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E-mailDavid Mirvish announced the 2009-2010 season amidst a flurry of singing, dance, video montages, and… politics? Yes, it’s true.
Just when the world thought he was gone… he’s baaack. Or well, actor Barry Flatman, reviving his role as former President George W. Bush, came out onto the stage of the Princess of Wales Theatre in full Texan swagger Tuesday morning to kick off the proceedings. His appearance/performance was part of the announcement that Stuff Happens, the David Hare-penned play produced by Studio 180 to such acclaim last winter, is going to be revived as part of the Mirvish subscription season, along with eight other works, most of them musical.
The first work formally announced balances the dramatic with the musical, taking its pointers from its filmic counterpart, The Harder They Come. The 1972 Perry Henzell film has been adapted to the stage, and after wildly successful runs in England, it’s set to hit Toronto in the early fall. Along with words from Justine Henzell, the filmmaker’s daughter, remembering the tough times her father endured in making and then promoting the film, was a lengthy speech (make that sales pitch) by the show’s British producer, who spoke about the way the musical brings “not only ethnicities but generations” together. There’s no denying the power of Henzell’s film, or the fact that its transition onto the stage is going to be memorable, but such a hard sales pitch, particularly to the assembled mass of (mainly) subscribers, seemed strangely patronizing to the material. Best moment of the presentation was the accapella performance by reggae legend (and original star of The Harder They Come) Jimmy Cliff, who initiated some audience interaction of his own with performances of “Rivers of Babylon” and “Higher and Higher.” For all the pitching, the musical is sure to attract a wildly diverse audience –something Toronto theatre desperately needs right now.
As well as The Harder They Come, a number of other shows in the Mirvish 09/10 season are film-to-stage translations. The Australian drag-queen comedy-drama Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,set to open in London next month, will be produced, along with touring productions of Fiddler on the Roof, which will feature Israeli star Topol giving his final performance as Tevye, Young Frankenstein (based on the Mel Brooks film), and Little House on the Prairie, starring original television series star Melissa Gilbert.
Balancing the musicals are dramas Stuff Happens and the Caryl Churchill play Cloud Nine (directed by Alisa Palmer), as well as the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tracy Letts play August: Osage County, all of which may well be performed at Mirvish’s newly-acquired Panasonic Theatre on Yonge Street. The 700-seat theatre is perfect for the sort of intimacy and burning intensities each work features.
Set to be produced as well is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the much-loved Lloyd Webber/Rice musical. Mirvish Productions may be engaging in another collaboration with CBC Television to find a Canadian lead, but details have yet to be confirmed. The series would be modeled after the British program Any Dream Will Do, which invited viewers to choose a male lead for the current production there. Mirvish and CBC last collaborated when the network produced How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, a reality-based program that asked viewers to vote on a lead for The Sound Of Music, currently onstage at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre.
