Maria Muldaur (L), Cyndi Lauper (C) and Betty Wright perform at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California February 13, 2011.LUCY NICHOLSON
The Tony Award-winning Cyndi Lauper musical Kinky Boots will receive its Canadian premiere in 2015, Mirvish Productions has announced.
Based on the 2005 film, the 2013 Broadway musical – about a struggling shoemaker who saves his business by making footwear for a drag queen – will receive its own sit-down production in Toronto with a Canadian cast premiering in June, 2015.
The 2014-2015 Mirvish season announced Wednesday also features an import from the Shaw Festival: That company's much acclaimed production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia directed by Eda Holmes will move to the Royal Alexandra Theatre in late 2014. From Britain, Mirvish will welcome the 25th-anniversary production of Our Country's Good; Max Stafford-Clark directs the classic play about the Australian convict transports.
The main subscription season also includes The Heart of Robin Hood, a British retelling of the Robin Hood legend with music by the American alternative rock band Poor Old Shine, and the previously announced musicals Titanic from the U.K. and Disney's Newsies.
The smaller "off-Mirvish" season includes three plays: Boom, a one-man show by Canadian performer Rick Miller (MacHomer) reflecting on the baby boom; the Canadian premiere of the Broadway farce Vanya & Sonia & Marsha & Spike, about contemporary characters reminiscent of the depressive Russians created by Anton Chekhov, and Buyer & Cellar, a Drama Desk-winning play about an unemployed actor working in Barbra Streisand's basement.
Outside its subscription season, Mirvish Productions will also be bringing back to Toronto several popular musicals including The Book of Mormon, Wicked, Jersey Boys and The Lion King, as well as offering productions of Return to Grace, an Elvis Presley tribute from Quebec, and the Australian family show Dinosaur Zoo.
Editor's note: Kinky Boots is not currently touring the U.S., it is on Broadway. Buyer & Cellar won a Drama Desk Award, not a Tony Award. This version has been corrected.