Ultimate guide to the Toronto Fringe Festival: 15 must-see shows from the 2023 indie extravaganza

Choir

It’s shaping up to be a great year for musicals at the Fringe. This 75-minute semi-autobiographical tuner reunites theatre artists and sometime-Spice Girl imitators Anika Johnson and Barbara Johnston, co-creators of the Fringe hit “Blood Ties,” which was featured in TV’s “Orphan Black.” The musical comedy traces a year in the lives of the fictional Tierce de Picardie Children’s Chorus in the run-up to a major choral competition. The choir is played by over 30 singers between the ages of 11 and 18. Johnson and Johnston wrote the book, music and lyrics, and Johnston directs, with music direction by Jake Schindler. July 5 to 16 at the Al Green Theatre, 750 Spadina Ave.

Dancer (A Musical in Ten Furlongs)

This new musical, which won the Fringe’s 2023 Adams Prize for Musical Theatre, tells the inspirational true story of the first Canadian horse to win the Kentucky Derby. Though considered too small and feisty to be a winner, Northern Dancer defied the odds and triumphed at Churchill Downs in 1964. All the horses in the large-cast show are played by dancers without animal costumes or puppetry — it’s the choreography by Stacey Tookey (who also directs) and the performers’ bodies that express the horses’ physicality. Historical characters narrate the story, such as Northern Dancer’s trainer and the horse-breeding tycoon E.P. Taylor. July 5 to 16 at the Al Green Theatre

James and Jamesy: Easy as Pie

Two clowns. One pie. You know the rest — or do you? Canadian comedy duo and well-toured Fringe favourites James and Jamesy (Aaron Malkin and Alastair Knowles) turn an initial failure to deliver a pie-in-the-face clowning routine into a comedic exploration of trauma, memory, and love. With director David MacMurray Smith, Malkin and Knowles’s several previous James and Jamesy shows have toured widely to enormous acclaim, and “Easy as Pie” was a critic’s choice in the 2023 Orlando Fringe. Come ready for laughs and audience interaction, and hearts are likely to be warmed along the way. July 5 to 12 at Factory Theatre Mainspace, 125 Bathurst St.

An Incomplete List of All the Things I’m Going to Miss When the World Is No Longer

It’s the end of the world as we know it, so why not celebrate with a queer synth-pop musical? This show, set against the announcement of the exact moment the world will end, was created by Dante Green with a majority Indigenous/people of colour and queer/gender nonconforming ensemble. It’s enjoyed well-received runs in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York and Seattle, and was recently a capstone project for the musical theatre program at Sheridan College. Green directs this Fringe staging, which features musical direction by Chris Tsujiuchi, choreography by the stellar Alyssa Martin and an optional audience participation dance party. July 6 to 15 at Factory Theatre Mainspace

Emo Majok: African Aussie

Born in an East African refugee camp, Emo Majok has risen in Australian standup comedy circles and is bringing his story to the Toronto Fringe for the first time. Majok made it to the finals of “Australia’s Got Talent” with his comedy, which combines inspirational messages about hope and resilience with hilarious anecdotes. This show, which premiered at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe and has since toured across Australia, traces his journey including emigration to Australia when he was eight, and the challenges and rewards of navigating different cultural traditions and expectations. July 5 to 15 at the Tarragon Theatre Solo Room, 30 Bridgman Ave.

Good Old Days

In hit Fringe shows like “The Huns” and “Anywhere” — both awarded Patrons’ Pick and Best of Fringe honours — playwright Michael Ross Albert has shown he understands how much high-stakes drama you can pack into a 60-minute Fringe slot. His latest concerns two former friends (Brianna Wright and Dora nominee Cass Van Wyck) who reunite at the apartment they once shared then proceed to chase each other across a surreal, fractured Toronto in search of the titular good old days. With Dora-winning director Jill Harper at the helm, expect a thrilling ride. July 6 to 16 at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace

No One Special

The Fringe has always been a terrific place for artists to try out new things. That’s clearly the case with Julie Kim, who’s best known as a standup comic — her credits include a 2022 Just for Laughs gala and touring 40 cities with Ronny Chieng — and writer. “No One Special” chronicles her early life as the daughter of Korean immigrants living in a small apartment over a Toronto convenience store. If that sounds familiar, yes, Kim contributed to the writers’ room of the hit series “Kim’s Convenience” and she wrote jokes for its star, Marvel superhero Simu Liu, when he hosted the Junos. But while this show will have laughs, expect a lot more as Kim explores themes like money, love, gender and bullying. July 6 to 16 at the Tarragon Theatre Solo Room

Ms. Titaverse

Back in January 2020, the all-Filipina company Tita Collective made an impressive debut at the Fringe’s sister festival, Next Stage, with “Tita Jokes,” a raucous, high-energy sketch revue about their Filipina elders. Now the company is back with a musical comedy about their own lives as Filipina-Canadian millennials caught between two cultures. The show, featuring Ann Paula Bautista, Belinda Corpuz, Ellie Posadas, Alia Rasul and Maricris Rivera, is set at a beauty pageant, something celebrated in the Philippine community. Who will be crowned the winner? If their past hit show is any indication, the audience. July 5 to 15 at Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace

Dead End

Entering the real estate market can be treacherous, but did you also know it could be deadly? That should become clear in Michael Posner’s dark comedy about a real estate agent who’s showing a once-grand English manor to a couple. What the prospective buyers don’t know is that the agent’s wife has recently gone missing. While the synopsis promises a big, twisty mystery, there’s no mystery about some of the creative team’s talent. Posner is an acclaimed journalist and biographer, while actor Chris Gibbs is considered Fringe royalty for his solo shows like “Not Quite Sherlock” and “Like Father, Like Son? Sorry.” July 6 to 16 at the Al Green Theatre

The Life Between Us

The Fringe’s KidsFest is a great way to get younger audiences hooked on theatregoing. And this show, written and performed by real-life father and daughter Faisal Butt and Sloane Eveleigh, promises to be something audiences of all ages will discuss afterwards. The two tell stories and jokes (Butt is a professional standup comic), while wearing matching red track suits. Through it all, they ask the audience if kids or adults know best. Sounds like a pretty fun introduction to interactive theatre. Proof that the family that plays together … puts on plays together. July 5 to 16 at the St. Volodymyr Institute, 620 Spadina Ave.

The Will of a Woman

The dazzling historical mansion that is now the Spadina Museum will serve as the backdrop for “The Will of a Woman,” a new immersive theatre production by Fringe favourite Steven Elliott Jackson, who has penned shows such as “The Seat Next to the King,” “The Garden of Alla” and “Three Ordinary Men.” This historical play, based on true events, follows heiress Elizabeth Bethune Campbell, who in the 1920s became the first woman to defend herself before the Privy Council in England after she learned that her mother’s trust had been defrauded. With only 25 tickets per show, this will likely be a sellout. July 5 to 16 at the Spadina Museum, 285 Spadina Rd.

Maggie Chun’s First Love and Last Wedding

Emerging playwright Helen Ho’s second play enters this year’s festival with two high-profile awards: it earned first place at the 2022 University of Toronto Spotlight Playwriting Competition and also won the prestigious 2023 Toronto Fringe New Play Contest. It follows Maggie Chun, who’s preparing to wed her high school beau, Rob Berkowski. But when Maggie’s middle school crush suddenly arrives, she’s forced into an unexpected awakening. Much of this cast and creative team were part of last year’s beguiling new Fringe play, “The Boy Who Cried.” This production should prove just as compelling. July 5 to 16 at Factory Theatre Mainspace

Caezus

Toronto playwright Nam Nguyen was the talk of the Fringe last summer with his delectable hit “A Perfect Bowl of Pho.” This year, he has teamed up with electronic-techno composer Chernilo (Maksym Chupov-Ryabtsev) to create a hip-hop musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.” In “Caezus,” the former Roman dictator is transformed into a hip-hop superstar (think Kanye West), who’s out to cement himself as not merely a ruler, but also God. If this new musical is anything like Nguyen’s previous creations, expect something wildly imaginative, subversive and ravishingly entertaining. July 6 to 15 at Factory Theatre Mainspace

In Passing

If a park bench was an animate being, what stories would it tell? What could it have heard — of the love and loss, the highs and lows of the people it encounters? “In Passing,” a tap dance performance co-created by Cori Giannotta and Dora nominee Johnathan Morin, aims to breathe life into these park bench tales: a man grappling with loss; a young adult struggling to make ends meet; a flowering romance. Rhythm & Sound, the dance company behind this production, has been featured at festivals across Canada. With a talented cast of tap dancers, this new production should be a rhythmic, toe-tapping treat. July 6 to 15 at the Al Green Theatre

Sadec 1965: A Love Story

Flora Le’s six-week motorcycle journey across Vietnam in 2013 forms the basis of this solo show, which arrives at the Toronto Fringe after a seven-city tour last year. In this poignant personal reflection, Le unpacks her complicated relationship with her estranged Vietnamese father and seeks to understand why he, who left Vietnam for Canada, never once talked about his native country. Through her search for answers, she finds a trove of love letters between her father and his high school sweetheart, whom he left behind in Vietnam during the war. Le weaves this correspondence into her powerful storytelling. July 5 to 15 at Tarragon Theatre Mainspace

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