Here Are This Year’s Toronto Theatre Critics Award Winners

Top winners (clockwise from top left): John, 887, Come From Away

Toronto critics were divided on this year’s best play: John, produced by The Company Theatre, and 887, produced by Ex Machina/Canadian Stage, tied for Best Production at the 2017 Toronto Theatre Critics Association.

John also won for Best International Play and Best Supporting Actress (for Nora McLellan as an eccentric blind bed and breakfast guest).

887 also won for Best Design (for the intricate to-scale model of Robert Lepage’s childhood home).

Come From Away was the big winner in the musical category, picking up awards for Best New Musical, Best Production of a Musical, and Best Director (for Christopher Ashley).

Obsidian Theatre Company walked away with the most awards, winning five in total. Mastor Harold… and the Boys, a co-production with Shaw, won for Best Actor (André Sills), Best Supporting Actor (James Daly), and Best Director (the company’s artistic director Philip Akin). The musical Passing Strange won acting awards for Beau Dixon (Best Actor) and Vanessa Sears (Best Supporting Actress).

Other shows nominated include Mirvish’s Matilda, Théâtre Français/Pleiades’ The Post Mistress, Quote Unquote’s Mouthpiece, and Why Not’s Prince Hamlet.

This year’s judges were J. Kelly Nestruck of The Globe and Mail, Carly Maga and Karen Fricker of the Toronto Star, Robert Cushman of the National Post, Glenn Sumi of NOW Magazine, Steve Fisher of Torontoist, Lynn Slotkin of Slotkin Letter, Christopher Hoile of Stage Door, and freelancer Martin Morrow, whose theatre writing has appeared in Torontoist, The Globe and Mail, and Toronto Life.

The awards will be presented to the winners at The Globe and Mail Centre on June 19, and the ceremony will include a special citation to Jon Kaplan, given by his former colleague Glenn Sumi.

The full list of nominees is below.

General Theatre

Best Supporting Actor in a Play

James Daly, Master Harold… and the Boys (Obsidian Theatre Company / Shaw Festival)

Best Supporting Actress in a Play

Nora McLellan, John (The Company Theatre)

Best Actor in a Play

André Sills, Master Harold… and the Boys (Obsidian Theatre Company / Shaw Festival)

Best Actress in a Play

Dawn Jani BirleyPrince Hamlet (Why Not Theatre)

Best Director of a Play

Philip Akin, Master Harold… and the Boys (Obsidian Theatre Company / Shaw Festival)

Best Design

Robert Lepage, Jean-Sébastian Côté, Laurent Routhier, and Félix Fradet-Faguy, 887  (Ex Machina, presented by Canadian Stage)

Best International Play

John by Annie Baker (The Company Theatre)

Best Canadian Play

Mouthpiece by Norah Sadava and Amy Nostbakken (Quote Unquote Collective)

Best Production of a Play

John (The Company Theatre)

TIED WITH

887 (Ex Machina, presented by Canadian Stage)

Musical Theatre

Best Supporting Actor in a Musical

Dan Chameroy, Matilda the Musical (Mirvish)

Best Supporting Actress in a Musical

Vanessa Sears, Passing Strange (The Musical Stage Company and Obsidian Theatre)

Best Actor in a Musical

Beau Dixon, Passing Strange (The Musical Stage Company and Obsidian Theatre)

Best Actress in a Musical

Patricia Cano, The Post Mistress  (Théâtre Français de Toronto and Pleiades Theatre)

Best Director of a Musical

Christopher Ashley, Come From Away (Mirvish)

Best Production of a Musical

Come From Away (Mirvish)

Best New Musical

Come From Away by David Hein and Irene Sankoff (Mirvish)


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