What to look for on Toronto stages this winter

Happy new year! Now that Scrooge, Nutcracker and panto month is behind us, theatres are slowly gearing up for the Toronto winter season. There’s not a lot happening in the first two weeks of January, but after that comes a literal flurry of openings.

To help you decide what to see I’ve picked several highlights: promising shows, guaranteed fine performances, exciting sequels, deep theatrical cuts. Other buzzy shows include Company (look for an upcoming feature), Summer and Smoke, A Question of Character, A Doll’s House, Mischief, Witch, Copperbelt, The Surrogate, Some Like it Hot, Little Willy and more.

Info about these and other shows happening straight through til spring are in my comprehensive Toronto Theatre Listings page, which you can find here or at the navigation bar at the top of the site. (Note: the full list is unlocked for paid-tier members.)

And look for a ticket giveaway to one of these shows at the end.

See you soon at the theatre!

Bilal Baig’s return to the stage

Although it feels like longer, Bilal Baig debuted their solo play Kitne Saare Laloo Yahan Pey Hain — their last major theatre role — exactly six years ago at the Next Stage Festival. In 2021, they went on to co-create and star in the TV series Sort Of, making TV history as the first queer South Asian Muslim actor to lead a Canadian primetime series. During its three seasons, the groundbreaking show went on to win many Canadian Screen Awards and even a Peabody Award for its US run on HBO Max. Now they’re returning to the stage this winter with Kainchee Lagaa + Jhooti: The Begging Brown Bitch Plays. Part of Buddies’ season, the double bill presents two stories of Brown trans women caught between worlds. With Baig’s increased profile and director Tawiah M’Carthy at the helm, don’t be surprised if audiences are begging for tickets before the end of its run.

April 1 to 18 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander). Ticket details here

A timely play that won last year’s revival Tony Award

The folks at Coal Mine Theatre have great taste in scripts. A couple of years ago, they programmed Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate, a play that was mounted later on Broadway and won the Tony for best revival of a play. Now they’ve programmed Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day, which won the same award last year. Although first performed in 2018, the play seems frighteningly relevant today. It’s set at a private school in California and features meetings between parents and administrators concerning vaccine requirements after there’s an outbreak of mumps among the students. With Mitchell Cushman directing a cast that includes Kevin Bundy, Jake Epstein and Sophia Walker (one of two shows she’s in this season — the other is Clyde’s at Canadian Stage), expect lots of knowing laughs about difficult topics.

February 1 to 22 at Coal Mine Theatre (2076 Danforth). Ticket details here

The return of two theatre legends

It’s impossible to talk about Toronto theatre — indeed Canadian culture in general — without the names Clare Coulter and Judith Thompson. The consummate character actor (Severance fans will recognize her from a pivotal episode in the second season) and the trailblazing playwright are closely linked. Coulter helped launch now-classic Thompson works like White Biting Dog, I Am Yours and Lion in the Streets. These were all at the Tarragon, where Thompson’s latest, Queen Maeve, opens this March (an earlier staging premiered at Stratford’s Here for Now Theatre). Coulter plays a senior in a nursing home who’s filled with regret about her past, which includes being estranged from her daughter. The twist? When triggered, she morphs into her fierce alter ego, the titular great Irish Warrior. Seems like a play fit for theatre royalty.

March 3 to 29 at the Tarragon Mainspace (30 Bridgman). Ticket details here

The onstage pairing of friends Maev Beaty and Liisa Repo-Martell

Over a decade ago, actors Maev Beaty and Liisa Repo-Martell played siblings Goneril and Regan in the Colm Feore-headed King Lear at Stratford. A few years later, the friends reunited for a remount of Daniel MacIvor’s A Beautiful View in Prince Edward County. Now they’re back in Erin Shields’ play You, Always, about sisters who, after receiving some important news, sift through their fifty-year shared history. Andrea Donaldson directs this world premiere that, with all the artists’ combined histories of working together (I first saw Beaty and Shields’ collaborations in the late 00s), promises to be deeply felt, funny and moving.

January 31 to February 15 at the Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley). Ticket details here

The return of a canonical Canadian musical

It’s been a while since Toronto audiences have seen The Drowsy Chaperone, which famously began at the Toronto Fringe and was remounted and reworked here several times before premiering on Broadway for a successful run. Now, the fierce indie company Shifting Ground Collective is reviving it at Theatre Passe Muraille, which was the same house where the show appeared for its second public outing. As far as I know, the creative team hasn’t yet been announced, but if the company’s Dora Award-winning production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee last year is any indication, expect it to be inspired, with lots of emerging talent ready — to borrow the title of my favourite number — to “Show Off.”

March 7 to 21 at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace (16 Ryerson). Ticket details here.

Another lesser-known Shakespeare play by Shakespeare BASH’d

One of the joys of the winter season is seeing a new Shakespeare BASH’d production. Every year for a while now, they’ve mounted a lesser-known, or neglected, work by the Bard, drawing on their company of strong actors as well as gifted members of the Stratford Festival ensemble. This year, they’re tackling Troilus and Cressida, which despite its setting — it takes place during the later years of the Trojan War — isn’t well known. Besides the title characters — played here by real-life couple Deivan Steele and Breanne Tice — others in the dramatis personae include Hector, Achilles and Diomedes, performed by Stratford actors Jordin Hall, Andrew Iles and Austin Eckert. Expect director James Wallis to bring clarity to this tonally fascinating play about love, bravery and war.

January 29 to February 8 at the Theatre Centre (1115 Queen West). Ticket details here

Note: So Sumi is giving away a pair of tickets to Troilus and Cressida. See details below.

The new season of PlayME theatre podcasts

If the cold weather is making you want to hibernate until spring, go ahead. The CBC podcast PlayME is bringing Canadian theatre to your ears with fresh audio versions of plays that have been — or are — making waves in our theatres. This year’s season launches Jan. 14 with an audio version of the recent remount of Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience, starring the author himself as Appa (the production made several best-of-the-year lists, including mine). Shows drop monthly and include Akosua Amo-Adem’s very funny Table for Two (nicely timed for Valentine’s month), the recent revival of Michael Healey’s The Drawer Boy, which featured the play’s original Miles (Tom Barnett) as Angus, Pamela Mala Sinha’s NEW and Nicolas Billon’s brand new play Neighbours. That last play premieres this season at the Tarragon, so this PlayME audio version will be very current. As always, a week after the plays are uploaded one of the PlayME hosts will interview artists associated with the play, offering terrific insights into the creative process.

January 14 to May 13 (dates subject to change). Details here

A fabulous musical theatre performer who knows how to make you cry

The iconic musical theatre performer Louise Pitre has affected theatregoers’ tear ducts in everything from Les Misérables (she was our original Fantine) and her Broadway-nominated performance in Mamma Mia! to her breakthrough performances in Piaf and Blood Brothers. Now she’s starring in a role that, when done well, is guaranteed to receive awards nominations — and bring on the tears. In Kimberly Akimbo, she plays Kimberly Levaco, a teenager with a rare condition that has caused her to age rapidly. It seems tailor made for Pitre’s huge spirit and bigger voice. Robert McQueen, who helmed a terrific production of Fun Home several seasons ago, directs the David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori musical, featuring an all-Canadian cast that includes Tess Benger, Thomas Winiker, Cyrus Lane and — in a juicy supporting comic role — Kristen Peace. Just make sure you bring Kleenex.

January 15 to February 8 at the CAA Theatre (651 Yonge). Ticket details here

The sequel to Anusree Roy’s award-winning debut play Pyassa

Nearly 20 years ago, Anusree Roy burst onto the Toronto theatre scene with her scorching one person, multiple-character show Pyassa, about a mother from India’s “Untouchables” class who hopes for a better life for her 11-year-old daughter, Chaya. That show won awards and launched Roy’s brilliant career in theatre and TV. Now she’s written a sequel, Through the Eyes of God, in which Chaya is a young mother dealing with more strife: she’s been arrested for stealing rice to feed her young daughter, but she also discovers her son has been trafficked in Delhi. This forces her to navigate a broken social and legal system to protect her children. What makes this world premiere production — directed, like Pyassa, by Thomas Morgan Jones and starring the gifted actor Gabriella Sundar Singh — so special is that it’s being performed at Theatre Passe Muraille’s Backspace, the same venue where Roy made her debut two decades ago. Note: it’s a small space, so get your tickets early; the show is sure to sell out.

February 1 to 21 at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson). Ticket details here

Ticket giveaway

I’m giving away a pair of tickets to the Shakespeare BASH’d production of Troilus and Cressida, which runs Jan. 29 to Feb. 8 at the Theatre Centre’s BMO Incubator (1115 Queen West). See information here.

The winner must correctly answer the following question: After the prologue, what character speaks the play’s first line of dialogue?

Please email answers to SoSumiContact@gmail.com by Wednesday, January 7 at noon (ET). One winner will randomly be chosen from among the correct answers. Entrants must be So Sumi subscribers (free or paid). Please put Shakespeare BASH’d Contest in the subject heading.

The winner will be contacted over the weekend. Desired performance dates are subject to ticket availability.

Coming up: Gabi Epstein toasts the ladies who lunch in Talk is Free Theatre’s upcoming Company.