posted by J. Kelly 9:55 PM
We could put on a show ...
Saturday, March 27, 2004
Toronto
J. Kelly Nestruck
National Post
In 1993, Toronto could truly lay claim to its reputation as the third-largest English-language theatre centre in the world. At one point, there were six major musicals playing in the city at the same time.
"We were running Sondheim's Into the Woods, Phantom of the Opera was on, Sunset Boulevard was on ..." says Marty Bragg, artistic producer of CanStage since 1998. "I calculated that in one week there were 22,000 soft seats available for sale for musicals in this city, and they were filled. All of them."
Bragg sees that week as a snapshot of what Toronto's theatre could be. And, with several ambitious projects in the works, CanStage could well emerge to fill the gap left by the corporate collapse of Livent, Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb's megamusical production company, at the end of the 1990s.
First, CanStage's popular production of Cookin' at the Cookery will be remounted next month at the newly renovated New Yorker theatre. That will be followed, in May, by the big CanStage event: Urinetown, the quirky Broadway hit about a city where peeing has been privatized, will open at the Bluma Appel theatre.
Add to that three musicals from Mirvish Productions -- Mamma Mia!, The Producers and the soon-to-open Hairspray -- and the upcoming tourist season is already beginning to look a lot like 1993.
Bragg has expanded the scope of CanStage, a not-for-profit theatre with a regular season of 10 plays, by coming up with innovative partnerships with the private sector, something U.S. not-for-profits have been doing in recent years but Canadian theatres have been hesitant to get involved in. "We're afraid of success and we're afraid to change," Bragg says.
In the case of Urinetown, Bragg convinced co-producer DanCap Private Equity, an investment fund owned and operated by budding theatre impresario Aubrey Dan, to cover the entire $1.3-million cost of mounting the production. "Part of my criteria with Aubrey was that the CanStage company cannot be at risk," Bragg says.
The partnership was kindled a few years ago when Dan was invited to the Berkeley Street Theatre to see Daniel Goldfarb's Adam Baum and the Jew Movie. "I was so impressed with the quality of the theatre," says Dan, who also runs Beaver Power, a hydroelectric company. "It sort of got my mind thinking. You know, here's this great quality Canadian company with the name CanStage -- which I think is a little too generic, and that's my opinion -- but wouldn't it be wonderful if they could bring in some more of the Broadway hits, to have some more competition?"
Bragg seems slightly wary when Dan talks like this, as if he's waiting for someone to jump out of the shadows and assail him for making a pact with the corporate bogeyman. But he has long felt stifled by CanStage's lack of working capital, which has prevented the company from extending successful shows and developing new projects outside its regular season. "We aren't going to get any more money from the government and there's only a certain amount of money that we're going to get from sponsorship," he says. "Governments are saying you have to begin to find different ways of partnering with the private sector. That's exactly what we're doing."
Though it might seem as if CanStage is girding up to do battle with Mirvish, neither of the theatre companies sees it that way.
John Karastamatis, communications director for Mirvish, says that when it comes to musicals, the more the merrier. He cautions against seeing CanStage's move as the beginnings of a Pepsi-Coke winner-take-all rivalry. "In truth, there are many other soft drinks that come along," Karastamatis says, "and if people like the way they taste, they buy them."
The sentiment is echoed by mid-sized musical producers as well. "It's a great thing for the city to have four or five big musicals running again," says Jeffrey Latimer, general manager of TaurPro, which is producing Cookin' at the Cookery. "They feed off each other. The smaller shows are truly fed by the longer-running big musicals."
Latimer has been in discussions with Bragg to take on other popular CanStage shows whose runs end prematurely to make way for other shows. "The idea is that the shows that are successful in the not-for-profit can be transferred to profit," he says.
Whether the success of big musicals helps Toronto's non-musical theatres, however, is up for debate.
"Many people come to see Mamma Mia! and that is their one theatrical event of the year," says David Oiye, artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. "I don't delude myself into thinking that people who go to see Mamma Mia! or Hairspray are necessarily going to get the theatre bug."
In the case of Urinetown, there will be a direct funnel from the musical to development of other Canadian projects. Once the production breaks even -- and its track record on Broadway suggests it will -- profits will be shared between DanCap and CanStage.
"Being a not-for profit doesn't prevent us from making money," Bragg says. "What we do is that we don't distribute it to any shareholders. We just reinvest it back in the company."
So what does Dan get out of this deal, which requires him to take all the risk and share his profits? Does he dream of showgirls and Champagne, like Bialystock and Bloom from The Producers? Does he want to see his name up in lights?
Dan, a decidedly contemporary theatre producer, seems aghast at the idea. "I'm not sure that's my goal," he says sheepishly. "I'd rather see the DanCap name up than my own personal name. In fact, it's an opportunity to build the brand. Brand recognition."
Urinetown is slated to run until July 11, but the goal is to extend to a full five months. Where would it go after that? "There is no place," Bragg says. "I'd have to build one." He pauses. "I'm not saying I would."
This is where Bragg's big vision for CanStage comes into focus. "If we get to the end of a run of Urinetown and we find there's still a significant demand out there," he says, "then I think that Aubrey and I will be talking about touring Canada with it and then possibly bringing it back into the Bluma." Only after a couple of shows with DanCap will he start to think in earnest about seeking out or building a new theatre for similar productions.
"At this point, what interests me is not blowing my brains out," Bragg says. "Where I've been successful and the company has been successful is that we've gone slowly and built the organization a bit at a time."
And Dan seems willing to follow CanStage wherever it wants to go. "Depending upon the successes, we may find one or two permanent homes. The sky's the limit, to tell you the truth."
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posted by J. Kelly 9:46 PM