Review Roundup: JUST FOR ONE DAY - The Live Aid Musical Opens In Toronto

JUST FOR ONE DAY – The Live Aid Musical is making its North American premiere at CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto through 16 March 2025. Read the reviews!

The Toronto run will be followed by its highly anticipated West End season at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London’s West End from 15 May 2025 to 10 January 2026. This acclaimed new musical had a record-breaking world premiere at London’s The Old Vic theatre January 2024 – where it became the theatre’s fastest selling musical ever.

Marking 40 years since the iconic Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia, 10% from the sale of all tickets to JUST FOR ONE DAY will be donated directly to The Band Aid Charitable Trust. On 13 July 1985, music united the world. Now, 40 years on, discover the behind-the-scenes story of Live Aid in a whole new way at JUST FOR ONE DAY - The Live Aid Musical. 

This exhilarating night out with hit songs by Bob Dylan, David Bowie, The Who, U2, Queen, Madonna, The Police, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross and more of the iconic artists who made history at simultaneous charitable concerts in London and Philadelphia.

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Joshua Chong, Toronto Star: Objectively speaking, John O’Farrell’s Live Aid retrospective doesn’t stand out among the sea of jukebox musicals that wash up on our shores these days. His dialogue is often trite. The characters come across as one-dimensional, cardboard cut-outs. And the songs (including hits such as “Dancing in the Streets,” “My Generation” and “All You Need Is Love”) aren’t integrated with the story so much as they’re body checked into the plot. 

Aisling Murphy, The Globe and Mail: Just For One Day is yet another jukebox musical, with all the boons and pitfalls such a work might imply. Its tracklist, studded with songs by everyone from Queen to Bryan Adams, is nearly as rousing as Live Aid itself, and Matthew Brind’s new arrangements lift the anthems of the 1980s to new heights. Indeed, the music of Just For One Day is close to flawless, impeccably sung by its rock-solid cast and impressively steered by musical director Patrick Hurley (even though Gareth Owen’s sound design occasionally over-amplifies the band, vibrating the walls of the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre).

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