This Week in Theatre: Queer Pride Festival, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Top Gun! The Musical, HELLO, Some Girl(s)

This Week in Theatre rounds up the most noteworthy live theatre playing right now in Toronto. It includes just-opened shows as well as productions that are about to close.

Queer Pride Festival / Buddies in Bad Times Theatre / Various times / PWYC - $20
Buddies Queer Pride Festival features a month of performance that celebrates the LGBTQ community. In anticipation of next week's main event, the theatre hosts a number of fabulous artists: Young, Gifted, and Black (June 27) includes the reading of a new play that sheds light on the experiences of Black, gay, and bisexual youth; Freaks and Geeks: The Drag Musical (June 27) is a celebration of all that is outcast, awkward, unusual, and beautiful; Paul Hutcheson's Pride Package (June 28) blends storytelling and stand-up; Bitch Salad Gives Back (June 29) features fierce female comedians; and Homo Night in Canada (June 30) celebrates the 12th year of stellar queer comedy.

A Midsummer Night's Dream / Shakespeare in High Park / 8:00pm / PWYC
Previously called The Dream in High Park, Canadian Stage puts the Bard front and centre for the 30th anniversary of their Shakespeare series. This year, they've recruited Richard Rose to direct the playwright's most famous comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Last year's The Winter's Tale, a far more challenging work, was an enchanting success that harnessed true magic under the stars. The Toronto summer tradition runs for two months.

Top Gun! The Musical / Lower Ossington Theatre / 8:00pm / $35
It's hard to believe this one still has wings. Ten years after its premiere at the Toronto Fringe Festival, Top Gun! The Musical has returned to the Lower Ossington Theatre. It's the last week of this revival of a revival of a revival about an inept director trying to mount a full-scale musical of that iconic 1980s blockbuster with Goose and Maverick. Whether this production has any gas left in the tank has yet to be seen.

HELLO / Electric Theatre / 8:00pm / $25
Recently profiled in our look at the new Electric Theatre in Kensington Market, Huge Picture Productions christens their new space with HELLO. The group has installed theatre style seating for 66, built a larger stage, and have equipped two walls for visual projections. The production is an electronic musical set during a worldwide extraterrestrial event. The show features an experimental soundtrack, film projections, light displays, and a cast of fourteen.

Some Girl(s) / Tarragon Extra Space / 8:00pm / 2:30pm / $20-$25
Neil LaBute has been a strong voice on the stage and screen for a number of years now. His plays In The Company of Men, The Mercy Seat, Fat Pig, and reasons to be pretty all present somewhat of a misanthropic view of the world. Some Girl(s), onstage for a short run at the Tarragon Extra Space, follows a character named Guy as he revisits a bunch of old flames that he treated poorly. After all the bed jumping, will LaBute's protagonist learn a thing or two?

Photo from Freaks and Geeks: The Drag Musical by Kai Yapp