THEATRE NEWS: Dancap promises 8 Toronto prods, more across Canada
17 OCT/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

TORONTO - Dancap isn’t only expanding — it’s spreading out as well.

The upstart Toronto commercial theatre company headed by impresario Aubrey Dan announced an unprecedented eight-show 2012 season Monday at the Four Seasons Centre — a season that will also see the company throw its hat into the theatre scene in Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Saskatoon.

According to Dan, the company’s Toronto season, with shows slated for the stages of the Toronto Centre for the Arts, the Four Seasons Centre and the Sony Centre, is slated to kick off in late December with the previously announced Canadian première of Green Day’s American Idiot at the Toronto Centre — a production that will launch the ground-breaking punk musical’s North American tour. Dan also announced that three Canadians have been cast in the show, with Jake Epstein tackling the role of Will the slacker, while Gabriel Antonacci and Talia Aaron are slated to appear as part of the chorus.

Next up on the stage of the Toronto Centre will be the Tony Award-winning In the Heights, to be followed by a touring production of Shrek The Musical in March, which will surrender the stage to the touring company of Broadway’s latest incarnation of the classic West Side Story in May.

July brings dueling Dancap musical offerings with Disney’s Beauty and the Beast holding court at the Four Seasons Centre, while Million Dollar Quartet, featuring the music of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, shakes things up at the Toronto Centre.

Dancap’s new season will also include two bonus offerings: The previously announced world première of the Broadway-bound Prince of Broadway next summer at the Four Seasons, and a musical stage version of the iconic 1983 cult classic movie A Christmas Story slated to take over the Sony Centre in December of 2012.

Prince of Broadway, of course, is a retrospective of the musical theatre career of legendary Broadway producer and director Hal Prince, who was on hand for Monday’s announcement. “It would appear that I’m ready to have something biographical done,” the nearly 84-year-old Prince quipped before revealing that, in addition to choreographer Susan Stroman, who will co-direct with Prince, the creative team will include composer Jason Robert Brown and designers Jerome Sirlin and William Ivy Long.

Prince says he will be working with a high-octane cast of 12 (to be announced later) and an orchestra of 20 or more in what he describes as “a history of what Broadway has meant to me and what I’ve done on Broadway.” Which, as his 21 Tony Awards might attest, covers a lot of territory, from West Side Story to Kiss of the Spider Woman — an almost magical career that spans 57 years. “That’s a long time to be working in the theatre,” Prince reflects, “And to be welcome in the theatre — most of the time.”

Dancap is offering three different subscription levels for the 2012 season as well as tickets for the two remaining shows in their 2011 season — The Addams Family and Memphis: The Musical. Call 416-640-0172 or visit DancapTickets.com for further information.
 
Dancap is broadening its theatrical horizons. And while they may not yet reach from sea to sea, they will now stretch at least from sea to shining seaway. First off, Dancap is preparing to test the theatrical waters in la belle province next spring when it brings the touring company of Shrek The Musical, which opened on Broadway in 2009, to Montreal’s Place des Arts from March 13-18. Later in the year, Dancap turns its gaze westward as the touring company of Jersey Boys moves into the Jubilee Auditoriums in Calgary (June 28-July 15) and Edmonton (Aug. 15-Sept. 2) before moving on to Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre (Sept. 5-23) and Saskatoon’s TCU Place (Sept 26-Oct. 13),