Results tagged “westend”

Gossip no longer, culture vultures. We've finally got confirmation on CanStage's upcoming season. Like it or not, it looks like the rumours are true. As we reported before, the Bluma Appel Theatre's rather commercial lineup is entirely free of any Canadian-written shows, which has some folks in quite a tizzy. And as we suspected, CanStage is getting its CanCon through co-pros at the Berkeley Street Theatre. They're calling it The Berkeley Street Project, and it seems intended to supplement the Bluma's playing-it-safe season with "edgier, more provocative works." The first show, Wild Dogs (a co-production with Nightwood Theatre), is a stage adaptation of Helen Humphreys' eponymous novel. Up next, Studio 180 co-produces the Canadian premiere of Blackbird, a West End and off-Broadway hit by British (and consequently not Canadian) playwright David Harrower. The final co-production (with Necessary Angel) is the Toronto premiere of HARDSELL, a new work by Bigger Than Jesus team Daniel Brooks and Rick Miller. (Although, the only reason CanStage can claim "Toronto premiere" status is that the workshop presentation Brooks and Miller were going to present at Passe Muraille a month ago was cancelled due to illness.)

Leave it to CanStage to somehow, in the midst of extreme internal upheaval what is maybe their darkest financial hour, be simultaneously running two of their strongest shows by far in recent memory. In fact, Palace of the End (which closes tomorrow night) and The Clean House (which runs until March 8) aren't just good shows for CanStage, they would be amazing shows for anywhere. Hopefully, they can win the audiences they deserve, but it's certainly disheartening to finally see the company do something really, really right while knowing what's in store for the future. The abrupt departure of new Artistic Director David Storch a few weeks ago was enough of an unpleasant surprise. But further news reported in The Toronto Star was even more alarming. A total of 10 CanStage staff members have apparently been laid off, including dramaturge Iris Turcott, who, like Storch, will henceforth bear the dubious title of "consultant."

A lovely photo of our winner.

The West End has its share of arts events in the upcoming months but what’s happening in the East?

This is it! The chance you've been dreaming about since middle school has finally come true: an open casting call for Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage. No joke.

Torontoist first heard of Toby Young soon after the launch of his debut book How To Lose Friends And Alienate People. Young, a British magazine editor and writer, tries to cross the pond and make it at Graydon Carter's Vanity Fair. The book was a recounting of Young's misadventures in the New York media world and because journalists like nothing more than talking about each other, the book was widely reviewed, inflated Young's reputation (for good and bad). It even got the book made into a play in London's West End and optioned for a film.

With the hockey season over (moment of silence, please) it's time to move on to another sport. Well, the West End Volleyball Nights have been going on at Dufferin Grove park.

It's official, Gerard Kennedy will be running for the federal Liberal leadership. Minister of Community and Social Services Sandra Pupatello will be taking over Kennedy's job as Education Minister. In other Liberal Leadership news Bob Rae is joining the party.

Toronto's theatre community is all abuzz and aflutter about this item that appeared The Globe and Mail's "Feed the Goat" gossip column today:

Don't hold your breath, but we should know within the next fortnight whether Toronto will be chosen as the launch site for the largest theatrical project ever conceived. My sources in London tell me the show's producers are seriously considering Toronto for the world premiere, either in late 2005 or early 2006. Details of the show itself are under very tight wraps, but I'm reliably informed that it's based on a very hot creative literary property (which is not Harry Potter); that it's not a stage musical in the traditional sense, although music is a big part of it; and that the set uses three interlocking revolving stages and 18 elevators. Needless to say, the estimated $100-million (U.S.) investment would be an enormous boost to Toronto's sluggish economy and its reputation. As of now, it's a 50-50 proposition.

Given Toronto's recent big-time theatre woes -- early farewells to fare like The Producers, Hairspray and Urinetown -- this rumour seems a little spurious.... which is just the way Torontoist likes 'em.Our first guess was The Lord of the Rings: The Musical, but that show -- no joke! -- is already slated to open on London's West End in the fall of 2005. Our next was that it was Garth Drabinsky's big Toronto comeback with a musical stage production of his film The Gospel of John, a hot literary property if there was ever one; alas, we think this washed-up impressario is not up to such impressive impressario-ing at the moment.Our biggest hope is that the project is a megamusical production of Richard Greenblatt's musical-in-development about satirical pianist-in-a-bowtie Tom Lehrer, which he previewed to great hooting and hollering at last night's Cold Reading Series Christmas Cabaret. A blog can dream, can't he or she?If you Torontoist readers hear anything, be sure to let your favourite Toronto blog know now. (Only if your favourite Toronto blog is Torontoist, of course.)