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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2017 19:19:41 GMT
Compared to the UK, Canada is a very small market - a little over half our population, spread over a vast area. Toronto is something of a special case: there's a lot of theatre there and in the surrounding area (Stratford and the Shaw Festival are both an easy drive away), and theatre pulls a lot of visitors into the region from a catchment area extending a fair distance into the USA. And the theatres where tours play in Toronto operate a combined subscription scheme; they sell a lot of season packages, so they aren't dependent on walk-up sales to sustain a run. Interesting - I've not been, hoping make it over one day. Yeah Toronto is it's weird own beast theatrically- as sf says it pulls audiences from all over including USA in a way that other Canadian cities don't. Montreal (I lived there, but bow to more recent knowledge obviously) has a very particular theatre culture (spawn Cirque de Soliel for a start) and has the dual theatre 'scenes' with French and English. It's much more niche, experimental with the 'big' tours blowing through. Whereas Toronto has that joined up English language theatre scene, and the links to the other nearby 'theatre towns'. I don't know the West Coast as well, but I get the impression Vancouver isn't as 'theatre-y' as either Toronto or Montreal. And anything in between is varying degrees of very small cities, to ...well not a lot but Moose  |
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Post by Jon on Nov 19, 2017 19:33:50 GMT
Yeah Toronto is it's weird own beast theatrically- as sf says it pulls audiences from all over including USA in a way that other Canadian cities don't. Montreal (I lived there, but bow to more recent knowledge obviously) has a very particular theatre culture (spawn Cirque de Soliel for a start) and has the dual theatre 'scenes' with French and English. It's much more niche, experimental with the 'big' tours blowing through. Whereas Toronto has that joined up English language theatre scene, and the links to the other nearby 'theatre towns'. I don't know the West Coast as well, but I get the impression Vancouver isn't as 'theatre-y' as either Toronto or Montreal. And anything in between is varying degrees of very small cities, to ...well not a lot but Moose I suppose that's similar to Belfast and Dublin, both cities seem to be the place where most tours go to in Northern Ireland and ROI, I don't think you ever see a play or musical go to say Sligo or Londonderry/Derry for example although I'm sure some do go to other Irish cities. |
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Post by Phantom of London on Nov 19, 2017 19:37:53 GMT
Toronto used to be far busier and vibrant theatre scene, with 40% of theatregoers came over the board and would drive up to 5 hours to catch a show, then going to New York, because a Toronto show was far cheaper, also hotels and eating is cheaper - this is evident for how long The Lion King and The Phantom of the Opera run, they wouldn’t be able to do it today, the reason is because of 9/11, which forced Americans to have a passport to visit, over half of Americans don’t have one. So therefore don’t go to Toronto anymore.
I cannot understand the customs argument, as long as the paperwork is in correct order and it is verifiable, the US is a safer country and I’m sure customs wouldn’t want to unduly hinder business, if the paperwork said The Lion King tour from Columbia then I would be very concerned, so should our customs. If customs were that heavy handed then supermarkets wouldn’t be able to sell the stuff they do, as it wouldn’t be edible anymore.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Nov 19, 2017 19:49:55 GMT
On a side note, it would be great to see greater co-operation with regards to broadcasts of big shows. We already get the Met Opera over here - so that proves it can be done. There have been some great shows broadcast from Broadway that have not been extended to other markets - and that is a shame.
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Post by Jon on Nov 19, 2017 19:52:17 GMT
On a side note, it would be great to see greater co-operation with regards to broadcasts of big shows. We already get the Met Opera over here - so that proves it can be done. There have been some great shows broadcast from Broadway that have not been extended to other markets - and that is a shame. I suspect the reason for no live broadcast of Broadway shows is that producers probably see its as eating into potential revenue when it transfers to another country. |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Nov 19, 2017 19:54:23 GMT
On a side note, it would be great to see greater co-operation with regards to broadcasts of big shows. We already get the Met Opera over here - so that proves it can be done. There have been some great shows broadcast from Broadway that have not been extended to other markets - and that is a shame. I suspect the reason for no live broadcast of Broadway shows is that producers probably see its as eating into potential revenue when it transfers to another country. I am thinking of things like Falsettos and She Loves Me - neither of which were slated for UK transfers. |
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Post by Phantom of London on Nov 19, 2017 20:02:30 GMT
But a show the producers don’t intend to bring over and tour the US instead can, I just don’t believe it has been done very well so far, which is surprising as the biggest road producers in the US is British; Broadway in America. Sure there is the reasonable argument over haulage and cost of flying cast and management over, but also you save yourself on not having to rehearse the cast, as I said earlier you can cast some British actors in both the US/UK legs, to pacify Equity.
On the first venue, you could even invite top critics to review, so you can use that information and box office to gauge if it is worthy doing a West End run eventually.
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