What theatre shows to watch — and skip — on Toronto stages right now

It’s important to remind yourself when watching the Shenzhen Opera & Dance Theatre’s production of “Wing Chun Dance Drama” that everything happening onstage is unfolding live. Such as when Chang Hongji, playing the legendary Chinese martial artist Yip Man, torpedoes through the air, torso flying like a bullet. Or when, in a later scene that depicts Yip as he mourns the death of one of his students, Chang launches himself off the stage, only for his body to slam sideways onto the floor, over and over again. But despite the filmic atmosphere conjured by co-directors Han Zhen and Zhou Liya, making you feel as if you’re watching an action flick, everything is still happening in real time in front of our eyes. No edits. No cuts. No second takes. And that’s what makes “Wing Chun” all the more impressive. Until Jan. 4 at Meridian Hall, 1 Front St. E. 

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Wing Chung Dance Drama.”

The Woman in Black

“The Woman in Black,” the two-person ghost play now haunting the CAA Theatre, begins like a stuffy British drama, bogged down with unnecessary scenes and dialogue. But when you return after intermission, dreading what you think will be another hour of tedium, director Robin Herford’s production lunges at you like a zombie in a haunted house. It’s in this second half that “The Woman in Black” finally delivers on its promise of classic jump scare theatre. And Herford’s staging, remounted in Toronto by Antony Eden, is calibrated in a way that maximizes every scream. But it takes too long for Mallatratt’s play to get there. And ultimately, much of the surprise is derived from the sheer narrative whiplash. Until Jan. 4 at the CAA Theatre. 

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “The Woman in Black.” 

Robin Hood: A Very Merry Family Musical

In the age of greedy corporate oligarchs like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, it should be easy for us to cheer on a character like Robin Hood, the green-cloaked outlaw who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. But Canadian Stage’s latest holiday panto, the painfully bland “Robin Hood: A Very Merry Family Musical,” somehow makes rooting for its titular folk hero an exceedingly difficult task. But how can you not switch sides when “the rich” is portrayed here by the insanely talented Damien Atkins? Sporting a shaggy purple hairdo à la David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, and drawing out the vowels in his speech with an affectation recalling Catherine O’Hara’s Moira Rose from “Schitt’s Creek,” he runs away with the show. Until Jan. 4 at the Winter Garden Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Robin Hood.”

The Sound of Music

At the end of the first act of “The Sound of Music,” Christiane Noll’s Mother Abbess belts out one of the musical’s most soul-stirring numbers, “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” which she sings to Cayleigh Capaldi’s Maria, urging her young protégé to forge ahead on her own path, no matter how treacherous or challenging. The three-minute song is one of the many emotional summits in this final collaboration from the songwriting team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It’s also representative of director Jack O’Brien’s staging as a whole, which has rolled into the Princess of Wales Theatre for what feels like the umpteenth time in the past decade. It’s a production that does indeed climb ev’ry one of the musical’s mountains — but not without first pulling itself out of a pretty deep valley. Until Jan. 4 at the Princess of Wales Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “The Sound of Music.”

Rogers v. Rogers

I’ve paid dearly for being a Rogers customer over the years. Hidden fees. Overage fees. What-the-heck-are-these fees. Poor customer service. No customer service. Oh, and how about those network outages? But all those headaches felt almost — almost — worth it as I watched “Rogers v. Rogers,” Michael Healey’s new satire at Crow’s Theatre that skewers Rogers and its executive chairman, Edward Rogers, and manages to vindicate all of us long-suffering Rogers customers along the way. “Skewers,” though, feels too soft of a verb to describe this public humiliation. Because “Rogers v. Rogers” doesn’t just skewer its subject. It also roasts him to a crisp on top of an open flame. Until Jan. 17 at Streetcar Crowsnest’s Guloien Theatre. 

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Rogers v. Rogers.” 

We Will Rock You

In “We Will Rock You,” Ben Elton’s jukebox show that co-opts the music of Queen, a gang of rebel bohemians living in a futuristic dystopia attempt to revive the outlawed and long-forgotten genre of rock ‘n’ roll. In one scene, the leader of this ragtag resistance launches into a tirade about the quality of the autogenerated music that their tyrannical overseers feed them. “C-R-A-P,” he rants, chanting each letter of the word and spitting them out with an air of disdain. Even that, however, seems too mild of an insult to describe this flaming-hot mess of a production, now burning like a five-alarm fire at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. Until Jan. 18 at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. 

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “We Will Rock You.” 

& Juliet

David West Read’s irreverent Shakespearean musical rewrite — asking what if Juliet didn’t kill herself at the end of “Romeo and Juliet” — is back in Toronto following its pre-Broadway run in 2022. And while the two productions are nearly physically and materially identical, this Canadian remount somehow feels sharper, funnier and (dare I say) even better than than the one that was here before. Much of that is thanks to this cast, including Vanessa Sears, who delivers a career-high star turn in the title role. She’s a veritable triple-threat performer with powerhouse vocals that make these new arrangements of Max Martin’s hit tunes sound fresh. Until May 17 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. 

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “& Juliet.”