Celebrate Theatre This Summer: 2025 Edition
“What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play!”
— Cabaret
Summer break doesn’t have to mean boredom! There are plenty of amazing theatre experiences in and around the city to check out! This blog post highlights some of our favourites of the 2025 summer season.
Stratford Festival
Canada’s iconic repertory theatre in Stratford, ON rotates through their various drama, musical theatre, and Shakespeare productions in four theatre spaces. This means you can catch more than one show in one day, or make a weekend out of it and see tons of high-calibre productions, performed and produced by some of Canada’s best talent! Visiting the Festival makes for the perfect day trip getaway from the city; you’ll fall in love with the quaint and vibrant city of Stratford as you explore. The Festival’s 2024 season includes highlights such as Annie, Anne of Green Gables, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and As You Like It! Learn more at StratfordFestival.ca.
Photos: David Hou/Stratford Festival, Destination Stratford
Shaw Festival
Another iconic summer theatre festival is the Shaw Festival, located in Niagara-on-the-Lake! Like the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival rotates several productions in their three theatres. This makes for a great weekend in Niagara wine country—catch a show, then visit a winery or make a stop at the falls! There are plenty of wonderful shops and parks nearby as well! My personal favourite is the stellar COWS Ice Cream from P.E.I. which is the only location in Ontario! Highlights from the Festival’s 2024 season include Anything Goes, and The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe. Discover the all of this and more at ShawFest.com!
Dream in High Park
Have you ever wanted to see a show outside? Dream in High Park is one of the longest-running outdoor theatre experiences in the country, run by Canadian Stage. Audiences sit on stone steps onlooking a large-scale stage in the middle of Toronto’s High Park—a truly magical experience! This is perfect for a night out with the family, or an end to a day in the city! There are plenty of wonderful restaurants and shops on Bloor Street that you can explore before heading to the show. Just remember that there are no assigned seats, so be sure to book your ticket ahead of time and arrive early to get the best view! This year, you can catch Romeo and Juliet from July 13th to August 31st. Get your tickets at CanadianStage.com!
Photo: Dahlia Katz/Canadian Stage
Blockbuster Musicals
Mirvish Productions is known for hosting large-scale musicals at their four theatres in downtown Toronto, and this summer is no exception! You can catch a variety of shows, from Broadway tours to all-Canadian productions of fan-favourite shows.
At the Princess of Wales Theatre, don’t miss the Canadian production of The Lion King, which runs until August 30th! The decorated musical has dazzled audiences across the world with its iconic staging and design boasting numerous records including 110+ million audience members worldwide, 70 major awards internationally, and being the 3rd longest-running show in Broadway history. This production brings all the magic of the show on Broadway to Toronto while featuring exceptional Canadian talent!
After breaking records at the Streetcar Crowsnet Guloien Theatre last year with nine extensions and garnering four Dora Mavor Moore Awards, the Canadian premiere of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, co-produced by Crow’s Theatre and The Musical Stage Company returns this summer at the Royal Alexandra Theatre! The groundbreaking immersive musical retells 70 pages of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace through a genre-bending mix of opera, EDM, rock, and folk music. Don’t miss the chance to see some stellar local talent while the show runs from July 15th to August 24th.
Finally, check out the Broadway tours of two fan-favourite shows stopping off at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre! You can see Beetlejuice from June 3rd to July 19th and Back to the Future: The Musical from July 23rd to August 31st. This is the first time these shows will have been performed in Toronto, and both feature performers and team members from across the US and beyond!
All of the Mirvish theatres are conveniently located near other popular attractions in the heart of downtown Toronto, which makes for an exciting day in the city! There are also several ways to save on tickets—many shows offer discounted student tickets or rush tickets which are available at 9am on the day of a performance. Learn more about these ticket options and all of the shows at Mirvish.com!
Drama and BeyonD
For older students, or those looking to see something other than musical theatre, there are plenty of exciting productions at Soulpepper, which is located in Toronto’s Distillery District. This means you can shop and catch a bite to eat before your show, or make it a full day’s activity! Catch Red Like Fruit by Hannah Moscovitch, the Queer Youth Cabaret, Six String: A History of the Guitar, and Kim’s Convenience by Ins Choi at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Get tickets at Soulpepper.ca!
Looking for a truly unique experience? Tarragon Theatre’s Play Reading Week (June 11th to14th) features new work by local and national artists! Watch these plays being read LIVE, often for the first time ever! The best part? Tickets are FREE! This unique opportunity to engage with new works is not-to-be-missed. Discover Tarragon’s offerings at TarragonTheatre.com.
Theatre Training Opportunities
Although watching theatre is exciting, the summer is the perfect time to get some extra training in! There are several amazing opportunities in the form of camps, classes, and intensives that allow students to work with new people and gain another perspective on their theatre training. If you are curious about what is out there, read our IADA blog post entitled “Sharpen Your Skills This Summer“.
That’s all for now! We hope your summer is filled with sunshine and theatre fun! If you have any theatre activities you think we missed, send us a message on Instagram!
