Drowsy Tour To Start in Toronto? Edit: Bee & Q Too!

[Tag]

Posted: 3/7/07 at 1:42pm

As rumoured in today's Toronto Star newspaper, the Drowsy tour will start in the fall with Bob Martin (at least for the Toronto leg).

As for what theatre, the article says: No definite plans have been announced, but I do know when you're feeling drowsy, you want to wind up someplace where you already feel at home.

So I believe that would mean the Elgin Theatre?




Link Updated On: 3/10/07 at 01:42 PM

[Broadwayfanatic2]

Posted: 3/7/07 at 3:46pm

I'm excited!! I hope it comes, especially with Bob Martin. If ever you hear more news about the tour in Toronto with Bob Martin please PM me.

[allofmylife]

Posted: 3/7/07 at 4:22pm

Nice victory roll.

[vontusslegirl87]

Posted: 3/7/07 at 4:57pm

AHHHHH I AM SO EXCITED! = )Thanks for the info.!

[lightguy06222]

Posted: 3/7/07 at 5:59pm

cool! I dont know if there are official dates, but the tour IS coming to Los Angeles, and those dates have been announced!

www.centertheatregroup.org

July 8-20, 2008!

[Broadwayfanatic2]

Posted: 3/9/07 at 4:57pm

According to Backstage it will come to Toronto around the 18th of September. But they don't say where...

[Tag]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 9:37pm

EXCITING NEWS!


From the Toronto Star:

Martin Knelman
Entertainment columnist

Stagestruck Toronto investment tycoon Aubrey Dan is gambling millions on mounting a challenge to David Mirvish for Toronto's commercial theatre audience, the Toronto Star has learned.

Through his fledging company Dancap Productions Inc., Dan is in the final stages of putting together a razzle-dazzle 2007-2008 season designed to give him a slice of this city's high-end box office.

Sources say Dan has reached agreement with New York producers for the rights to three high-profile, touring Broadway musicals, although some details may need to be fine-tuned before contracts are signed.

The shows:


The Drowsy Chaperone, which began as a Toronto fringe show before becoming an award-winning Broadway hit, would open its North American tour in Toronto in the early fall at the Elgin Theatre in late September after the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.


The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which has been crisscrossing the U.S. for a year, will probably visit Toronto in early 2008.


Avenue Q, the Tony-winning show with amusingly dirty-mouthed puppets, expected to arrive in Toronto in mid-summer 2008 after starting its long-delayed tour in Los Angeles in September 2007.

Dan is Mirvish's first serious competitor for domination of the Toronto market to emerge since the fall of Garth Drabinsky's Livent company in 1998.

Dancap has provisional holds on a number of timeslots at the 1,500-seat Elgin, according to theatre manager Brett Randall.

"Aubrey Dan may want to spread his shows around to different theatres," says Randall.

"I think this is going to be an exciting development for a lot of people in the Toronto theatre community.

``But until he's ready to announce his plans, I really can't divulge any details."

Theatre circles are also abuzz with reports that Dan may use the Toronto Centre for the Arts at Yonge St. and Sheppard Ave.

Under one possible scenario, Dan could rent the theatre for one or more of his shows.

But in the past he has also had discussions with the board of the centre about a long-term arrangement under which he would become its first outside operator since Drabinsky.

(Dancap's office has been set up across the street from the centre.)

The largest of its three auditoriums – where Drabinsky staged Showboat and Ragtime – has about 1,750 seats.

Dan, the 44-year-old president of Dancap Private Equity Inc., founded in 2000, is the son of pharmaceutical tycoon Leslie Dan, ranked by Canadian Business magazine as one of the 30 wealthiest people in Canada.

Dan did not return my calls, but certain notable figures in the theatre world have been advised to clear their calendars for Monday, April 23, in order to be present when Dan makes a major announcement.

His enthusiasm for the theatre business was evidently not deterred by a series of money-losing ventures he undertook in collaboration with Canadian Stage, starting with Urinetown in the summer of 2003 (on which Dan lost most of his $1.5 million investment) and last year's dismal revival of Hair.

After a series of conflicts with artistic producer Martin Bragg, Dan decided to go his own way as a producer, and lured veteran CanStage theatre executive Paul Shaw away to become head of Dancap Productions – with the task of shopping for shows Dan could present in Toronto.

"Over the years we have had a lot of competitors," David Mirvish said yesterday, "and that could be a good thing if it raises awareness of theatre in the city."

It was Mirvish, who gambled by putting The Drowsy Chaperone into his subscription season in 2001 when it was an untried fringe show.

So it is ironic he should miss out on bringing it back after its Broadway triumph.

But it would have been a problem for Mirvish to offer it to subscribers who had already had it on their subscription series so recently.

Unlike Mirvish, Dan does not have the security of more than 40,000 subscribers.

But he is expected to market his season as a package, with each show running three or four weeks.

It's a big risk, though, because he will face weekly costs of more than $700,000.

That includes about $300,000 a week he will have to guarantee the New York producers, plus about $50,000 a week to rent a Toronto theatre, plus an advertising budget of about $150,000 a week, plus taxes and other costs.

Avenue Q – which upset Wicked in 2004 when it won the Tony for Best Musical – went to Las Vegas as part of an exclusive deal that ruled out any other North American production. But instead of running for five years or more, the Vegas production closed after one mediocre year – making possible a belated tour.

"It may be exciting for Toronto to have so much going on in commercial theatre," says veteran producer Ronald Andrew, who runs the Canadian arm of Live Nation (owners of the Panasonic Theatre).

"But the real question is going to be whether it is possible for this city to support all these shows.

``We'll see."

Article

[HatBoy]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 9:44pm

Hmm, I seem to have dirtied my pants.
This is exciting.

[Tag]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 8:14pm

bump

[Broadwayfanatic2]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 8:55pm

Wow! I hope this is a success!!

[theminutepast]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 7:23pm

Bump.

Has anyone heard anything about casting for this yet? It seems very unlikely that Bob Martin would reprise his role in the tour if he's still over in London. Thoughts anyone? I was hoping to see this when it comes through Cleveland in the fall.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 8:14pm

Bob is leaving the London cast in July so he can start the tour in Toronto.

[Elphabatize]

Posted: 6/4/07 at 11:01pm

Tickets are now on sale.
DanCap Productions

[erinrebecca]

Posted: 6/5/07 at 11:58am

Ticket packages have been on sale since April 28th. Individual show tickets are only on sale for gold members now. They will go on sale to the general public on June 18th.

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 6/5/07 at 1:06pm

Bob Martin is defo doing the North American Tour of the show... that's what he said at the stagedoor in London a fews ago ~

[erinrebecca]

Posted: 6/5/07 at 1:15pm

Yes, there's no way that Bob wouldn't at least start the tour in Toronto. He's coming home!