The theatre shows to watch on Toronto stages right now

Chances are you wouldn’t feel like tap dancing to Leonard Cohen’s bleak “Everybody Knows,” which finds humanity bereft of truth, love and happiness (“Everybody’s got this broken feeling / Like their father or their dog just died”). And yet everybody isn’t dancer and singer Travis Knights. The fleet-footed hoofer turns the song into a joyful tippity-tap across the stage of Toronto’s CAA Theatre, prompting much audience applause, as he and nine other performers and musicians celebrate the late Bard of Montreal during a return to town of “The Secret Chord: A Leonard Cohen Experience.” Knights’ singing and dancing on “Dance Me to the End of Love,” inspired by music and beauty persisting despite the Holocaust’s hell, is similarly swoon-worthy. Until Aug. 16 at the CAA Theatre. 

Read Peter Howell’s full review of “The Secret Chord: A Leonard Cohen Experience.”

The Great Gatsby

While the musical, like most adaptations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” (including the 1974 and 2013 films), focuses on the romance and the glitz and glamour of Jazz Age excess, its characters are paper-thin, and its examination of that high school English class staple — the death of the American Dream — feels slight. What’s worse, Kait Kerrigan’s book for the musical — and Marc Bruni’s scattered direction — have no consistent point of view. We begin with Nick Carraway (Joshua Grosso) narrating his story for us, as he does in the novel. But that POV is quickly swept under the moveable art deco columns that dominate Paul Tate dePoo III’s elegant set. (The designer also created projections that attempt to enhance his sets, with uneven results.) Until Aug. 23 at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre

Read Glenn Sumi’s full review of “The Great Gatsby.”

Mamma Mia!

“Mamma Mia!,” the indefatigable jukebox musical that’s now back in Toronto for the second time in less than three years and that seemingly has more lives than Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats,” is a bit like a clingy ex with boundary issues. You know the type: the one who shows up unannounced at your doorstep, just when you thought you’d erased all memories of them. Nothing’s changed. They’re still dressed in that awfully garish garb from another millennium. They’re still all pizzazz and not much substance. And they still have that odd habit of breaking out into random ABBA songs whenever they want to make a statement. But boy, for all their flaws and idiosyncrasies, creaking joints and aching bones, do they still possess an undeniably winsome and irresistible charm. Until Aug. 30 at the Princess of Wales Theatre.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Mamma Mia!”

Luzia

The timing of Cirque du Soleil’s “Luzia” couldn’t be better. Not only does 2026 mark the 10th anniversary of the acclaimed spectacle, but with its Mexican vibe and standout soccer sequences, it fits right into the current FIFA World Cup zeitgeist. (Mexico, of course, is co-hosting the event along with us.) Plus, as is usual with most Cirque productions, the run coincides with summer, when flowers are in bloom, their colours at their most vibrant. Sure, there’s the chance of a sudden shower, but it’s usually the kind that stops after a few minutes, the sun appearing behind the clouds moments later. All of that — and a lot more — materializes beautifully in writer/director Daniele Finzi Pasca’s “Luzia,” one of the most cohesive and enchanting shows in the company’s touring repertoire. Until Aug. 30 at 2150 Lakeshore Blvd. W.

Read Glenn Sumi’s full review of “Luzia.”

Twelfth Night

This is a “Twelfth Night” concerned with how love can drive us mad — for better or for worse — and how it can cleave us apart from the inside out, leaving us vacillating erratically between our wildest extremes. Director Gregory Prest has judiciously and sensitively pared Shakespeare’s script down to approximately 100 minutes, running without an intermission. The trims are not so much made with a butcher’s knife as they are with a finely sharpened scalpel, performing a series of barely perceptible nips and tucks to the proceedings. And other than adding a new prologue, plus switching the order of the play’s first and second scenes (placing Viola front and centre), Prest’s revival remains mostly faithful to the play’s original structure. Until Sept. 6 at the High Park Amphitheatre.