THEATRE NEWS: Theatre 20 ready to sing up a storm
21 JAN/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

Well, finally!

Apparently bored with trying to maintain Toronto's worst kept theatrical secret, organizers of Toronto's newest theatre company confirmed Thursday that their company does in fact exist. It's called Theatre 20 and, to quote its own announcement, it aims to be "a Toronto-based, artist-led theatre company formed to present story-driven musicals by developing new Canadian works and by re-imagining existing repertoire."

Its name, we were told at a major event Thursday at the Panasonic Theatre, comes from the 20 musical theatre artists — including Louise Pitre, Brent Carver, David Keeley, Steven Sutcliffe, Colm Wilkinson and Adam Brazier, who has been elected artistic director — who came together almost two years ago to form the company. Only 18 names appear in a brochure titled Theatre 20 Founding Artist Bios, however.

The company is currently involved, with producers Copa De Oro, in an English language no-strings-attached workshop of SISTERS, a new musical based on Michel Tremblay's LES BELLES-SOEURS. Written by René Richard Cyr and composed by Daniel Bélanger, with translation by Linda Gaboriau, SISTERS has already enjoyed a major success en français in the province of Quebec, where it is slated to tour for the next two years.

Led by Pitre, the cast of the workshop was on hand for Thursday's announcement, to perform a number from SISTERS, which is apparently slated for a single public performance in Toronto on Jan. 26, with attendance by invitation only. Beyond that workshop, the company also plans a series of "intimate concerts' for the Panasonic Theatre, although details on these will not be made available until a later date. As for a full production, Brazier says his company should be ready to make an announcement along those lines by 2012.

And with that, Brazier and the other founding members of a company he insists will be a Canadian voice as well as "the voice of the great unsung musicals" closed their first major event in song. Specifically with Sunday, from Stephen Sondheim's SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE.