Toronto Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 5

Review: THE EFFECT at Coal Mine Theatre
by Ilana Lucas - July 26, 2023

In asking the persistent questions of how much of what we consider love, the personality, and even the soul is of our own making, and how much is just chemical, Mitchell Cushman’s searing production immediately gets under your skin, and it’s no placebo....

Review: SPONGEBOB: THE MUSICAL at Regent Theatre
by Ilana Lucas - July 26, 2023

Before heading to Oshawa’s Regent Theatre for Mansfield Entertainment’s SPONGEBOB: THE MUSICAL, I had never seen a single episode of the cartoon series featuring the ubiquitous bright yellow sea creature with square pants that lives in a pineapple under the sea. It didn’t matter; the candy-coloured ...

Review: FRINGE FESTIVAL: BATCH FIVE
by Ilana Lucas - July 14, 2023

Reviews of Fatal Charade, Levels: The Play, Danielle Tea's Infernal Latte, Mail Ordered, All That Remains, and B-Max and the Re-Revolution at the Toronto Fringe Festival...

Review: FRINGE FESTIVAL: WEEKEND ROUNDUP at Toronto Fringe
by Ilana Lucas - July 13, 2023

Reviews of Frankenstein(esque), Paz, Featherhead, Our Little Secret, All of Our Parents are Asian, and Constellation Prize at the Toronto Fringe Festival...

Review: HADESTOWN Proves You Can Live it Up on Top and Below in Stunning Toronto Production
by Isabella Perrone - July 11, 2023

Four years after its Broadway premiere, Anaïs Mitchell’s Tony-winning musical HADESTOWN, developed with and directed by Rachel Chavkin, has finally made its way down to Toronto. With a touring crew of powerhouses, both in the cast and in the band (led by Eric Kang), the retelling of Orpheus and Eury...

Review: FRINGE FESTIVAL: DAY 3 at Toronto Fringe
by Ilana Lucas - July 10, 2023

Reviews of BUNNY!, MAGGIE CHUN'S FIRST LOVE AND LAST WEDDING, and THE FAMILY CROW...

Review: FRINGE FESTIVAL: DAY 2 at Toronto Fringe
by Ilana Lucas - July 08, 2023

Reviews of THE FOURTH R, HERMAPHRODITUS, and HYMNS AND HEARSE...

Review: FRINGE FESTIVAL: DAY 1 at Toronto Fringe
by Ilana Lucas - July 07, 2023

Reviews of The Life Between Us, JUNE, Corporate Finch, The Woman Who Ate Falafel, and Ms. Titaverse #FringeTO...

Review: CRIPCAB at Buddies In Bad Times
by Ilana Lucas - June 24, 2023

It’s hard to be disabled in the world of the performing arts. Hours can be punishing, physical expectations are high, and remuneration is low. This is the provenance of CripCab, a new performance showcase that premiered at Buddies in Bad Times theatre. CripCab is an attempt to expand much needed acc...

Review: X (DIX) at Streetcar Crowsnest
by Ilana Lucas - June 18, 2023

What did our critic think of X (DIX) at Streetcar Crowsnest?...

Review: PERCEPTUAL ARCHAEOLOGY at Streetcar Crowsnest
by Ilana Lucas - June 17, 2023

The joy of theatre is the same as that of travel: the ability to promote multiple ways of seeing and understanding, allowing us to look through another person’s eyes. PERCEPTUAL ARCHAEOLOGY gets us to think about the very way we perceive and move through the world, and, for the sighted, about the ot...

Review: NO SAVE POINTS at Outside The March
by Samantha Wu - June 19, 2023

Outside the March brings another innovative and interactive theatrical experience to Toronto audiences with No Save Points, playing at the Lighthouse ArtScape. Writer and creator Sébastien Heins had a rough time growing up with an ailing mother who suffered from a rare genetic disease that could hav...

Review: GYPSY at Shaw Festival
by Michael Rabice - June 13, 2023

'A Musical Fable.' This is the subtitle that author Arthur Laurents chose when writing his script for the blockbuster musical 'GYPSY.' And after a  delay of almost 3 years due to covid, the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake is presenting their version of this famed musical fable at the Festival T...

Review: KELLY V. KELLY at Canadian Stage
by Ilana Lucas - June 11, 2023

It’s called KELLY V. KELLY, but Britta Johnson and Sara Farb’s surprisingly moving new 90-minute musical could be called CAGE V. CAGE. A mother and daughter, locked in a petty legal battle over the latter’s debauched behaviour in 1915 New York, are both looking for some sort of control over lives th...

Review: AALAAPI at Ada Slaight Hall, Daniels Spectrum
by Ilana Lucas - June 09, 2023

The word Aalaapi is a term meaning “choosing silence to hear something beautiful,” and, as such, the show places much importance on the act of sitting and listening. Presented in three languages, it is a multisensory experience, including projections, recordings, throat-singing games, and the smell ...

Review: THE SOUND INSIDE at Coal Mine Theatre
by Ilana Lucas - May 25, 2023

Rapp’s play, about a Yale creative writing professor facing down a terrible illness, and her relationship with a challenging student of whom she asks an impossible favour, has lived in my mind since I saw it. It’s a familiar story that goes in new directions; it’s mesmerizingly told, and acted with ...

Review: BOOM X at Streetcar Crowsnest
by Ilana Lucas - May 22, 2023

What did our critic think of BOOM X at Streetcar Crowsnest? Born at the end of 1984, I'm a 'geriatric millennial,' only able to admire the sarcastic, too-cool-for-school slacker aesthetic of my slightly older peers from beyond the confines of artificial generational divides as I toil away at my side...

Review: VACHES At Canadian Stage
by Ilana Lucas - May 19, 2023

VACHES is a moo-sical that will have you moo-ving enthusiastically to its zany beat…even if the plot has more holes than Swiss cheese....

Review: THE CHINESE LADY at Streetcar Crowsnest
by Ilana Lucas - May 14, 2023

Watching THE CHINESE LADY, you get the distinct impression that you are, in fact, trapped in a box, as much an exhibit to the woman watching your gaze as she is to you. She stands on a small, white square platform with a rim that suggests Chinese carvings, the postage stamp that marks the confines o...

Review: PAINT ME THIS HOUSE OF LOVE At Tarragon Theatre
by Ilana Lucas - May 08, 2023

Though her style may not be for everyone, Woolley is clearly a talent to watch, displaying a range of abilities in her twisty, complex script. PAINT ME THIS HOUSE OF LOVE gives us a compelling situation, strong characters, and one truly blazing performance, but also the frustration of a conversation...

Review: TRUE CRIME at Streetcar Crowsnest
by Ilana Lucas - May 05, 2023

The show’s thematic identity crisis notwithstanding, Campbell’s return to the stage is cause for celebration. He knows how to spin a tale that will keep you at the edge of your seat…and how to snatch that seat out from under you while you’re sitting there....

Review: SKYLINE'S THE LIMIT At Second City Mainstage
by Ilana Lucas - May 01, 2023

The comedy complex at the bottom of a soaring condo tower has declared that this SKYLINE’S THE LIMIT, and in its new revue directed by Kirsten Rasmussen, it’s as satisfying as a Leafs playoff series win in overtime....

Review: THE HOOVES BELONGED TO THE DEER at Tarragon Theatre
by Samantha Wu - April 09, 2023

The Hooves Belonged to the Deer, playing at the Tarragon Theatre, is an eye-opening revelation story where conflicting situations conspire and lead to a tumultuous end for for Izzy, a young teen Muslim boy coming to terms with his sexuality while under the lure of a local pastor....

Review: CONVERGENT DIVERGENCY at Winchester Street Theatre
by Ilana Lucas - April 03, 2023

It’s hard to imagine two paired dance shows more different than helix by Atri Nundy and GIVE ME ONE by Danah Rosales, the double bill that makes up Toronto Dance Theatre’s CONVERGENT DIVERGENCY, now playing at the Winchester Street Theatre. They form an intriguing counterpoint that investigates the ...

Review: PRODIGAL at Streetcar Crowsnest
by Ilana Lucas - March 02, 2023

What did our critic think of PRODIGAL at Streetcar Crowsnest? PRODIGAL, written and directed by The Howland Company's Paolo Santalucia and now playing at Crow's Theatre, takes place entirely in the kitchen of the wealthy Clark family over a weekend where the past comes home to roost. Patriarch Rowan...