The long-running hit musical Jersey Boys may be coming to an end in Toronto, but many other desirable tickets to Broadway-style shows are to be had at theatres in the city, at the nearby Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-On-The-Lake during July and August 2010.
Shows About Music Legends
Jersey Boys, the Broadway hit about the career of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, recently sold its one millionth ticket, and has announced it will close its successful run at the Toronto Centre for the Arts after exactly two years, on Sunday, August 22, which will be the company's 830th performance.
For the summer of 2010, the Royal Alexandra Theatre is home to an indefinite run of Rock of Ages, a valentine to ‘80s rock, which was nominated for five Tony Awards on Broadway, including Best Musical. It’s a feel-good story of the “small-town girl” who finds love on the L.A. rock scene, and features such head-banging favourites as "I Wanna Rock", "Waiting For A Girl Like You" and "Don't Stop Believin'". The photo shows the cast of the original Toronto production.
From the iconic grey-suited Ed Sullivan performance to the psychadelic love-child uniforms of the Sgt. Pepper era, the outstanding Beatles tribute show Rain conjures up the career of the Fab Four with uncanny accuracy. It plays the Canon Theatre from July 10 to August 1.
The Big Broadway Tickets
From July 6 to August 8, Legally Blonde the Musical moves into the Princess of Wales Theatre. Those who love the movie version starring Reece Witherspoon know that it’s about sorority girl Elle Woods, who sets out to prove that blondes not only aren’t dumb, but can even turn heads in the dog-eat-dog world of Harvard Law. On Broadway, the show earned seven Tony nominations, ten Drama Desk Award Nominations and an Outer Critics Circle Award, among other awards.
From July 9 to August 1, Miss Saigon arrives at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The romantic drama, partly inspired by the classic opera Madame Butterfly, tells the story of a young Vietnamese girl, a U.S. soldier and the child their love brings into the world at the time of the fall of Saigon.
Miss Saigon is followed at the Four Seasons Centre by South Pacific, which runs from August 12 to September 5. Another wartime romance – this one set during WWII – the show has justly become one of the most popular and enduring Broadway shows ever, and includes such beloved standards as "Some Enchanted Evening", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" and "There is Nothin' Like a Dame".
Musicals at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals
For the 2010 season, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, a short drive from Toronto, presents three very different pieces of classic musical theatre. From May 28 to November 6, the Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Webber classic Evita, about Argentinean first lady Eva Duarte (wife of President Juan Perón) plays at the Avon Theatre. Its best known song is, of course, “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina”. The photo below shows Chilina Kennedy as Eva Perón and Juan Chioran as Juan Perón.
The revue Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, starring the puckishly emotive Brent Carver, runs at the Tom Patterson Theatre from May 14 to September 25. The show is a loving tribute to the haunting, often earthy songs of the great Belgian chanteur Jacques Brel.
From April 10 to November 6, Cole Porter’s ever-popular Kiss Me, Kate plays the Festival Theatre. And what better choice of musical for a Shakespearean repertory company, after all, than this classic show about the mixed-up love lives of a troupe of Shakespearean actors? The photo below shows Juan Chioran as Fred Graham (playing Petruchio) with members of the company.
Finally, in nearby Niagara-On-The-Lake, the Shaw Festival presents One Touch of Venus at the Royal George Theatre from May 16 to October 10. This elegant vintage musical by Kurt Weill, Ogden Nash and S.J. Perelman brings the goddess of love herself to 20th-century Manhattan; it’s best known for the urgently haunting ballad “Speak Low”.
Read on for Toronto's Broadway musical listings for the Fall of 2010.
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Sarah B. Hood - Author of We Sure Can! How Jams and Pickles are Reviving the Lure and Lore of Local Food and Toronto: The Unknown City.
