The Toronto Fringe Festival and an Ontario-based performing arts magazine bump into each other at a grocery store.
Amid the squeak of carts on tile, the Fringe says: “Our 37th iteration runs July 2 to 13 and features over 100 productions across 22 venues. And for the first time, the festival hub is in the Distillery District. Since that game we played last year was so fun… wanna send some writers?”
“You know it!” replies the magazine. “Let’s make it 20 critics, together reviewing more than 60 shows.”
The Fringe cheerfully agrees, then heads to the self-checkout.
This year, Intermission will be publishing Fringe capsule reviews from contributors Krystal Abrigo, Divine Angubua, Ferron Delcy, Liam Donovan, Karen Fricker, Sulaiman Hashim Khan, Gus Lederman, Ilana Lucas, and Columbia Roy.
In addition, the 2025 cohort of the Toronto Fringe’s New Young Reviewers (NYR) program will cover one or two shows each. More information about the participants and facilitators can be found on the festival’s website.
Reviews will be published below as they come in. For ease of navigation, new pieces will be added to the top of the post. If you’re looking for a review of a specific show, we recommend using your device’s “find on page” function.
Happy Fringing!
Jimmy Hogg: The Potato King (VideoCabaret)
by Krystal Abrigo
What do you get when a manic, self-deprecating English comedian dates his way through southern Ontario? In Jimmy Hogg: The Potato King, the result is a fast-paced one-man show full of chaotic charm, delivered like a pint-fuelled pub tale… if the pub were dark, intimate and in-the-round.
Armed with only a stool, a mug, a phone, and his animated storytelling, Hogg, a Fringe circuit veteran, takes the audience through a whirlwind of dating misadventures, culinary metaphors, and unapologetic British self-loathing. The tales escalate from awkward romantic encounters to reflections on emotional growth, peppered with absurd details such as a Potato Grower Magazine monthly subscription (which is real, by the way) and a morel foraging session under the 401.
A joke about swapping a glass of milk for a pint of wine draws big laughs, as do recurring bits about Ontario place names and a sharp-tongued grandmother’s views on British cuisine. Some gags intentionally run long, but Hogg’s timing and command of the stage keep the momentum going.Rather than settling for a tidy conclusion, he leans into theatrical subversion, tossing out fake endings and a final callback to an earlier scene. Offbeat and sharply funny, The Potato King is an hour of controlled chaos that is surprisingly tender, even at its most unhinged.
Almost Ever After: A New Musical (Artists’ Play)
by Krystal Abrigo
Almost Ever After is an ambitious, clunky, and undeniably earnest attempt at a film-to-stage hybrid. Written and directed by Toronto Fringe regular Andrew Seok, the show adapts material from his upcoming musical film and draws inspiration from Love Actually. A 22-person cast navigates a web of loosely connected love stories. Some are cute, others overwrought, and many feel underdeveloped. The characters’ lives intersect in subtle and serendipitous ways, similar to the structure of the 2014 musical If/Then, though here the approach feels much less refined.
Staged in a brick-walled aerial gym with folding chairs, the show unfurls beneath a canopy of fairy lights, with a band onstage and performers cycling through romantic vignettes. A program note explains that each song aims to function like a standalone music video. But the addition of dialogue and plot between songs makes the concept feel disjointed. Rather than leaning fully into the music-video structure, the show tries to balance concert, story, and stage musical at once, without fully succeeding. The number of romantic couples also becomes overwhelming, making it difficult to invest in any particular arc.
There are touching moments. A scene between two strangers stuck in an elevator offers genuine warmth, while a storyline about a couple expecting a child carries the most emotional weight. The songs are sweet and Seok’s intentions sincere, but many of the jokes, packed with millennial and Gen Z references, fall flat. There’s heart here, but the ideas don’t translate very well onstage.
The 2025 Toronto Fringe Festival runs from July 2 to 13. Tickets are available here.
Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
