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THE BEST THINGS TO DO THIS WEEK

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Welcome to your new itinerary. You’re looking at Toronto Life’s brand new newsletter, Front Row, our roundup of the best events happening across our city each week, landing fresh in your inbox every Monday morning. 

I’ve been writing Toronto Life’s print culture section for more than a year, and in doing so, I’ve learned an important fact about the city’s cultural scene: there’s too much going on. Boiling down the options each month is an exercise in merciless curation, and far too many worthy picks wind up on the cutting room floor. Front Row was born to give you, our readers, a robust (yet manageable) guide to the week ahead.

Your itinerary comes in four parts. First, Hot Tickets, our top contenders for your attention. Then, some Free Stuff, which Toronto thankfully has lots of. After that, the Best of the Rest, a roundup of other noteworthy events. We end with Coming Up: concerts, plays and shows happening some months from now, but with tickets on sale today. (In this city, one must always plan ahead.)

Read on for this week’s best street fests, outdoor performances, classes and shows. Want to tell me what you’d like to see more or less of? Feel free to get in touch. You can also unsubscribe if you like. But, really, aren’t you curious?

Enjoy,

Canadian Stage’s annual play in the park returns for its 42nd year with the classic star-crossed lovers. Praneet Akilla (of SkyMed fame) plays this year’s Romeo alongside Lili Beaudoin, who played the lead in Juliet: A Revenge Comedy. Marie Farsi, who led the smash-hit stage adaptation of André Alexis’s Fifteen Dogs, directs. The show is pay-what-you-can, but it doesn’t hurt to get tickets in advance.

Bloordale’s street fest covers one of the hottest weekends of the summer, with the July sun beating down during the day and the nights long and steamy. This year’s theme—“bizarre”—celebrates all thingsweird and wonderful, featuring workshops and installations by local shops and creators, with a special focus on BIPOC artists. Check it out.

Scarborough’s Prairie Drive Park will be taken over by independent musicians, artists, chefs and craft vendors, with performances of Brazilian maracatu, Ethiopian jazz and more.

Gerrard Street East goes pedestrians-only from Coxwell to Glenside for a weekend of South Asian cuisine and culture, with performances spread across three stages.

Seaton Village residents perform professionally choreographed dances from their porches and lawns in this long-running neighbourhood tradition. 

A late-night market by the lake, with craft drinks, good food and live DJ sets. Everything is $10 or less, and the vibes are entirely free. Every Saturday until August 23.

Last week, the Toronto-based artist unveiled a new exhibition custom-made for the Museum of Contemporary Art, featuring his signature quilted designs. 

This touring exhibition invites the public to retrace the steps of the Soviet soldiers who liberated Auschwitz and witness, as they did, remnants of the 1.1 million murders committed at the Nazi concentration camp.

An ensemble of musicians and storytellers chart the rise of the guitar as the pre-eminent instrument of the modern age, shredding through folk, roots, jazz, flamenco, blues and rock. 

Inspired by the classic Hitchcock film about a Canadian pursued by spies in the UK, this Guild Festival Theatre production amps up the antics. Catch the performance outdoors in Guild Park.

The Welsh indie rock duo released their second album, Moisturizer,last Friday, but you’ll have to wait till September to see them live.

This Soulpepper production re-imagines the ancient Sumerian epic poem as a bromance told to the music of Ahmed Moneka and his Arabic jazz band.

The Tony-winning musical celebrating Michael Jackson’s 1992 Dangerous World Tour moon dances into Mirvish this fall. 

A horror-inspired production by Crow’s theatre, this play follows a high-powered lawyer haunted by his many misdeeds, forcing him to confront the costs of ambition.

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