I attended more theatre in 2023 than in any previous calendar year. Lucky me!
And lucky Torontonians! There is no need to travel far to see high quality productions.
It is hard to pick a favourite show as so many were memorable. Easily in my top five was Master Plan, set unapologetically in Toronto and inspired by local politics and international events.
Solo stage performances such as True Crime and The Chinese Lady offered truly riveting experiences.
Musicals! Spamalot, Rocking Horse Winner, Kelly vs. Kelly, Great Comet. Of these my favourite was easily The Great Comet for its songs, staging and energy. Least fave... Spamalot, as the humour was a bit stale and outdated. Although I loved the storyline of Rocking Horse Winner, I really didn't like the score.
Tackling racism was a common theme this year, funded courtesy of government grants and corporate sponsors. Cabernet Noir, Fairview, Maanomoa, The Chinese Lady, and Appropriate all tackled some very sensitive content. Here my favourites tie between Maanomoa and The Chinese Lady for scripts that drew you in and challenged assumptions while not outright attacking the audience. Least favourite was Cabernet Noir, which came across to me like a theatre art exercise (not to mention a printed program distributed after the show that stated it "didn't give a f* what its largely white middle-aged audience would think of their show! *note to self to avoid any future MayDay productions).
I appreciated productions such as Maanomoa and Kelly vs. Kelly, where the playwrights and actors brought them to the stage as works in progress, knowing there would still be future tweaks and wanting to fine-tune based on audience interaction.
Fairview, Lehman Trilogy and Great Comet hailed from Broadway but used local talent to bring them to Toronto stages.
In a sense, all the shows had a historical bent. Looking at the list though I see the majority were set in times past. Even those set in the present will become history soon enough. The Fourth Turning had a more modern bent, but I didn't care much for sitting two hours without an intermission and listening to unending philosophical banter (although Rob quite liked it).
Generally I try not to look too deeply into the shows before I buy the tickets because I like being surprised and not overly influenced by reviews. There are only a few ticket purchases I regret (Cabernet Noir, Spamalot and The Fourth Turning), but even these still earned glowing reviews elsewhere.
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