#1
Posted: 7/24/10 at 4:05pm
James Adams
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published on Friday, Jul. 23, 2010 9:33PM EDT
Last updated on Friday, Jul. 23, 2010 9:34PM EDT
.Layoff notices were handed to more than 30 employees of Dancap Productions Friday as the Toronto-based theatre company prepares for the Aug. 22 close of its long-running presentation of the Jersey Boys musical and a limited engagement of South Pacific Sept. 5.
The bulk of the layoffs occurred among sales staff, said publicist Carrie Sager, because, as Dancap has yet to announce what it might mount either later this year or in the first half of 2011, “there’s nothing to sell.”
“What Dancap is doing now is going back to the core staff that they had when they first started the company [in 2007] and will be building up a new subscription season for next year …[Then they] will be bulking up [on staff] again,” she said. The layoffs are “pretty much a business-as-usual kind of experience, unfortunately. Shows close, people move on.”
At the same time, Ms. Sager was quick to scotch gossip that the layoffs were a sign that Dancap founder Aubrey Dan was giving up the impresario business. “The answer is a big, fat no to that. … He’s not going anywhere; the company’s not going anywhere; there’ll be a season next year.”
Mr. Dan, 46, conceived Dancap as a challenger to Mirvish Productions, which, following the collapse of Livent earlier in the decade, has been the dominant commercial theatre producer in Canada’s largest city. However, while his production of Jersey Boys recently recorded its millionth customer, Mr. Dan has had few indisputable box-office successes. His Toronto premiere, in late October last year, of the off-Broadway musical The Toxic Avenger, for example, folded after a run of just over two months. Moreover, he’s been frustrated in his efforts to find a suitable downtown venue, whereas Mirvish owns four – the Canon, the Princess of Wales, the Royal Alexandra and the Panasonic.
Ms. Sager wouldn’t say what Dancap’s “core staff” will be after layoffs. However, observers of Toronto’s theatre scene said Friday that Dancap employees have numbered as many as 60. Ms. Sager acknowledged staff levels are currently “at a peak” since Jersey Boys, the bio-musical on Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, has been playing continuously in the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts since August, 2008.
Besides Jersey Boys, Dancap has only one other show playing in Toronto, a touring production of Miss Saigon that opened recently at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts and will close there Aug. 1 to make way for South Pacific, another touring presentation, on Aug. 12. Meanwhile, “there is no confirmed date for the new season announcement,” Ms. Sager said,“but everyone would agree, the sooner the better.”
Mr. Dan, son of Leslie Dan, one of Canada’s wealthiest men (last year Canadian Business estimated his personal wealth at more than $1-billion), has invested in several Broadway and West End London shows, including Come Fly Away, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Memphis and The Addams Family. It’s anticipated at least a couple of these could appear as Dancap productions in Toronto next year.
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published on Friday, Jul. 23, 2010 9:33PM EDT
Last updated on Friday, Jul. 23, 2010 9:34PM EDT
.Layoff notices were handed to more than 30 employees of Dancap Productions Friday as the Toronto-based theatre company prepares for the Aug. 22 close of its long-running presentation of the Jersey Boys musical and a limited engagement of South Pacific Sept. 5.
The bulk of the layoffs occurred among sales staff, said publicist Carrie Sager, because, as Dancap has yet to announce what it might mount either later this year or in the first half of 2011, “there’s nothing to sell.”
“What Dancap is doing now is going back to the core staff that they had when they first started the company [in 2007] and will be building up a new subscription season for next year …[Then they] will be bulking up [on staff] again,” she said. The layoffs are “pretty much a business-as-usual kind of experience, unfortunately. Shows close, people move on.”
At the same time, Ms. Sager was quick to scotch gossip that the layoffs were a sign that Dancap founder Aubrey Dan was giving up the impresario business. “The answer is a big, fat no to that. … He’s not going anywhere; the company’s not going anywhere; there’ll be a season next year.”
Mr. Dan, 46, conceived Dancap as a challenger to Mirvish Productions, which, following the collapse of Livent earlier in the decade, has been the dominant commercial theatre producer in Canada’s largest city. However, while his production of Jersey Boys recently recorded its millionth customer, Mr. Dan has had few indisputable box-office successes. His Toronto premiere, in late October last year, of the off-Broadway musical The Toxic Avenger, for example, folded after a run of just over two months. Moreover, he’s been frustrated in his efforts to find a suitable downtown venue, whereas Mirvish owns four – the Canon, the Princess of Wales, the Royal Alexandra and the Panasonic.
Ms. Sager wouldn’t say what Dancap’s “core staff” will be after layoffs. However, observers of Toronto’s theatre scene said Friday that Dancap employees have numbered as many as 60. Ms. Sager acknowledged staff levels are currently “at a peak” since Jersey Boys, the bio-musical on Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, has been playing continuously in the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts since August, 2008.
Besides Jersey Boys, Dancap has only one other show playing in Toronto, a touring production of Miss Saigon that opened recently at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts and will close there Aug. 1 to make way for South Pacific, another touring presentation, on Aug. 12. Meanwhile, “there is no confirmed date for the new season announcement,” Ms. Sager said,“but everyone would agree, the sooner the better.”
Mr. Dan, son of Leslie Dan, one of Canada’s wealthiest men (last year Canadian Business estimated his personal wealth at more than $1-billion), has invested in several Broadway and West End London shows, including Come Fly Away, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Memphis and The Addams Family. It’s anticipated at least a couple of these could appear as Dancap productions in Toronto next year.
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