One
night, during a reception in the lobby of one of his two magnificent theatres
in Toronto, I asked David Mirvish how a particular production (I forget which one) was
doing in rehearsal. The perennially optimistic Mirvish said: "Oh, very
well. But you never know -- theatre is a dicey business."
That
about sums up the $30-million dollar gamble he took with the musical version of
The Lord of the Rings, the sprawling J.R.R. Tolkien allegory (reviewed in Aisle Say several months ago) that
announced its closure in Toronto this week. Speaking at a press conference on
behalf of the British side of the production team, producer Kevin Wallace noted in somewhat churlish and
paradoxical remarks that it was the critics what done the thing in -- they just
didn't seem to "get" the genius of it all. He predicted that the
British public will warmly embrace the show when it opens at Andrew Lloyd
Webber's Drury Lane theatre in the spring of 2007.
In
the meantime, Wallace admitted that he did learn a lot from the experience
including all of the negative reviews and that the production that will open in
London will have a book that is trimmed and a score that is expanded.
So
the producers will roll the dice again in about nine months -- this time on
their home turf. Stay tuned to this tuner for further details.