Dive into Toronto’s performing arts scene with summer 2025’s must-see events from Canadian, Indigenous and international performers.

Toronto is a wonderland for arts lovers. Whether you’re a fan of visual arts, live music, film or theatre, there’s always a festival, event or performance to plan an anniversary getaway or family trip around. Here are 10 theatre, musical and dance performances you won’t want to miss.

2-Spirit Cabaret, 9th Edition

A celebration of Two Spirit and Indigiqueer resilience and creativity, 2-Spirit Cabaret, 9th Edition (June 12, 2025) features music, dance, drag, comedy and performance art. 

A joint production of Native Earth Performing Arts and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, this Queer Pride Festival event includes a pre-show reception with food, plus music by DJ KIMIWAN.
 

Anna Karenina

This intriguing new version of Anna Karenina (June 13–21, 2025) gets its North American premiere this summer, as the National Ballet of Canada performs Christian Spuck’s choreography of Leo Tolstoy’s tragic novel. 

With its powerful storytelling, sumptuous period costumes, cinematic projections and a curated score featuring work by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Witold Lutosławski, this is a performance dance lovers (and aficionados of 19th-century Russian literature) won’t want to miss!

Tafelmusik Summer Baroque Festival

Go for Baroque this summer: it won’t cost you a thing! The Tafelmusik Summer Baroque Festival (June 16, 21, 25 & 28, 2025) is a free, four-concert series showcasing the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, plus faculty and participants in its Baroque Summer Institute program. Performances include informal chamber music recitals and a barnburner of a closing concert with 110 musicians and choralists on deck. 

 

Toronto Jazz Fest

Toronto is a summer Mecca for jazz lovers, with not one but two international jazz festivals filling the air with swing, blue notes, improv and syncopation. First up is the Toronto Jazz Fest (June 20–29, 2025); the Beaches International Jazz Festival follows hot on its heels in July.

At Toronto Jazz Fest, fans can choose from an array of free and ticketed events at venues across town. This year’s bold name performers include: the incomparable Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis (June 20, 2025 at Massey Hall); legendary Blues and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Mavis Staples (June 23, 2025 at Elgin Theatre); and GRAMMY-winning global music performer Arooj Aftab (June 24, 2025 at Koerner Hall). 

Summer Music in the Garden

Easy, breezy waterfront vibes make for a promising season of free summer concerts at the Toronto Music Garden. 

The Summer Music in the Garden series (most Thursdays and Sundays, June 21–August 28, 2025) consists of 18 intimate, live music performances by Indigenous, Canadian and international artists, including JUNO Award winners. 

Performances take place under a landmark willow tree in a garden inspired by Bach’s “Suite No. 1 For Unaccompanied Cello.”

This summer’s program includes the gospel stylings of Melissa Davis and Friends, the flamenco artistry of Mariana Collado, plus JUNO- and Prix OPUS-winning violinist Mark Fewer.

 

Beaches International Jazz Festival

The Beaches International Jazz Festival (July 4–27, 2025) is an annual celebration of music that’s now in its 37th year. The festival takes over the east end Beaches neighbourhood each summer with free concerts galore: in the parks, along Queen Street East and on Woodbine Beach. 

Must-see events include the Salsa on the Beach (July 11, 12 & 13, 2025), plus a performance by festival headliner, Johanne Linstead (July 22, 2025). The chart-topping guitarist is known for his Afro-Cuban and Middle Eastern sound. His “From Spain to Cuba” show at the Beaches United Church is the festival’s only ticketed event, and a fundraiser for Michael Garron Hospital. 

Dream in High Park: Romeo & Juliette

Enjoy theatre under the stars with Canadian Stage’s production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliette (July 13–August 31, 2025).

A talented ensemble cast brings life to Shakepeare’s romantic tragedy about star-crossed young lovers, in a production that’s suitable for all ages, including kids.

Shakespeare in the Park at the High Park Amphitheatre has been a Toronto tradition for over four decades. Bring a picnic (or takeout from nearby Roncesvalles Village) and blanket, or rent low-profile lawn chairs at the event. (Contact the box office to reserve wheelchair-accessible seating.)

 

Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Another interpretation of a Leo Tolstoy masterpiece, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (July 15–August 24, 2025) is based on a nugget from Tolstoy’s sprawling novel, War And Peace. Love, infidelity and existential angst are all on the menu in this smash-hit musical, which won raves—and two Tony Awards—in its New York run.

The Toronto production was fully sold out during its entire 16-week run at Streetcar Crowsnest theatre a few years back, and this move to Mirvish Production’s much larger Royal Alexandra Theatre ensures theatre lovers can catch this audacious work in all its glory.

Toronto Summer Music

Toronto Summer Music (July 10–August 22, 2025) is both a festival and an incubator for up-and-coming talent, featuring world-renowned artists and providing high-level training to emerging musicians.

Powerful and unforgettable, one of the can’t-miss performances at this year’s festival is Missing: In Concert (July 24, 2025), a chamber opera that vocalizes the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Métis playwright Marie Clements and JUNO Award-winning composer Brian Current have teamed up to create a journey of loss and hope that is told in English and Gitxsan (a First Nations language widely spoken in the B.C. region where the story is set.)

 

Old Times

Close out the summer while kicking off the 2025-2026 theatre season with a Toronto show-cation. Soulpepper’s Old Times (August 6–September 7, 2025) is a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat. Harold Pinter’s work—considered among his best work, and some of the best theatre around—looks at memory, power and desire as three old friends reunite after two decades apart.