So I admit I was a bit pissed at Mirvish Productions for screwing up the run of The Producers and Hairspray in Toronto and plastering Mamma Mia ads everywhere I turned in this fair-ish city. In my opinion, their past productions (The Lion King, The Producers, Hairspray, Miss Saigon) have had a pretty spotty casting track record. And to top it off, I thought they were turning into purely spectacle producers with the Lord of the Rings extravaganza coming next spring.

However, according to The Toronto Star (Mirvishes in an expansive mood, The Toronto Star, March 30, 2005), Mirvish announced his new 2005/2006 subscription series with none other than Mary Poppins herself, Dame Julie Andrews.

Julie Andrews also announced that, as part of that lineup, she will be directing The Boy Friend, a fun 1920s spoof musical with which she made her Broadway debut at the age of 19, some 50 years ago. She originally directed this musical for Goodspeed Musicals in 2004 in Connecticut, and is now in charge of their touring production. Add to that Les Mis (yawn, but a crowd pleaser), Movin' Out (awesome if you get the right talent), and three new plays, and you've got a respectable (if not groundbreaking) lineup.

Fingers crossed on casting choices! Now if I can just get Mirvish to include Plane Crazy in their 2006/2007 lineup...

From the Star:

If you're announcing a theatrical playbill full of huge hopes and optimistic dreams, who better to help introduce it than Mary Poppins?

Obviously that's what David Mirvish had in mind when he brought out Dame Julie Andrews as the star attraction to launch his biggest-ever subscription season yesterday morning at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

The 69-year old star of My Fair Lady, Camelot and The Sound of Music actually brought many in the crowd of 400 media types to their feet in a spontaneous standing ovation when she made her entrance.

Andrews managed to combine cool elegance and friendly warmth as she discussed her production of The Boy Friend, which will be one of the shows in next year's Mirvish season, as previously revealed in The Star.

"I look on this as a labour of love," said Andrews in describing the 1920s spoof with which she made her Broadway debut at the age of 19, some 50 years ago. "It's as elegant and beautiful as a piece of lace, but it's also an awful lot of fun."

The 42nd Mirvish subscription season will feature seven shows, a record number for the organization. Mirvish himself attributed his daring to "a sense of optimism that's sweeping through the city again. This is a time to rebuild, to move ahead and we want to be part of it."

Playwright Michael Healey served as master of ceremonies for the event, utilizing his customary martini-dry wit. "Hello, I'm Ed Mirvish," is how he began.

Healey's presence was more than coincidental, because his new comedy, The Innocent Eye Test, will have its world premiere next season, in a co-production with the Manitoba Theatre Centre, directed by Christopher Newton.

The author described it as "a classic farce about art dealers, terrorists and how Canadians are perceived abroad." Set in a Tuscan villa, it fulfills what Healey jokingly said were Mirvish's demands when he commissioned it: "a two-act comedy with no more than eight characters, all about sex and money."

Also present to raise the Canadian content level were author Dan Needles and star Rod Beattie of Wingfield's Inferno, the fifth play in the incredibly successful series about a Bay Street broker who leaves it all behind to live on a small Ontario farm.

"It's about how Canada's biggest growth industry is the stifling of human achievement," is the way Beattie wryly described his latest work.

There will be three other big shows in the season as well. First, of course, is the recently announced stage version of The Lord of the Rings, which, with its $27 million budget and international creative team, is likely to stand as the focal point of the entire year.

But the two remaining musicals joining it on the bill are no slouches either.

Movin' Out, the Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp collaboration, has been a huge hit on Broadway and across the country ever since its opening late in 2002. Using 24 of Joel's hits to tell the story of five friends whose lives are changed forever by the war in Vietnam, this show packs a real punch, due in large part to Tharp's kinetic staging.

And the original mega-musical, Les Miserables, has been a favourite of Toronto audiences ever since it first played here in 1989.

Mirvish gently turned aside any questions as to whether Toronto residents Colm Wilkinson and Michael Burgess might be stepping into the shoes of Jean Valjean that they once filled.

"You'll have to ask (producer) Cameron Mackintosh about that," was his diplomatic reply.

Rounding out the year is the wild card of the seven shows, Nomade, a production from the Quebec-based Cirque Eloize. The group has been highly popular in Europe and is currently performing in Paris at Les Folies Bergere.

Their style is hard to describe, but from the video we were shown, it seems a bit like Riverdance meets Cirque du Soleil.

In any event, the season Mirvish Productions has planned has the potential to be truly spectacular and to fulfill one of the major purposes of theatre, which is, as Andrews wisely described it, "to bring a bit of joy into all of our lives."