Opinion: Mirvish, Gehry and the Dead Princess

“That the Empire [Theatre] is beautiful is not to be denied, but I think it could come down tomorrow and the loss would be less profound than you’d expect. All that was most valuable here is gone by the end of every night. It’s taken away by the people who came and watched and listened. These buildings that we call theatres… some last, some don’t, and this is surely how it’s always going to be, but the thing is to see that whenever you may lose one… you find another.  A smaller one, a bigger one, it doesn’t matter… but they must always be replaced.”

-          Sarah Bernhardt in Stewart Lemoine’s “The Zenith of the Empire”

by Christopher Douglas

(all photos courtesy of Gehry International Inc.)

On the first of October, David Mirvish, son of the improvised theatre impresario Honest Ed Mirvish, will officially announce his grand redesign of two blocks of Toronto’s Entertainment District. Everything between the western wall of his crown jewel, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, and John Street, fronting King, will be redeveloped into a creative new concept by the legendary architect, Frank Gehry. Included in that two block zone are the former Mirvish dining establishments now housing some chain restaurants and bars as well as offices and, of course, the elegantly large and stylishly modern Princess of Wales Theatre.

Yes, folks, that’s right. Mirvish, head of a theatre empire in one of the world’s biggest theatre towns, plans to demolish his own theatre. In fact, it’s the only theatre he has ever built. While his company owns the Royal Alex, the Panasonic and the Ed Mirvish – the recently rededicated Canon and previously Pantages – the only one of those venues constructed during David’s lifetime was the Princess of Wales, which, in the next three to seven years, will be no more.

In its place, Mirvish and Gehry plan to construct three radically different 80-storey condominiums on top of tiered podiums that house a new site for the OCAD University and a 60,000-square-foot gallery called the Mirvish Collection, intended to showcase the contemporary abstract art collection of David Mirvish and his wife, Audrey. And maybe this reinvention of the space will include Mirvish’s promised 9,765-square feet for the Theatre Museum Canada?

Obviously the loss of a theatre is devastating to our community, which is only made worse when it happens to be a prized facility of the Toronto scene. Sure, the place, opened in 1993, is underused since it is tough to fill that 2,000 seat barn. Personally, I have yet to appreciate the Frank Stella murals that adorn the northern wall of the theatre, the ceiling of the auditorium, the proscenium arch and much of the four levels of lobby space. But it is still a venue.

Built to house the monstrous helicopter of Miss Saigon, the Princess of Wales used to house sit-down Canadian productions like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Hairspray, The Sound of Music, War Horse and The Lord of the Rings all cast and crewed with local talent.

That is exactly where the loss of this venue will be felt the most: the locals. While it’s hardly a secret that the theatre attendance of the past few years has been declining, it has been a fairly steady drop since 9/11, a rising dollar, increased fuel costs and SARS scared away tourists. Demolishing a state-of-the-art venue such as the PoW underlines the decline of our popularity, and possibly of our viability as a destination for larger-scale shows. What a symbolic gesture this announcement becomes. Will closing this theatre simply relegate Toronto to touring productions of American musicals and the occasional pre-Broadway try-out, as with Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 2010, leaving Canadian actors, technicians and crew without higher-end year-round opportunities?

Certainly Mirvish will still have three relatively large theatres operating amidst other Toronto venues like Tarragon Theatre, the troubled Factory Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and the often vacant Sony Centre for the Performing Arts and the similarly-empty Toronto Centre for the Arts. (Note that the Sony, the three theatres of the TCA, the stage-duo at the St. Lawrence Centre and the Elgin/Wintergarden complex are all government owned.) However, Mirvish was the big one: the only commercial presenter left after the demise of Drabinsky’s Livent nearly 15 years ago and DanCap’s hibernation earlier this year.

If Mirvish closes his doors completely, what is left?

A vibrant local scene – be that the numerous independent companies, the plethora of Fringe options or even the community theatres that keep trucking along – but there becomes a vacuum. How much smaller-scale theatre can we really support? Without a few larger titles, do we attract the matinee ladies that want safety from their shows or the out-of-towners from the 905 who only hear about theatre through mainstream media outlets or do we even have a theatre option for tourists that only see three or four productions a year?

And without the option of a larger house (almost all of the indie companies and resident companies in Toronto seat less than 300 people) what happens if you have a successful show, like The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God, Stuff Happens, e‑dentity and My Mother’s Jewish Lesbian Wiccan Wedding?  There aren’t many venues in the city that could accommodate a long-running show because of existing seasons or other rentals, or that even have the budget to showcase a hit.  Interestingly, none of those titles (mostly original Canadian works and all Toronto productions) were staged at the PoW either, where only Da Kink in My Hair was remounted before becoming a television series.

Interestingly, earlier this week, Mirvish publicized the Off-Mirvish the Second Stage Season, featuring remounts of Terminus (from the 2012 SummerWorks) and Clybourne Park (Studio 180’s hit from April) alongside Mary Walsh’s Dancing With Rage (intended for TPM this year but delayed due to illness) and Anthony Rapp’s memoir Without You.  Again though, none play at the Princess of Wales.

Does that announcement serve as a counterbalance to the closure of a theatre? Somewhat, yes; particularly if this Second Stage initiative is the beginning of an ongoing showcase of the work of smaller Toronto companies. But does it excuse the shuttering of a theatre? No.

While the business logic for closing the theatre seems obvious, it is hard to condone the closure of a performance space, particularly when the reason for the wrecking ball is simply another scheme to sell downtown condos.  Ironically, one of the selling features will be the buildings’ proximity to the arts, while the bulldozing of the Princess of Wales detracts from the neighbourhood cachet – a neighbourhood that will still feature the Royal Alex, Roy Thomson Hall and the newish TIFF Bell Lightbox. 

Then, to knock down a venue that will be celebrating its 20th anniversary next year, when most other theatres in town are repurposed from much older structures, constantly in need of upgrades and repairs, seems almost unconscionable.  Could the Princess of Wales not have been planned around or even been chopped up and salvaged as smaller spaces?  Mirvish claims the theatre was simply in the way in his letter to the media and also that he intends to save the Stella murals before demolition, though that document contains no mention of creating theatre space now – only a vague promise for the future, if he deems it necessary.

Regardless, if Mirvish is so committed to theatre on King Street, why not include plans for a small venue in his two block redesign to replace this blunder? It doesn’t have to be the size of the PoW. What Toronto artists really need is another 500-seat venue like the Fleck Dance Theatre at the Harbourfront, a theatre situated inside a boutique mall. A theatre like that could follow the model of the recently-opened Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre, where companies like Native Earth Performing Arts and the Collective of Black Artists share the performance space, with offices also in the building.

Then again, this re-conception of the area – owned almost entirely by the Mirvishes for the past two decades – seems to only be concerned with personal legacy: to bestow a new facility for a university and to display the founder’s admittedly impressive art collection, all in the guise of a project designed by a world-renowned architect.

Whether I like the existing venue or not, the destruction of the Princess of Wales transforms into a moment of mourning, a wake to awaken us to the changing realities of the business and maybe, also, to how precious what we have is.

To paraphrase Stewart Lemoine in his play, The Zenith of the Empire, theatres don’t always last but the memories of the performances are what stay with us in the audience. However, theatre as an institution does not die just because a building disappears – because the cycle of creation must always go on, new spaces will be created and must be created as the needs of society, performers and audiences change too