In a good year, there will be one or two gems at the Toronto Fringe Festival, a couple of fresh plays or musicals that are ready to keep growing into full-length (or at least fully produced) projects.
This year, however, was special. The Toronto Fringe, which closed on Sunday, was 25 per cent more successful in 2025 than it was in 2024, with 48,655 tickets issued over the course of its two-week run. Anecdotally, nearly every show I saw – at venues ranging from the tiny Tarragon Solo Room to the more cavernous Michael Young Theatre – was sold out.
This year was also notable for its musical theatre presence, owing in large part to the Alliance for Canadian Musicals, a new initiative that saw eight new musicals staged at Theatre Passe Muraille. While only a few from this group of musicals were particularly strong – and just one, Ctrl Alt Delete: An Alphabetical Musical, made this list – it was still a treat to see so many artists explore the art of musical theatre in the low-stakes setting of the Toronto Fringe.
That said, here are four musicals from this year’s fest that, with the right mixture of dramaturgy, tech and financial investment, could go the distance. Don’t be shocked if these shows end up being programmed by established theatre companies in Toronto and beyond.
Iris (says goodbye)
In Iris (says goodbye), Iris is a young woman with the chance to choose what her next life will be.Stefi Kopp/Toronto Fringe
There’s a case to be made that Iris (says goodbye) was in a league of its own this year. A poignant, open-hearted chamber musical with a score in the vein of Jeanine Tesori, Carole King and Stephen Sondheim, the show could play Crow’s Theatre or Canadian Stage tomorrow – with a few minor tweaks.
Writers Margot Greve and Ben Kopp imagine purgatory as a massive, endless airport, where wayward souls must await the next flight back to Earth. At the top of the show, we learn that Iris is a young woman who’s been offered the chance of an (after-)lifetime – she’s allowed to choose what her next life will be.
Borrowing plot mechanics from The Mystery of Edwin Drood and, strikingly, Haley McGee’s Age Is a Feeling, Iris (says goodbye) empowers audiences to choose the lives Iris might live – as such, no two performances are alike.
Greve and Kopp have written a staggering amount of material, most of which won’t be seen during a given performance. I saw this show twice and was blown away by the cohesion of Kopp’s score; the tenderness of Greve’s book and direction. Standout performances by Michelle Blight, Sydney Gauvin and Luca McPhee infused the book and score with a youthful earnestness that brought tears to the eyes of even the most exhausted fringe-goers (this critic included).
That said, there’s room to tighten the book, particularly its randomization gimmick. Right now, there’s far too much room for a given performance to conclude without audiences seeing any of Greve and Kopp’s best material, namely the songs What Will Happen Next, Bequeathal, 2090 and Immortal.
There’s a seminal Canadian musical tucked just beneath the surface of this impressive, wrenching work – let’s hope an artistic director or producer gives Mixtape Productions the time and resources they need to keep polishing it.
Ctrl Alt Delete: An Alphabetical Musical
The letters of alphabet argue about which one to lay off in Ctrl Alt Delete.Douglas Price and Anwyn Musico/Toronto Fringe
Ctrl Alt Delete is a tight, hour-long musical about toxic work culture – with a silly twist. The alphabet needs to downsize a letter, and together, the glyphs argue about whom to lay off. Who needs the letter F, when the combination of P and H can do his job just fine?
Douglas Price’s material is classic Fringe fare, and the songs are catchier than you might expect – an anthem about the letter Z and its use in the word “pizza” has been a welcome earworm for me since the beginning of the festival.
There’s room to expand the show – there’s a structural resonance between Ctrl Alt Delete and Six that Price might benefit from exploring further – but with trims and additions, this could be one to keep an eye out for in more curated festival settings across Canada.
Playground
Playground follows new kid Eliot as he tries to make friends with his new classmates.Daniella McNeill/Toronto Fringe
A sweet new musical for young children, with music by Juno Award-winning children’s singer Jack Grunsky, Playground follows new kid Eliot as he tries to make friends with his new classmates. Of course, chaos ensues.
A story full of imagination (for both the kids onstage and the little ones in the audience) suggests that Playground could easily be picked up for further presentations at any theatre that specializes in work for kiddos. It doesn’t need much further workshopping, either – the material is pretty much ready to go as-is. (It probably bodes well that Herbie Barnes, artistic director of Young People’s Theatre in Toronto, was at the performance of Playground I attended.)
Almost Ever After
Andrew Seok’s Almost Ever After is about love in all its forms.Andrew Seok/Toronto Fringe
I wouldn’t often advocate for spending 90 minutes in a loft space crammed to the gills with people and no air conditioning. But Almost Ever After (almost) made the airless venue worth it.
Andrew Seok’s musical about love in all its forms – a meet-cute, a disintegrating marriage and an unplanned pregnancy all make appearances in the show – borrows from films such as Love Actually in the way it tangles seemingly unrelated storylines. Saccharine? A bit. But that’s sort of the point, and Seok winks at the audience more than once when he refers to existing romance stories.
A few of Seok’s songs are excellent – one about waiting for the result of a pregnancy test immediately springs to mind – but they grow weary by the end of the show. More time with the material might allow the music to feel less repetitive.
That said, the Toronto Fringe cast was excellent, with heavy-hitters including Kelly Holiff and Julia Pulo. Let’s hope there’s life left in this rom-com yet – it has some real potential.
