NEWS/OPINION
25 Mar'10

Helping to sell Jacques Brel

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

In the past several months, whenever talk has turned to the coming season at the Stratford Festival — and to the relative merits of the productions on offer — two names seem to lead the discussion. And no, unfortunately, we’re not talking William Shakespeare and Des McAnuff, although those are names that come up too, at least in the longer, more sombre conversations.

No, this year, the names on everybody’s lips have been Brent Carver and Jacques Brel. In fact, to the uninitiated, it seemed that in combining those two names — as in Tony Award-winner Brent Carver, starring in a production of JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS — the Stratford Festival had plugged into a vein of pure box-office gold.

Lord, what fools these mortals be — as somebody once said.

But, still, the prevailing wisdom was that this was destined to be one of the hottest Stratford tickets of the summer — hotter by far than even the much-anticipated production of THE TEMPEST, starring the venerable Christopher Plummer. (No reflection on Plummer here — THE TEMPEST is slated to play the Festival Theatre, while JACQUES B is slotted into the much smaller and more intimate Tom Patterson stage, so it’s more a matter of mathematics.)

But it wasn’t all just a case of the fewer the seats, the hotter the ticket. After all, in these parts one suspects people would snap up tickets to hear Brent Carver sing the phonebook in a subway tunnel, so great is the affection and regard for the talented thesp’s work.

And even though it’s a far cry from the troubadour’s native Belgium, the name Jacques Brel is one with which local producers have been known to conjure too — most recently in a flawed but enthusiastic 1999 production of this same show that managed to play at Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre for six weeks — eight shows a week in a much larger theatre, compared to the maximum of five shows a week (but two to three on average) for which Stratford has programmed JACQUES BREL on the Tom Patterson stage.

Adding to the excitement is the fact that in the last few years, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, as it continues to style itself, has become more and more well known for the quality of its musical productions — so much so that one of them has been snapped up and will be remounted next season as part of the Mirvish subscription season in Toronto.

So, simply by putting two and two together, one might be forgiven for assuming that, with JACQUES BREL, the Stratford Festival had a bit of a hit on its hands, even before it left the starting gate. But there’s apparently a new math afoot.

How else to explain the announcement last week that the provincial government is riding to the rescue and ponying up an additional $300,000 from its Celebrate Ontario fund, all in support of the apparently beleaguered JACQUES BREL?

It is money well spent, according to Perth-Wellington MPP John Wilkinson, who insists that the “funding is not only helping to promote sales for the Festival’s Jacques Brel production, it is also helping to spur economic activity in Stratford and throughout Perth County. This will provide a much needed boost for local business, especially hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, retailers and other attractions.”

It goes without saying that this infusion of cash will also ensure that the apparently struggling production of JACQUES BREL will now at least stand a chance of holding its own against Stratford’s productions of AS YOU LIKE IT, TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA and THE WINTER'S TALE — productions that right now are no doubt threatening to overshadow it.

If the government funding boost works, I’m sure a strong argument could be made for funding the Mirvish production of ROCK OF AGES, which, after all, should have a strong economic impact on Toronto.

All in all, it’s a bold move by the Ontario government, if not necessarily a ground-breaking one. The last time I can recall a government ear-marking funds for a specific theatrical production was when the province and the city conspired in 2005 to throw all sorts of money at the musical adaptation of THE LORD OF THE RINGS — and we all know how well that ended.

Politics and art — working together, they make things better.

Better than what? That remains to be seen.