The show must go on — just not right now
Toronto theatres may remain dark for the foreseeable future, but to quote a line from the musical Hamilton: “You’ll be back, time will tell.” On Monday, Mirvish Productions announced that its new subscription season will begin in January 2021, four months later than its usual September bow.
Founder David Mirvish said the delay was due to an abundance of caution over COVID-19. “I have every confidence in our leaders and in the hardworking, selfless people who are at the vanguard of finding medical and scientific solutions,” he said. “I truly believe they will succeed in getting our world back to health. I hope that this happens sooner than later. But an entire season of shows takes a lot of planning and coordination ... so I believe it is to everyone’s benefit to make this change.”
He noted that if public health officials declare that theatres may open sooner than January, the company is prepared to resume performances of Come From Away at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre. This could happen quickly, given that the sets and costumes are on hand and most of the performers are local.
The subscription season, which will take place at the Princess of Wales theatre, will consist of six shows:
❚ ❚ The Canadian première of Love Never Dies, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 2010 sequel to The Phantom of the Opera.
❚ ❚ The North American première of Pressure, a drama by David Haig, set in the run- up to the D- Day landings of the Second World War.
❚ ❚ The new musical & Juliet, written by Toronto’s David West Read, that imagines what might have happened if Juliet hadn’t died at the end of Shakespeare’s play.
❚ ❚ The Canadian première of the latest revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1943 musical Oklahoma! The company calls it “a radical reimagining of this most revered of American musicals.” ❚ ❚ A new adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, which will arrive in Toronto directly from the Chichester Festival Theatre in England.
❚ ❚ The Canadian première of a new production of Jesus Christ Superstar that originated at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London and went on to win the Olivier for Best Musical Revival.
Mirvish recently announced that the Canadian première of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, originally set to open Oct. 23, 2020, has been delayed until sometime in 2021. It will play at the Ed Mirvish theatre, the same venue where Hamilton was playing until March 14, when Mirvish shut down all its venues due to COVID-19.
A spokesman for the company said that Hamilton might still resume there when theatres reopen, but that it would be a complicated affair since most of the members of the touring company live in America. However, for now the sets and costumes remain in the Toronto venue.