-of-age stories go, many are predictable and follow a pretty standard template. Thankfully for CHOIR BOY, written by acclaimed playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, the story maintains all the charms of the genre while still embarking on a more unique take....

John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt claims that doubt may be as enduring a force as certainty. Though I’ll never know if the Broadway production would have been life-changing, I can say that the intimate, intense production by new company B&E, set within The Church of the Holy Tr...

Mirvish’s production of MEAN GIRLS brings the cult-classic film to life, packed full of iconic lines, loveable characters, and featuring a soundtrack full of funny, new music....

In Human Measure, artist Cassils’ first piece of contemporary dance choreographed by Jasmine Albuquerque, trans and nonbinary bodies are highlighted. A rejoinder to Yves Klein's Anthropometries paintings, in which naked women were painted blue and then dragged across canvases as living brushes, th...

Quite possibly one of the best known opera comiques, CARMEN has returned to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts’ stage in a bright blaze....

The Canadian Opera Company’s 2010 production of Wagner's THE FLYING DUTCHMAN has sailed back to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts’ stage. Originally directed by Christopher Alden, this production sees Marilyn Gronsdal take the helm....

What do you get when you place three actors at varying points in their careers on a boat, anchor them in the Atlantic Ocean, add a faulty mechanical shark to the equation, and delay shooting for weeks on end?...

In a world where films are constantly being adapted for the stage, it’s refreshing to see a stage production that came from a movie and still shines like the sun on a rainy day, despite the difference in medium....

Canadian Stage’s PUBLIC ENEMY is a modern dining-room drama where opinions are loudly aired and ignored. Effectively staged by Brendan Healy, with an impressive cast inhabiting its dysfunctional but believable characters, it’s like watching a conversation by your most frustrating group of relati...

We regularly use “cockroach” as dehumanizing language for the Other in an attempt to justify their oppression or extermination. That’s the central metaphor of Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho)’s Cockroach, a scathingly funny screed that pits a wisecracking insect against the ghost of Shakespeare in a figh...

If you live in Stratford, Ontario, you may have heard the buzz around town about a new play at the Stratford Festival’s Studio Theatre. Written by Jani Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan, 1939 had its world premiere last week and audiences sprung to their feet to show just how moved they were by this beau...

Originally scheduled for the 2020 season, THE MISER, starring Colm Feore and directed by Antoni Cimolino, is currently playing at the Stratford Festival’s Festival Theatre stage. This Moliere comedy of manners fits right into current times, and this new adaptation by Ranjit Bolt is filled with pop...

Set seven years before the tragic events in King Lear, playwright Erin Shields takes on the dynamic character of Goneril, Lear's eldest daughter, posing the question of what drives her ambition?...

Soulpepper Theatre brings Shakespeare's King Lear, the classic tale of a King's descent into madness and his daughters' struggle with power, to the Young Centre for the Performing Arts until October 1. ...

Banishment, unassailable friendships, brotherly hate, love at first sight, philosophy, a magical forest, and a witty young woman in disguise. These classic Shakespearean elements and more await audiences of Canadian Stage's Dream in High Park production of AS YOU LIKE IT, in bloom at the High Park A...

If you are a theatre-goer looking to venture outside your comfort zone, or if you often don’t feel seen or represented by the societal norms typically presented in modern theatre pieces – then Sunny Drake’s new play EVERY LITTLE NOOKIE might be exactly what you are looking for. That’s not to...

WÉI, a new 50-minute dance piece choreographed by Yvonne Ng, is billed as an exploration of identity and belonging, asking questions about the importance of nature versus nurture. While the answers may be inconclusive, this meditation on individuality vs. collective development explores the concept...

For the sixth time in the Stratford Festival’s history, a production of ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL is being mounted. It is fittingly being performed at the brand new Tom Patterson Theatre alongside RICHARD III. This is relevant because these were the two plays that launched the inaugural season o...

A breezy comedy of manners, as only Oscar Wilde could pen, is a welcome way to return to Niagara-on-the Lake's SHAW FESTIVAL. For it's 60th anniversary audiences are in for a familiar treat as THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST returns to the stage in all it's witty charm. Hints of covid still pervade ...

“Isn’t it funny how nothing ever happens?” That line from Lisa D’Amour’s DETROIT, now playing at the Coal Mine Theatre, could be the motto for its portrayal of suburban ennui. D’Amour’s sharp script and the cast’s committed performances make this show feel vital and present – like,...

A beloved story has been adapted for the stage and for the whole family at the Stratford Festival this season and it had its world premiere last Thursday night. Playwright Jordi Mand's LITTLE WOMEN--based on the novels Little Women and Good Wives by Louisa May Alcott is being brought to life on ...

Gone are the days where Juliet is a tragic, gone-to-soon character in a Shakespeare play; she’s given a new lease on life in a new musical, with a diverse cast of characters and enough pop power anthems to have audiences dancing in their seats, no matter their age....