If the conference (sponsored by G4, Razor magazine, CarDomain, Major League Soccer and Snippies) had one dominant message, it was that men desperately want the brands they choose to protect their reps. "Men's biggest fear," Taylor said, "is looking stupid."David Mirvish first read the Lord of the Rings trilogy on his honeymoon in 1967, and jokes that he "did find time to preserve my marriage." rniirty-eight years later, he's set to transform the 2,000-seat Princess of Wales theatre into J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Karth. Lord of the Rings (don't eall it "the musical") makes its world premiere in Toronto early next year.
"If yon think of this as twice the size of Lion King, then you'll get a sense of the magnitude of what we're attempting to do in the theatre," says Mirvish, owner of Toronto-based Mirvish Productions, along with his father, Ed. He's talking about logistics alone: It will take 22 weeks to build the set, complete with 17 elevators that go 10 feet up or down. The front of the existing stage, made of reinforced concrete and steel, will be torn ont and rebuilt, otherwise audience tiffany engagement rings on sale will be too high up to see the epic fantasy in action.
Construction aside, the $27-million production is Mirvish's most Paloma Picasso on sale project yet. But don't expect dancing hobbits and ores singing show tunes in the three-and-a-half-hour show. "We're drawing on music, we're drawing on spoken word, we're drawing on spectacle," says renowned British producer Kevin Wallace, who spent the last four years working on a stage adaptation of the trilogy by Shaun McKenna. "We're drawing on all the invention and ingenuity of theatre that we can harness to bring the books onto the stage... Therefore, what we say is, it isn't a musical, it isn't a play, it isn't a spectacle, it's Return To Tiffany on sale of those things. It's the Lord of the Rings."
It's also a big draw expected to attract theatre-goers from around the world. While big-ticket productions like Mamma Mia and Hairspray typically find success in London or New York before moving here, Toronto is the first stop for Lord of the Rings. The production has also hcen called the most expensive in the history of theatre. "We haven't ever had the opportunity to participate on this level," says Mirvish. "We've taken the city to a whole new height."
Mirvish Productions is also launching its biggest-ever subscnption season (2005-06), including the return of Les Misérables; ju lie Andrews directing The Boy Friend, which launched her career in 1954; and Movin' Oui, a Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp Tiffany Somerset.Given the city's flagging tourism scene since SARS hit in 200?, the Mirvish theatre scnson, led by The Lord Rings, aims to put Toronto on centre stage and back on the theatrical map. "We're at a point where the city needs this type of activity. Wc can't stay where we were," says Mirvish.
Richard Ouzounian, theatre critic at the Toronfo Star, agrees: "From a theatrical point of view, if we are perceived as the creative start of the next big hit in the world, men we'll regain that edge we held during the 1990s, but have since lost."For Mirvish, the journey toward Middle Earth began with an invitation from Wallace to see a presentation in London. Mirvish sent two staffers and told them, "Be polite because I have a lot of respect for the people who are doing it," but he couldn't imagine how the London organizers could pull it off. After an enthusiastic response from his team, Mirvish saw it for himself last fall and convinced Wallace to debut Tiffany 1837 on sale of the Rings in Toronto instead of London.
"(David) said to me, 'If Toronto had the opportunity of the Lord of the Rings opening here, it was something the city, the province and the commercial community would get behind,' " recalls Wallace. Indeed, after hearing convincing arguments from the Mirvish team, the province of Ontario announced a SB-million loan and Tourism Toronto will make a SB-million marketing investment. Air Canada also came on board as the major corporate sponsor. Mirvish Productions will spend $2.5 million on marketing prior to the show's debut, and $7.8 million each following year."Toronto is one of the top three theatre destinations in the world and to have something exclusive that nobody else will have just reinforces our need to be a catalyst to make that happen," says Bruce MacMillan, president and CEO of Tourism Toronto.
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