Harry Potter

It is good to be close to a major city where live theatre is one of the entertainment venues available. Toronto is fortunate to have the Mirvish company bringing many international performances to its many stages in the city. This year’s lineup included Jesus Christ Superstar, The Room, Boy Falls from the Sky, &Juliet, 2 Pianos 4 Hands, and Harry Potter.

I have been impressed by the stage setup and scene changes. They differ in complexity from play to play. Of the three theatres I show here, one is relatively new, one is an old but restored movie theatre, and one was built for live stage productions.

The Princess of Wales Theatre is the newest of the Mirvish theatres. It was showing the play “& Juliet” Photography during the show is not permitted in any of the theatres but these pictures were taken either before the show began, during an intermission, or at the end of the performance.

The Mirvish company’s first theatre was The Royal Alexandra Theatre. It was built by Ed Mirvish to host Stage productions in Toronto. It is where I saw the 2P4H production. For this play, the stage set was very simple. There were no scene changes, but the theatre is very interesting and typical of the time it was built.

My favourite theatre is the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre. It was previously known as the Canon Theatre and was a movie theatre (cinema) in its younger years. It is impressively designed with a grand ornate lobby which spans the block and has entrances on two streets. For the production of Harry Potter, we thought we were going to be late. There was a Blue Jays baseball game going on in the city that night and with their recent winning streak, there was more traffic heading into the city. We sped-walked from Union Station the one kilometre up Yonge Street to the theatre and found out that they were not letting anyone into the theatre when we arrived. We waited for twenty minutes in the lobby. (photo op)

This is only the entrance hall leading up to the main gallery.

The lights seem to have been changed to reflect the Harry Potter theme of Hogwarts.

This production of Harry Potter has the most spellbinding special effects of any production I can recall seeing. Everyone in the audience was applauding the effects and asking how did they do that. I suspect the opening delay was due to the resetting of the pyrotechnics or other equipment maintenance.

This theatre has been equipped with some special features that have been used in other productions. However, the light in the ceiling is an original part of the building.

Unfortunately, I have nothing to show you for the special effects. You will have to come and see them for yourself. I do have a few pictures from the intermission.

This production is over three hours long but I did not hear anyone snoring. Fortunately, the baseball game finished earlier, with no extra innings, so it was an easy trip home. Just enough time for a couple of pictures of the stage at the end of the play.

What play have you seen that you enjoyed so much that you would go see it again?

– Where do you want to go today? –