A context piece from the Globe on the state of theatres in Toronto:
Toronto theatre's struggle
GUY DIXON AND SUZANNE MA
Globe and Mail Update
At the end of the show, when Frodo departs the stage, it isn't the audience at the Princess of Wales Theatre that's crying. It's the rest of Toronto's theatre industry mourning the lost opportunity of turning The Lord of the Rings into a Phantom of the Opera or at least a Miss Saigon-calibre hit to push the city back into a theatre-going mood.
As announced this week, the massively ambitious, $28-million staging of The Lord of the Rings is ending on Sept. 3, far sooner than David Mirvish and its other producers seemed to be hoping given the show's open run, which began with previews in February. And Rings producer Kevin Wallace laid much of the blame on local critics, calling London, where the production will reside next, its "spiritual home."
But the industry sees another, more critical reason effecting The Lord of the Rings' early closing. Toronto audiences have simply gotten out of the habit of going to the theatre, a trend far different from periods in the 1990s when audiences were enticed by a number of big, concurrent productions, which then lent extra vitality to mid-sized theatres and the grassroots fringe scene.
"The marketplace has changed hugely, and I think the way people buy their tickets has changed," said Jacoba Knappen, executive director of Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, which represents 185 member companies from professional theatre, dance and opera throughout the city.
Theatrical productions, particularly independent shows not included in package theatre subscriptions or unusual cases such as Rings, which needed to attract sell-out crowds to survive, are struggling to get arty, urban audiences to fill the seats. Never mind the "905" crowd from Toronto's suburbs. Theatres must do a much better job at attracting those who live within Toronto's inner-city 416 area code, she said.
For large productions and festivals such as Southern Ontario's Stratford and Shaw, out-of-towners are crucial. The Rings audience, for instance, was 53 per cent from the Greater Toronto Area and 47 per cent from outside the city, according to Mirvish. And the Canadian dollar and border issues can be problematic. Yet for the larger Toronto market, including the vital fringe scene and theatre workshops, there's a new concern about the fickle hometown crowd.
"Toronto theatre is far from over. There's always an interest to garner more excitement in the Toronto theatre crowd and there's a lot of work being done," Mirvish said, speaking passionately yesterday.
"We are disappointed [about The Lord of the Rings closing] but right now we are doing our best to protect that investment . . . and that means ending its run in September," he added. "I believe that it's better to try than not to try. You can sit at home and do nothing or you can have your imagination stirred by people trying to do something creative."
Still, "a lot of the theatres don't seem to know who their audiences are," Knappen argued, adding that Chicago theatres, for instance, have been able to study audience trends more effectively. Her association is trying to get funding for a similar Toronto study. Then again, when the producers of the Rings asked audiences to fill out an on-line survey, it did little to boost one's impression of the show or the producers' confidence in their own production.
But many are beginning to see this as a Toronto-specific problem, happening while other secondary theatre centres around the world, such as Berlin or Madrid, are growing. Also, much smaller Canadian theatres, such as Regina's Globe Theatre or Saskatoon's Persephone Theatre, don't seem to be affected by the lull Toronto is facing, Knappen noted.
For theatre producer and entertainment lawyer Derrick Chua -- who recently co-produced the boy-band spoof BoyGroove, which was first staged as a fringe show before appearing at the Diesel Playhouse -- Toronto theatre is having a problem getting word out to the general public. Because promotional budgets for independent theatre are so small, it's hard to drum up enough buzz beyond the core, die-hard theatre going crowd.
Meanwhile, for the rest of Toronto, "theatregoing is just not the same regular event that it used to be in the heyday of the mega-musicals," such as Phantom and Les Misérables. "You'd get three or four mega-musicals playing at the same time and there was more of a culture of theatregoing," Chua said. "On any given weekend, you'd have 5,000 people going to see the theatre."
Despite the sense of a lull in the industry, Chua said he's continually busy, especially with the upcoming Toronto Fringe Festival. "The Fringe is a force unto itself. That is one festival, knock on wood, that has actually been increasing in numbers the last few years. And we expect it again to increase this year with all the notoriety of The Drowsy Chaperone, being a Fringe hit to win five Tony awards."
For mid-sized companies, such as the Tarragon Theatre, the end of Rings also lends a certain indirect damper. "In our theatre, I think probably the effect is more an emotional, psychological one. We've only got Mirvish left in that category of large producer, really," said Mallory Gilbert, the Tarragon's general manager, who is coincidentally leaving the company after 34 years, but plans to still be active in Toronto theatre with various independent projects.
"There does seem to be a reluctance to go out if you're not already committed to a theatre. People are taking a little longer to make those decisions and sometimes it's on the afternoon of the performance day, and that's terrifying," Gilbert said.
Nevertheless, the Tarragon, which has one 200-seat theatre and another 100-seat space, had a strong 2005-2006 season. It sold around 4,000 season subscriptions, and Gilbert says the company has already sold around 65 per cent of that for 2006-2007, and she has no doubt that Tarragon will match last year's numbers. Subscribers make up about 40 per cent of the Tarragon's audience.
Yet she feels that for the vast majority of people who don't commit to season's tickets, there is less of a draw to go to theatres.
"I think there's an awful lot of choice in Toronto right now, which is great. But I think it paralyzes people. There is so much choice that people really have to want to go to anything particular thing before they'll shell out the money . . . and most people don't have the time to go and stand in line for rush seats, at least not if you're over 30. It's all of that together," she said. "To watch people have difficulties just spreads a kind of unease."
AoD
