Toronto Theatre Critics Awards honour the best of the 2025-26 season

Through the Eyes of God, Anusree Roy’s searing drama about an Indian mother trying to rescue her trafficked daughter, is among the big winners at this year’s Toronto Theatre Critics’ Awards.

The play won three awards: best production of a play (Theatre Passe Muraille produced it), best solo performance in a play or musical (for actor Gabriella Sundar Singh) and best director (Thomas Morgan Jones).

“This production ought to tour Canada, or even the world, as soon as possible – in Toronto, it showcased Canadian theatre at its most daring, and by extension, its most impressive,” wrote TTCA co-chair Aisling Murphy in a press release out today.

This marks the 13th year the awards, decided on by a group of Toronto-based theatre critics (myself included), have been handed out. Shows opening between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2026 were considered.

This year marked the first time the TTCAs have acknowledged artists in the categories of choreography, digital design and puppetry; those awards, respectively, went to Alyssa Martin (Dance Nation) and Christopher Wheeldon (MJ: The Musical) tied, Nathan Bruce (Rogers v. Rogers) and Ronnie Burkett (Little Willy). 

The east end indie company Eldritch Theatre received a special citation, “for their biggest, spookiest season yet.”

“Until this season, Eldritch Theatre artistic director Eric Woolfe primarily created and performed all of the company’s strange and macabre shows, with the support of a small team,” wrote critic Robyn Grant-Moran.

“With critical acclaim and a cult following, it would be easy to stay put. This season, however, marked a change: Night at the Grand Guignol featured a cast of three (none of them Woolfe), while season closer Zombocalypse! squeezed five (Woolfe included) onto the cozy stage at Red Sandcastle Theatre. Eldritch Theatre’s dark and twisted tales grew bigger and more complex with more weird little guys and angsty outsiders, without compromising Woolfe’s unique style.”

The TTCAs mark the end of the 2025-26 theatre season. The Dora Awards nominations will be announced June 1.

On a more personal note: we theatre critics live such odd lives, scribbling in the dark and trying to make sense of what we see the day after, or the day after that. I see my fellow critics more often than most of my friends and family members, and yet we don’t always share our thoughts about shows. It’s not that we’re territorial, I think, it’s just that we’re trying to be considerate and respectful. So it’s rare that we get together as a group and discuss what we’ve seen. And is there anything more satisfying than talking about the best that you’ve seen?

Here, by the way, is the new TTCA website, which includes the present voting membership and past winners.

Of the 2026 winners, you can catch & Juliet (best lead performance in a musical for Vanessa Sears) at the Royal Alex until August 30 (tickets here); The Division (best ensemble performance in a play) continues at Crow’s Theatre’s Studio until May 24 (tickets here); and Rogers v. Rogers (best digital design) returns as part of Canadian Stage’s season in November and December at the Berkeley Street Theatre (info here).

You can also listen to Nicolas Billon’s best Canadian play winner The Neighbours as part of CBC podcast PlayME’s season (link here or wherever you get your podcasts).

Here is the full list of winners. (I’ve linked to my reviews of the shows, or artist features, where available.)

Best New Canadian Work

The Neighbours by Nicolas Billon, production by Green Light Arts in association with Tarragon Theatre

Best International Work

Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector, production by Coal Mine Theatre

Best Production of a Play

Through the Eyes of God by Anusree Roy, produced by Theatre Passe Muraille

Best Production of a Musical

Octet by Dave Malloy, production by Crow’s Theatre, Soulpepper and the Musical Stage Company

Best Lead Performance in a Play

Sophia Walker, Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris, produced by Canadian Stage

Nicholas Eddie, Bug by Tracy Letts, production by the King Black Box Theatre in partnership with Elkabong Theatre Projects

Best Supporting Performance in a Play

Matthew G. Brown, The Christmas Market by Kanika Ambrose, produced by b current Performing Arts in association with Crow’s Theatre and Studio 180 Theatre

Kristen Thomson, Fulfillment Centre by Abe Koogler, produced by Coal Mine Theatre

Best Ensemble Performance in a Play

Karl Ang, Ivy Charles, Mariya Khomutova, Daniel Maslany and Alon Nashman, The Division by Andrew Kushnir, produced by Project: Humanity and Pyretic Productions in association with Crow’s Theatre

Dean Gilmour, John Ng  伍健琪, Diana Tso 曹楓, 郝邦宇 Steven Hao and Madelaine Hodges 賀美倫, Pu Songling: Strange Tales by Michele Smith, Diana Tso, Steven Hao, Madelaine Hodges, John Ng and Dean Gilmour (thanks to Michael Man, Lindsay Wu, Jeff Yung and Rosie Simon), produced by Theatre Smith-Gilmour in association with Crow’s Theatre

Best Lead Performance in a Musical

Martin Julien, The Drowsy Chaperone by Lisa Lambert, Greg Morrison, Bob Martin and Don McKellar, produced by Shifting Ground Collective

Vanessa Sears, & Juliet by Max Martin and friends and David West Read, presented by Mirvish

Best Supporting Performance in a Musical

Damien Atkins, Robin Hood: A Very Merry Family Musical by Matt Murray, produced by Canadian Stage in association with the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres

Thomas Winiker, Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori, produced by Mirvish and the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts

Best Ensemble Performance in a Musical

Damien Atkins, Alicia Ault, Andrew Broderick, Ben Carlson, Hailey Gillis, Zorana Sadiq, Jacqueline Thair and Giles Tomkins, Octet by Dave Malloy, produced Crow’s Theatre, Soulpepper and the Musical Stage Company

Best Solo Performance in a Play or Musical 

Gabriella Sundar Singh, Through the Eyes of God by Anusree Roy, produced by Theatre Passe Muraille

Best Director of a Play

Thomas Morgan Jones, Through the Eyes of God by Anusree Roy, produced by Theatre Passe Muraille

Best Director of a Musical

Meredith Shedden, Tick, Tick… Boom! by Jonathan Larson, produced by Bowtie Productions

Best Scenic Design of a Play or Musical

Sophie Ann Rooney, Bug by Tracy Letts, production by the King Black Box Theatre in partnership with Elkabong Theatre Projects

Best Lighting Design of a Play or Musical 

Bonnie Beecher, The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood, produced by Soulpepper, the Howland Company and Crow’s Theatre

Best Costume Design of a Play or Musical

Melanie McNeill, Night at the Grand Guignol by Eric Woolfe, produced by Eldritch Theatre

Best Sound Design and Music of a Play or Musical

Ashley Naomi, The Veil by Keith Barker and Thomas Morgan Jones, produced by Thought for Food Productions in association with Crow’s Theatre and Guild Festival Theatre

Best Choreography

Alyssa Martin, Dance Nation by Clare Barron, produced by Coal Mine Theatre and Outside the March in association with Rock Bottom Movement

Christopher Wheeldon, MJ by Lynn Nottage, presented by Mirvish

Best Digital Design

Nathan Bruce, Rogers v Rogers by Michael Healey, produced by Crow’s Theatre

Best Puppetry 

Ronnie Burkett, Little Willy by Burkett, produced by Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes and presented by Canadian Stage

Special Citation

Eldritch Theatre, for their biggest, spookiest season yet