Mirvish 2009 / 2010 — Page 6

2010 Mirvish show Priscilla a hit in London.

Ouzounian in the Star:
It looks like Toronto is going to have another hit on its hands.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the musical version of the cult 1994 film about three drag queens in the Australian outback, has already been announced as part of the 2009-10 Mirvish subscription season and it opened on Monday night to generally enthusiastic reviews from the British critics.

Nicholas de Jongh, writing in the Evening Standard, proudly announced that, "I welcome it with open arms and a glad rag-bag of positive adjectives. London has never played host to a musical pitched on a higher level of gayness and camp comedy, transsexual barrier-breaking and bitchy, witty drag-queenery, than this ingenious adaptation of the sensational film of the same name."

http://www.thestar.com/Entertainment/article/607753

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Just discovered that Mirvish Productions is now on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/mirvish

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Updated On: 4/16/09 at 01:12 PM

LEGALLY BLONDE and BOYS IN THE PHOTOGRAPH have not been officially announced yet. BOYS may never actually play Toronto and the same with LOVE NEVER DIES, which has also not been officially announced.

AUGUST was but is only here for a 2-week run at the Canon and they would not be able to accommodate all subscribers for that short a run. So they offer it as an add-on, for those who wish to see it.

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I'm not sure if this has been said, but the tour of "Little House" is reported to play the Canon according to the Playbill.com article http://www.playbill.com/news/article/128753.html

Fashionguru was commenting on the announcement of The Canon. Which has not been released by Mirvish. (but assumed)

Okay here's the lowdown.

August: Osage County is not in the regular subscription lineup due to the frequent use of the c-word, which a large majority of Toronto's stuffy subscriber's would see as being across the line. I'm not sure how Spring Awaking was judged to be acceptable, but that's the official explanation, and having met a lot of older subscribers, I would actually tend to agree.

Legally Blond, if it is indeed coming seems to be a short run that could not accomodate 40,000 subscribers.

Boys in the Photograph will likely not make Toronto during this season, but perhaps in future years...

Now the big question: Love Never Dies. Everyone and their mother has officially announced it, except for Mirvish. There are seemingly three scenarios:

1) Love Never Dies at the RAT in November, for an open ended sit down run. Joseph cancelled outright, replaced with LND in the subscription lineup. I figure most subscribers would happily accept this.
2) Love Never Dies at the RAT in November, to move to New York in Spring 2010, Joseph possibly takes over. This seems unlikely to me because - as much as costs could be saved by moving one production - it still seems to me that Phantom could have a longer run than Joseph, even if it sucks as much as the original.
3) Joseph in Fall 2009 at the RAT, Love Never Dies cancelled outright. Definitely a highly unlikely possibility.

Word is that the final decisions on the season lineup, dates and venues will be made available for Mirvish staffers tomorrow (the 8th of May) so that marketing can finally start the major promotions (which have been suspiciously absent in the turmoil of uncertainty that has been the last couple months).

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/129024.html

Love Never Dies is delayed till at least spring. So seems like the program is actually correct.

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Yes the Royal Alex has undergone some structural renovations to the stage over the past few months.

I've also heard lately that Priscilla might not be happening. Don't know the reason why. (Perhaps to be replaced with P2?)

RENT already had a lengthy run there, plus tours have stopped by 3 times. The last two it did not sell all that well. I think the local audience for RENT has been exhausted.

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Sound of Music hasn't sold the upper balcony since around April. That means that a little over 20% of the house capacity isn't sold per performance. The show has a substantial running cost (50+ cast, 15+ orchestra, 50+ crew, etc.). But having said that, the cast was recently signed though early 2010.

Updated On: 6/30/09 at 02:28 PM

Priscilla could catch on like another MAMMA MIA... campy, familiar music, over the top fun.

As for RENT, it might not have done well the last few times (one of which, I was working on the tour, actually), but this time they've got Adam and Anthony, who are selling lots of tickets in other cities where RENT's played to death. Personally, I disliked both of them when I saw the tour a few months ago, but their names should help sell tickets more than the previous tours.

Let me make one thing clear, hehe....

I was not basing ticket sales based on Equity or Non Equity. Frankly, I've seen the current tour (and previous ones). Like I said, I've worked one of the non Eq tours of RENT, and I've also worked on the Broadway production, and I can say with honesty that the Non Eq I worked out had possibly the best cast I've seen do it.

The reason that subsequent tours of RENT in TO haven't sold is (in my opinion) not because of quality, but because the show's just exhausted the audience there. What I was arguing was that the chance to see Anthony and Adam will renew interest and help it sell better.

Is anybody going to The Harder They Come? I'm going to the first performance tomorrow night.

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Saw The Harder They Come last night. Good show. Very good music, singers and band. Nice lighting design. Plot is fairly thin and it's overly long. The Jamaican accents and patois may make it difficult for some to understand every word, although the story itself is clear. Perfect timing for the show, what with it being Caribana season. They are even selling beef patties in the lobby ($2). Encore ending a bit Mamma Mia-ish (audience stands, claps and sings along).

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Updated On: 7/22/09 at 09:06 PM