Toronto Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations

Review: ALLIGATOR PIE at Soulpepper
by Ilana Lucas - January 01, 2025

What did our critic think of ALLIGATOR PIE at Soulpepper?...

Feature: Ilana Lucas Picks the Top Toronto Theatre of 2024
by Ilana Lucas - January 01, 2025

What did our critic have to say about Toronto's Top Theatre of 2024?...

Review: 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE... at Meridian Hall
by Ilana Lucas - December 22, 2024

It’s a treat and a half; I can earnestly say: If you miss out on Cirque, you will be désolé....

Review: ORACULUM at Buddies In Bad Times
by Ilana Lucas - December 07, 2024

Whether ORACULUM effectively navigates the space between drag show and narrative is up for debate, but Drag Race fans will likely enjoy themselves at the cheeky, irreverent show....

Review: CRAZE at Tarragon Theatre
by Ilana Lucas - November 29, 2024

Discover CRAZE at Tarragon Theatre, a co-production with Modern Times Stage Company. This play, inspired by 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?', features a diverse cast and an AI unit named Buddy. Directed by Mike Payette, the show delves into themes of global issues and generational flaws in a modern...

Review: MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL at CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre
by Samantha Wu - November 22, 2024

What did our critic think of MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL at CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre?...

Review: MACHINAL and THE BEE'S KNEES at Red Sandcastle/The Theatre Centre
by Ilana Lucas - November 19, 2024

If the 2020s have occasionally uncomfortably reminded you of the 1920s, you’re not alone. Two Toronto theatre companies are currently using work from and about that turbulent decade to comment on present issues. At the Red Sandcastle, The Flare Productions presents Sophie Treadwell’s seminal work of...

Review: BIG STUFF at Streetcar Crowsnest
by Ilana Lucas - November 17, 2024

Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus, a Second City comedy duo who are also married in real life, present a funny and meaningful meditation about what our things mean to us in BIG STUFF, using anecdotes and gentle audience participation to commune over the items we just can’t bring ourselves to toss....

Review: DISNEY'S THE LION KING at The Princess Of Wales Theatre
by Samantha Wu - November 12, 2024

One of the world's most beloved musicals returns to Toronto for a long term stay into the Spring of 2025. Disney's The Lion King, the stage spectacle directed by Julie Taymor is based on the 1994 animated classic with music and lyrics written by Elton John and Tim Rice. This production has captivate...

Review: WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME at Soulpepper
by Ilana Lucas - November 08, 2024

Schreck’s script, a hit in New York that made its way to Broadway in 2019, is extremely accessible and sprightly in its deconstruction of the mythic text....

Review: ACIS AND GALATEA at Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre
by Keira Grant - October 27, 2024

Opera Atelier’s production of G. F. Handel’s Acis and Galatea was a fun and fresh take on an opera that has delighted audiences since its premiere in 1718. Handel referred to it as his “little opera.” This production is a very “user-friendly” introduction to Baroque opera and historically informed p...

Review: FAUST at Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts
by Keira Grant - October 24, 2024

Vocally and musically, the Canadian Opera Company's production of Gounod's Faust directed by Amy Lane was a sumptuous feast for the ears. While elegant, The restrained production values didn't quite sell the delights of debauchery, leaving the well-known story's premise somewhat flat....

Review: NEXT STAGE FESTIVAL: PART 2 at Buddies In Bad Times
by Ilana Lucas - October 22, 2024

The Next Stage Festival, curated and run by Toronto Fringe, plays at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre until Sunday, October 27, 2024. ...

Review: MY FAIR LADY at Shaw Festival
by Michael Rabice - October 21, 2024

MY FAIR LADY is quite obviously the most perfect choice of a musical that the SHAW FESTIVAL could program and this 2024 musical offering is a  delicious delight, sure to please. It plays through December 22, 2024 and is the perfect excuse to visit Niagara on the Lake for the holiday season....

Review: NEXT STAGE FESTIVAL: PART 1 at Buddies In Bad Times
by Ilana Lucas - October 20, 2024

Read our critics coverage of the first three shows in Toronto Fringe's annual curated festival. ...

Review: MAMMA MIA! at Ed Mirvish Theatre
by Ilana Lucas - October 14, 2024

The 1999 ABBA jukebox juggernaut is back again at the Ed Mirvish Theatre, full of cheery, dance-heavy numbers, a simple, wacky plot, and plenty of shiny spandex outfits. See what our critic had to say. ...

Review: NABUCCO at Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts
by Samantha Wu - October 07, 2024

Canadian Opera Company launches their new season with a monumental first for the company - the premiere staging of Nabucco, directed by Katherine M. Carter and conducted by Paolo Carignani, the opera that firmly planted Giuseppe Verdi's name as a celebrated composer, first performed in 1842. This ep...

Review: THE THANKSGIVING PLAY at CAA Theatre
by Ilana Lucas - October 04, 2024

Read BroadwayWorld's review of THE THANKSGIVING PLAY, which has made it to Toronto as part of Mirvish’s 2024/25 season. Learn more about the play by Larissa FastHorse. ...

Review: MUKASHI, MUKASHI at The Theatre Centre
by Ilana Lucas - October 03, 2024

In a contest between the hungry, unstoppable id of the wolf and the thoughtful, selfless superego of the crane, the audience comes out the winner....

Review: 1939 at Canadian Stage
by Ilana Lucas - October 01, 2024

As the characters erase and rewrite the messages that both literally and figuratively surround them, shaping the story with little other than chalk and resolve, Lauzon and Riordan’s complex, beautiful play surprises in its ability to create joy in the midst of heartbreak....

Review: COME FROM AWAY at Royal Alexandra Theatre
by Samantha Wu - September 27, 2024

You must be living under a rock if you haven't heard of or seen Come From Away, the critically acclaimed musical with book, music, and lyrics written by Irene Sankoff and David Hein that has captured the hearts of audiences all over the world. Based on a true story with characters written after real...

Review: ROSMERSHOLM at Streetcar Crowsnest
by Ilana Lucas - September 20, 2024

It couldn’t be clearer why Chris Abraham decided now was the time to stage this play about the challenge that a former pastor and the former caregiver to his late wife pose to a sitting conservative governor’s platform on the eve of a pivotal vote. And that, paradoxically, might be the problem....

Review: GIRLS UNWANTED at The King Black Box
by Ilana Lucas - September 17, 2024

It comes in many forms, each one its own type of exquisitely agonizing rejection. The job application or the one to the program that could define your future, thrown out, perhaps unanswered. The child forced to walk behind their two closer friends when there’s not enough room on the sidewalk. The fe...

Review: LIFE OF PI at CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre
by Samantha Wu - September 17, 2024

Life of Pi is an award winning novel by Canadian author Yann Martel. The rapid success of this inspiring novel has lead to both screen and stage adaptations, the latter of which picked up five Olivier Awards including Best New Play, and three Tony Awards. Currently on their North American tour makin...

Review: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MYSTERY OF THE HUMAN HEART at Shaw Festival
by Michael Rabice - August 26, 2024

He's done it again! The famous sleuth and his sidekick are back at it, solving cases with cunning precision and insight. SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MYSTERY OF THE HUMAN HEART is playing in a fabulous production at the SHAW FESTIVAL in Niagara on the Lake. Audiences are intrigued, captivated and thoroug...