THEATRE NEWS: NBOC season has something old, something new; musicals ring in the Mirvish season; Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour returns to the ACC in July

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
06 FEB 2012

TORONTO - The National Ballet of Canada’s 2012/13 season, announced Monday by artistic director Karen Kain, promises to be a rich blend of old favourites — some with an admittedly modern flare — and new works certain to challenge the company and delight their audience. The new season begins on the stage of the Four Seasons Centre in November, with a return engagement of Christopher Wheeldon’s acclaimed production of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, created for the NBOC and England’s Royal Ballet and debuted in 2011 to critical and audience acclaim.

What is arguably the most modern full-length ballet in the company’s rep, Alice will be followed by one of its most traditional, when Giselle returns to the stage of the Four Seasons in December, setting the stage, in the process, for the company’s annual Yuletide offering of James Kudelka’s lavish version of The Nutcracker.

In March 2013, the company premiers their production of John Neumeier’s Nijinsky, a tribute to the life and work one of the greatest dancers in history, following it up with their latest take on one of the most enduring romantic tragedies in history, as Alexei Ratmansky’s Romeo and Juliet returns to the stage, still smouldering from the excitement it generated in its 2011 premiere, leading to sold-out performances.

The company will also take its new Romeo and Juliet on the road as part of their season, paying a visit in late January to Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, before decamping for London, England, where they will dance R&J at Sadler’s Wells in April. The winter season ends with the pairing of Kudelka’s acclaimed and enduring treatment of The Four Seasons, with Crystal Pite’s Emergence.

Passion once again takes centre stage to launch the spring season, as the NBOC presents an expanded full-length version of choreographer Davide Bombana’s take on Carmen, originally premiered with the company as part of a mixed program, back in 2009.

A mixed program, comprised of Jorma Elo’s Pur ti Miro, principal dancer Guillaume Côté’s No. 24, Kudelka’s The Man In Black (premiered last year as part of the company’s tour through Western Canada) and George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, concludes the Toronto season.

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TORONTO - We aren’t sure about the hills these days, but it appears as though the Mirvish theatres in Toronto will be alive with the sound of music for all of the 2012/13 season announced Monday by David Mirvish at the recently christened Ed Mirvish Theatre. In fact, Mirvish announced a subscription season comprised of six musicals, with two additional musicals tacked as bonus shows for good measure.

And while much of the heat Monday centred on the announcement that the first touring company of the Tony Award-winning production of The Book of Mormon is slated to pull into Toronto in May of 2013 for a limited run to close the new season, there was plenty of excitement for what will come before it as well. That would include the North American première of Backbeat, a musical that tells the story of “how the Beatles became the Beatles,” directed by David Leveaux. Backbeat comes to the Toronto stage, direct from London and is slated to run this summer.

It will be followed in the fall by the Tony Award-winning revival of Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage aux Folles, starring George Hamilton and Christopher Sieber under the direction of Terry Johnson, and by the stage adaptation of Sister Act, written by Cheri and Bill Steinkellner and Douglas Carter Beane, featuring music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater and direction by Jerry Zaks.

Come December, Tony Danza will be in town, helping to work the kinks out of Andrew Berman’s musical stage adaptation of Honeymoon In Vegas, featuring music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, direction by Gary Griffin and choreography by Denis Jones, before it takes on Broadway.

A new year brings a new production, direct from London, of Harold Arlen’s classic The Wizard of Oz, in an adaptation by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who also teamed up with lyricist Tim Rice to supply some additional tunes. Jeremy Sams directs, with choreography by Arlene Phillips. The show is to be cast here in Canada, and will feature a Dorothy chosen through reality-TV programming in much the same way as the earlier production of The Sound Of Music cast its Maria.

As for the bonus shows, which Mirvish subscribers can access at a discount, they will include the summer run of the Tom Hedley/Robert Cary/Robbie Roth adaptation of the movie Flashdance, directed and choreographed by local hero Sergio Trujillo, as it makes its way to Broadway, and the previously announced Theatre 20 production of Bloodless, directed by Colm Wilkinson.

Subscriptions, priced from $129 through $589, are currently available at 416-593-4225 or at mirvish.com.

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On other fronts, producers of Michael Jackson The Immortal World Tour have announced that their show will make its way back to Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, where it will play on July 27 and 28. Tickets are currently available to Cirque Club members at cirqueclub.com and will go on sale to the general public on Feb. 10 at 10 a.m. at ticketmaster.ca. They are priced from $50 to $250.