Actress Kim Cattrall at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto this weekKevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail
As impresario David Mirvish sees it, his upcoming theatre season - which includes actress Kim Cattrall in Noel Coward's Private Lives and the award-winning London production of War Horse -is all part of the ongoing effort to keep Toronto squarely on the theatre map between Broadway and the West End.
For instance, the acclaimed London production of Private Lives, in which Cattrall stars as a divorcée embroiled in romantic intrigue on the French Riviera, will be performed in Toronto in September before moving to Broadway. Similarly, War Horse,set during the First World War, arrives in Toronto next February on the heels (or hooves) of its London run.
From New York, the hit Broadway revivals Mary Poppins and Hair will be arriving in November and March, 2012, respectively. And a new production of Chess, The Musical will cross the Atlantic from its U.K. tour in September for a Toronto run before its London debut.
"It's all very complex. It's all relationships," Mirvish said on Tuesday, after unveiling his 2011-2012 season.
For Cattrall, who spent her early childhood on Vancouver Island, playing the divorcée Amanda in Private Lives is like a homecoming: "The icing on the cake [is]to bring this home to my beloved Canada," she said, standing on stage at the Princess of Wales Theatre in an unseasonably lovely summer sheath, as if oblivious to the frigid cold outside.
"Since my start as an actress doing plays in Vancouver and in Toronto ... to bring this back to Canada means more than you can possibly know."
A highlight of the Mirvish season announcement were three puppeteers working an elaborate puppet of a horse, designed by South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company. It offered a taste of War Horse, the Olivier Award-winning play based on the children's novel about a boy retrieving a young horse shipped from England to France during the onset of the First World War.
Another technically innovative show on Mirvish's 2011-2012 program is the North American debut of The Railway Children, due in May. Based on the British serial about three Edwardian children living in poverty by a rural railway, the production features a working steam locomotive on stage. It will be performed in a specially built, 1,000-seat tent at the Roadhouse near the foot of the CN Tower.
Also coming to Toronto is The Blue Dragon, set in modern-day Shanghai and directed by Robert Lepage. The production, slated for January, 2012, delves into the intersection between the West and the Chinese art world and is a sequel to Lepage's earlier collaboration with Marie Michaud, The Dragon's Trilogy.
As Mirvish explained, the remounting of Chess - famous for songs such as One Night in Bangkok - will arrive in Toronto through a long-standing connection he has with British theatre producer Paul Elliot, who in turn is mentoring the young producer of Chess, Michael Harrison.
The main calling card Mirvish uses to bring Chess and other mass-appeal shows to Toronto is the strength of his season ticket subscriptions. Last year, despite lingering economic doldrums, subscriptions were relatively healthy at more than 37,000. "So we held our own," Mirvish said.
To help bolster his numbers, other productions are typically offered to Mirvish subscribers at a discount. This season, they include the Irish comedy Good Mourning Mrs. Brown in March, the dark and shocking West End horror play Ghost Stories this April, encore performances of the little musical entertainment 2 Pianos, 4 Hands in October and, in June, the Irish comedy Women Fully Clothed: Older & Hotter.
"Going to the theatre is a habit, and you don't want people to loose the habit. I'm hopeful that this year we will see the biggest subscription we've seen in years, because I think that this group of shows merit it," said Mirvish. "That's the question. Will people recognize it before it comes [and buy subscriptions] or will they wait and buy each show one at a time?"
Mirvish much prefers the former. The subscription figures are the magnet for bringing productions to Toronto in the first place.
Or as Mirvish likes to say, "When you're right in the theatre [business] you can make a few bucks. When you're wrong, you can slit your throat."