TORONTO – Producer David Mirvish says he hopes to inject a “sense of fun” into his theater company's 2024-2025 season with a bit of Hollywood and stage shows.
Mirvish Productions announced Tuesday that it has planned musical versions of Back to the Future, Beetlejuice and Moulin Rouge for its lineup that begins in the fall.
They join the season opener, a stage adaptation of Yann Martel's Canadian novel-turned-film, Life of Pi, the return of ABBA-fueled favorite Mamma Mia, and the previously announced open series of The Lion King.
A seventh subscription show will be added to the season at a later date, while productions for off-season programming will be announced in April.
Mirvish described the season as another step in returning Toronto's theater scene to its pre-pandemic popularity, with shows that appeal to the whole family.
“It’s a little younger than what we’ve traditionally seen,” the theater impresario said in a call from London.
“We live in a time where we're coming out of our shells, and I hope that's exactly what people find entertaining.”
The season will begin in September with the three-time Tony-winning production of “Life of Pi,” which makes Toronto its only Canadian stop, according to Mirvish. The London show, which is currently touring the UK and Ireland, has won critical and public acclaim for its elaborate use of large-scale puppetry.
The production runs at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theater through October.
A touring production of “Mamma Mia” then arrives in space for a limited run in October, while “The Lion King” opens at the Princess of Wales Theater a few weeks later, in November.
“Moulin Rouge! The musical!” adapts Baz Luhrmann's vibrant film into a jukebox stage show. The 10-time Tony winner opens in November at the CAA Theater, while a musical version of Tim Burton's “Beetlejuice” will move into the same theater in May 2025.
Next summer, “Back to the Future: The Musical” will make a splash with original songs by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard, the co-writer of Alanis Morissette's “Jagged Little Pill” album. It opens at the CAA Theater in July 2025.
The new season of Mirvish leans heavily on old favorites and familiar franchises, and includes only one original Canadian production: “The Lion King.” But the broadly attractive pricing proved an effective way to lure Canadian audiences back to theaters, the producer acknowledged.
Mirvish said the theater company's current main season subscribers increased 33 percent from the previous year, reaching 40,000 subscriptions for the 2023-2024 season.
They hope to reach pre-pandemic levels of 47,000 subscribers with the 2024-2025 season, according to John Karastamatis, the company's director of sales.
But some in Toronto's theater sector have warned that this year could be difficult for the industry as some longtime theatergoers continue to stay home, public funding is insufficient and sponsors become harder to find.
These challenges are primarily faced by nonprofit theater companies, Mirvish said, as they must walk the line of success to maintain their grants.
“They have to flip a coin and land it on the wire,” he added.
“I only have one challenge: If I don’t make money, I won’t be able to do another show in the future.”
But Mirvish said a loss-making show in the for-profit theater sector brings its own setbacks.
“You make a mistake once in the theater for a week, and it takes you 10 weeks to correct it.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published February 13, 2024.
