...while Mirvish sells a hell of a lot of tickets, his productions are just imported American musicals that play every city [...] McD's sells a lot more food than Susur Lee does, but who are we more proud of...the more creative homegrown talent, or the big imported corporate entity?
There's room for both. For a smaller city we've been lucky in Toronto. The Mirvishes have a long tradition of bringing the best of the world's commercial theatre here (i.e. Broadway and West End). This has always been their niche, and it's not a bad thing because we may never have had access to many of these popular and sometimes iconic shows/performers without Mirvish (père and fils). Just recently there were packed houses to see Angela Landsbury in likely her final stage performance/tour. Pretty special!
It's true that in 80s and 90s they did produce local versions of sit-down productions very successfully (Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Mamma Mia, Lion King among others) and this generated a talent pool in Toronto that was very impressive.
That's one reason I don't lament the loss of POW....it's really just a Walmart for theatre (structurally it's nothing more than a warehouse too, albeit with a nice interior). Toronto's real theatre talent is in the much smaller productions...and worth supporting. I'm not knocking Mirvish...we need that big commercial stuff to support the overall theatre scene in Toronto. Although he has ventured into more edgy territory with his Off-Mirvish series.
Often the 'big commercial stuff' begin as smaller productions, one feeds the other (i.e. The Drowsy Chaperone as a Toronto example, or Kim's Convenience). A vibrant arts scene needs the incubators but also needs the venues/producers that allow these projects to develop and grow, artistically and commercially. This is commercial theatre after all, not state-funded/paid for by taxpayers. Both are great but really which one is healthier for the economy? Mirvish has theatres of differing sizes for a reason, it allows him to stage a broad range of shows from the epic to the intimate, or extend runs by moving productions from larger houses to smaller ones. It provides enormous flexibility for him.
... but really isn't it just a sin to bulldoze a performing arts venue? Once it's gone from the arts infrastructure it's gone and very likely not to be replaced. Theatres are enormously expensive and most shows have difficulty recouping their normal investments never mind funding anything such as this. There's a reason why we don't see many private commercial theatres being built these day. All the while it stands there is potential for magic, and how knows what or who will play here next year, ten years from now, fifty:
And it looks like the days of busloads of out-of-town retirees and the vanishing American tourist coming in to see Cats is behind us.
We can't be short-sighted about these things. Broadway was written off as dead in the 1970s until Chorus Line opened and revived the genre. Who knows what the declining Canadian dollar will do for tourism this year and onwards? Back in the 80s and 90s they were scrambling for theatres big enough to accommodate the shows. These things come and go in cycles... and who knows when the next Drabinsky will emerge? Again, once that valuable theatre infrastructure is gone it is likely gone for good.
I'm disappointed for the gallery too. It's somewhat of a Sophie's Choice for anyone who loves the arts, knowing how hard these things struggle. I remain optimistic in Mirvish though. If his resolve/vision to house his collection crumbles so easily it likely wasn't that strong or firm to start with... but i believe it is, and i hope that he is re-imagining the concept and will repackage it into something even more amazing, and something that will add further to the arts infrastructure rather that come at a cost to it.
