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How do you solve a problem like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?

With the continuing success of its CBC-cast The Sound of Music, Toronto producer David Mirvish is in discussions with the national broadcaster to produce Any Dream Will Do, a Canadian version of the British reality series that selected the star of the current West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The contest would aim to cast a lead actor for an all-Canadian production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

"There are very few shows you can cast through reality television," Mirvish said yesterday, after announcing the hit London production would be replicated in Toronto next fall. "Joseph does allow for that."

Mirvish emphasized a second TV show was only "a possibility" in Canada at the moment, but all signs indicate that he and the CBC are following the precedent Lloyd Webber has set overseas.

In Britain, Lloyd Webber has had a string of successes casting and promoting West End shows through talent contests aired on the BBC. First came How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, which was copied by CBC last summer; this was followed by Any Dream Will Do, which garnered even better ratings; and most recently the British theatre impresario and composer judged Consider Yourself, a show which chose a Nancy and several of the children for the current smash West End production of Oliver!

Lloyd Webber revealed the upcoming Canadian production of Joseph in a video presented at yesterday's Mirvish Productions season announcement.

The eight other shows on the commercial company's menu for 2009-2010 are the previously revealed North American premiere of the Australian musical hit Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, a quartet of big touring musicals and three edgier dramas. On the musical front, Young Frankenstein will come to Toronto, as will Chaim Topol's farewell tour playing Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

Minnesota's Guthrie Theatre's musical adaptation of Little House on the Prairie will also stop by, while Mirvish will host the North American premiere of the British reggae musical, The Harder They Come, based on the 1972 film starring Jimmy Cliff, in the summer of 2009. Cliff was on hand in Toronto yesterday to sing Higher and Higher and Rivers of Babylon, some of the hits featured in the show.

In the drama department, Mirvish has expanded its offerings thanks to its recent purchase of the smaller, 700-seat Panasonic Theatre, which it acquired after a legal battle with rival producer Dancap. "It certainly encourages us to look at straight drama," Mirvish said.

The Panasonic is the probable home for the Mirvish revival of Studio 180's acclaimed production of Stuff Happens, David Hare's semi-fictional play looking at the lead up of the Iraq War. (Actor Barry Flatman appeared in character as George W. Bush to announce this decision — and had a shoe thrown at him by an audience plant.) It will also probably host director Alisa Palmer's revival of British playwright Caryl Churchill's anti-colonial comedy Cloud 9, which will star a top-notch cast including Megan Follows, Ann-Marie MacDonald and Yanna McIntosh. (This follows on the heels of Palmer's success with another Churchill play, Top Girls, at Soulpepper.) Mirvish also plans to host the North American tour of Tracy Letts's Pulitzer-winning drama, August: Osage Country. Starring Estelle Parsons, the production that originated with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre visits Toronto in November.