Heroes and Villains 2008: Heroes

Main Stage Theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts

The saga of the Main Stage Theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts appears to be over. For that, we are grateful.

The Toronto Centre for the Arts (originally known as the North York Performing Arts Centre and, later, as the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts) has had a tumultuous decade-and-a-half-long existence, not least of all because of the Livent fiasco. Yet while two of its facilities, the thousand-seat George Weston Recital Hall and an adaptable “black box” theatre, have enjoyed relative stability in spite of the chaos, the building’s focal point was abandoned for the better part of a decade. It was a sad fate for a building which Harold Prince once declared to be among the finest theatres he’d ever seen, high praise coming from a man of his pedigree. For five years, the Main Stage Theatre (which had a brief spell as the hideously named Apotex Theatre) rode the crest of the city’s commercial theatre boom. Its inaugural production was Prince’s stunning revival of Show Boat, which helped establish the theatre as one of Toronto’s finest performance spaces. Garth Drabinsky (who, along with erstwhile North York mayor Mel Lastman, had spearheaded the centre’s inception) used the Main Stage Theatre as a launching pad for his company’s productions; both Ragtime and Fosse (the latter of which won the Best Musical Tony) had their world premieres in North York.

In 1998, however, Livent imploded and the theatre fell into disuse for the better part of a decade. Enter Aubrey Dan, already intent on building a theatrical empire to rival Mirvish Productions. In May, Dan brought Cameron Mackintosh’s revival of My Fair Lady to North York, and the theatre was reborn. As we wrote back then, “You’ll have to excuse us if we’re just as excited about the venue as about what’s happening on stage.” We were not disappointed. Then, in August, Jersey Boys came to town. In order to reassert itself in the public’s imagination, the Toronto Centre needed a hit—and Jersey Boys, arguably Broadway’s biggest phenomenon since The Producers, fit the bill perfectly. The original cast, which starred Torontoist favourite Joseph Leo Bwarie, left on December 6, but with a new, all-Canadian cast installed in its place the show looks set for a lengthy run.

Bringing the Toronto Centre back to life was always going to take a larger-than-life personality—and Dan, buoyed by his family’s millions (his father, Leslie Dan, is the pharmaceuticals magnate), fit the bill perfectly. His next challenge will be sustaining the momentum he’s generated so far; that'll involve identifying a suitable successor for Jersey Boys, although Dan won't have to worry about that for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, Toronto audiences can rediscover a venue that was almost lost to them. We're glad to have it back—and even happier to name the Main Stage Theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts as one of our heroes of 2008.

BY STEPHEN JOHNS; PHOTO COURTESY OF DANCAP PRODUCTIONS