Mirvish gives sneak peek of upcoming season
A packed Princess of Wales Theatre was treated to a number of performances Monday highlighting some of the shows coming to Mirvish theatres for the 2018/2019. The audience heard two songs from the highly anticipated Dear Evan Hansen, a performance by Emily Cook from pop songwriter Sara Bareilles’ Waitress, and Ma-Anne Dionisio performing a song from Next to Normal, in a packed slate highlighting the upcoming shows coming to the four Mirvish theatres around the city.
The main seven shows, all of them previously announced by Mirvish in February, include (in chronological order) Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, School of Rock: The Musical, the slapstick comedy The Play That Goes Wrong, Girl From the North Country, The Last Ship — written by and featuring Sting — and, in July, Waitress, which has music and lyrics by Bareilles.
“We have brilliant shows, it’s going to be a great season,” said David Mirvish, founder of Mirvish Productions. Mirvish was also happy to be hosting Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, which comes to Toronto on Oct. 11 before heading to Broadway, and is helmed by people with longtime local roots. It will be directed by Des McAnuff with choreography by Sergio Trujillo, who worked together previously on Jersey Boys, and are from Scarborough and North York, respectively.
Beyond the main seven productions, there are three OffMirvish selections coming to the CAA Theatre: Oslo, about the 1993 Israel-Palestine peace accords; A Doll’s House Part 2, a sequel to the famous Henrik Ibsen play; and Next To Normal, a 2009 Tony Award winner with a star-studded cast including Dionisio and Louise Pitre.