Amid a wave of patriotism in the Toronto arts scene, spurred by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats toward Canadian sovereignty, the nominators behind the city’s top theatre honours went all in on celebrating homegrown works.
“Mahabharata,” Why Not Theatre’s epic retelling of an ancient Sanskrit text, picked up a leading 15 nominations on Wednesday morning for the 2025 Dora Awards, which recognize the best of Toronto theatre, opera and dance. The two-part play, which premiered at the Shaw Festival in 2023 but only made its Toronto premiere earlier this year, dominated the general theatre division, and scored nominations in both the outstanding new play and outstanding production categories.
Meanwhile, Britta Johnson’s “Life After,” a stirring Canadian chamber musical about a 16-year-old girl grappling with the sudden death of her famous father, topped the musical theatre division with nine nominations, including for actors Isabella Esler, Jake Epstein, Julia Pulo and Mariand Torres (filling out half the slots in the division’s individual performance category).
And in the opera division, the highly anticipated new Canadian work “La Reine-garçon,” which played at the Canadian Opera Company this past season, earned a leading seven nods, including for outstanding production.
The nominations cap off a bumper season for the performing arts sector, highlighted by an eclectic mix of shows, from intimate solo dramas to splashy, Broadway-style spectacles. For many companies, this past year also marked the first season in which audience attendance finally returned to pre-pandemic levels.
This year’s 225 nominations, across 43 award categories, were spread among a staggering 81 shows, representing some 59 companies.
“Mahabharata” was the only work to pick up more than 10 nominations this season. But the show’s dominance comes with a caveat. While the five-hour play is meant to be experienced as a cohesive whole, Dora nominators have considered each of the two parts separately. Indeed, in some categories, both halves will be up against each other.
In the race for outstanding production in the general theatre division, both parts of “Mahabharata” will face off against “Flex” (co-produced by Crow’s Theatre and Obsidian Theatre Company); “Rosmersholm” (Crow’s Theatre); and the Canadian Stage revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
Both parts of “Mahabharata,” co-created by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes, are also nominated in the division’s outstanding new play category. They’ll be competing against Akosua Amo-Adem’s “Table for Two”; Caleigh Crow’s “There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death, or The Born-Again Crow”; and Anusree Roy’s “Trident Moon.”
In the more wide-open musical theatre division, “Life After” will vie for the outstanding production prize alongside four other shows: “A Strange Loop,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and the holiday panto “The Wizard of Oz: The Toto-ly Awesome Family Musical.”
The leading nine nominations in the division for “Life After” come despite the show being ineligible for the outstanding new musical or opera award (a category shared between the two divisions). The musical previously won that prize, along with five other Doras, in 2018 for its acclaimed world premiere production.
This year, the shows nominated in that category are “La Reine-garçon,” “I Was Unbecoming Then,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White” and “Sankofa: The Soldier’s Tale Retold.”
Coal Mine Theatre was well represented in the independent theatre division, which recognizes smaller productions. The company’s presentations of “A Case for the Existence of God” and “People, Places and Things” were both nominated for outstanding production.
In the dance division, five shows are nominated for outstanding production: “Big Time Miss,” “Contes pour la fin du temps,” “everything i wanted to tell you (but couldn’t, so here it is now),” “Ophis” and “Akshongay.”
Several notable artists are also nominated for their individual work this past season. “Kim’s Convenience” playwright Ins Choi was recognized for his hilarious and deeply moving performance in Soulpepper’s latest revival of the hit comedy, which will return for a remount later this summer. As well, “Schitt’s Creek” star Noah Reid scored a nomination for his starring role in “A Case for the Existence of God” at Coal Mine Theatre. Both actors each won a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award earlier this month for their performances.
The nominations for the Dora Awards were chosen by a committee of performing arts professionals working in Toronto. Jurors include performers, designers, directors, producers and arts administrators.
For the second consecutive season, Mirvish shows were ineligible for the Doras after the commercial theatre company withdrew in 2023 from the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, which administers the awards program. (Though “Life After” was presented in the off-Mirvish season, its lead producer was Yonge Street Theatricals.)
The winners of the 45th Dora Awards will be announced at a ceremony on June 30 at Meridian Hall. The event will be hosted by Dora-winning actor Peter Fernandes, nominated for his second acting Dora on Wednesday for his performance in “Fat Ham.”
