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New Mirvish season should please fans of musicals

Mirvish Productions announced its 2020-2021 season earlier today. And while there’s nothing as exciting as last year’s news – which included finally getting Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, currently at the Ed Mirvish Theatre – there’s enough to please rabid fans and casual theatregoers, especially those that love musicals.

Mainstage season 

The six shows in the mainstage season include two Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals: the 50th anniversary production of Jesus Christ Superstar (September to October 2020), and Love Never Dies, the sequel to the iconic The Phantom Of The Opera (December 2020 to January 2021). 

Daniel Fish‘s reimagined production of Oklahoma! (May to June 2021), which won the Tony Award last year for best revival of a musical, is one of this season’s most exciting shows. The experimental work isn’t your typical, tired revival of a classic. This version touches on toxic masculinity, violence and racism. 

A West End hit in 2019, & Juliet (February to March 2021), featuring music and lyrics by superstar songwriter Max Martin, asks what might have happened if Juliet had lived at the end of Shakespeare’s tragedy. 

Two plays round out the season.

The first is Pressure (September to November 2020), David Haig‘s World War II drama, starring Kevin Doyle (Downton Abbey’s kowtowing Molesley) as Scottish meteorologist James Stagg. And the first-ever stage adaptation of Agatha Christie‘s classic whodunnit, Murder On The Orient Express, closes out the season from July to August 2021.

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SAMUEL ENGELKING

Jake Epstein’s sold-out Fringe hit Boy Falls From The Sky returns as part of the off-Mirvish season.

Off-Mirvish shows 

Once again, the offerings in the three-show off-Mirvish series provide a little bit more alternative fare. 

Those who couldn’t get a ticket to Jake Epstein‘s thrilling autobiographical solo show Boy Falls From The Sky at last year’s Fringe Festival will be happy to know it’s returning in March 2021. One of the few shows to get 5Ns from NOW, it chronicles Epstein’s story of following his dream to become a Broadway actor. (He starred in Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark and originated the role of Gerry Goffin in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.) 

Two of Canada’s best actors, Tom McCamus and Seana McKenna, star in Australian playwright Andrew Bovell‘s Things I Know To Be True, about an older couple whose adult children are facing life-altering changes. The co-production between Mirvish and the Company Theatre arrives February 2021.

And anyone who saw Hadestown, last year’s Tony Award winner for best musical, will be interested in Mythic (April 2021), a modern, sexy musical retelling of the story of Persephone, showing gods behaving like rock stars. 

Bonus shows 

As usual, several shows fall outside of Mirvish subscriptions. These include the show everyone’s been waiting for – and was expecting to be part of the subscription season: the Canadian premiere of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, a sequel to J.K. Rowling’s beloved series, which begins its run in October 2020. 

The homegrown musical Come From Away, now in its third year, continues its record-breaking run at the Royal Alexander Theatre. 

And two already-announced mega-musicals are also not part of the subscription series: Miss Saigon (May 5 to 24, 2020), and Les Misérables (June to August 2020), both by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg

Season tickets are now on sale at mirvish.com/subscriptions

@glennsumi

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