Mirvish New 2011-2012 Season Announcement

Every year in February, David Mirvish previews his new subscription season with an event held at the Princess of Wales theatre, inviting all recipients of his EStage online newsletter. Each new show is presented through a videoclip, and sometimes a live performance from the show.

There are usually 6-7 shows in the subscription year, which gives David a chance to flex his artistic muscles when it comes to picking them. While most of the shows that he picks should appeal to the general public, he will often throw in one or two unconventional productions that only a small targeted audience really appreciates. In the past he's included a Korean subtitled opera, an obscure Shakespeare play where the actors were dressed as 1920s mobsters so that it was impossible to tell the King from the Jester, an unknown musical where the actors spoke with such strong Jamaican accents and slangs that they were uncomprehensible.

Last year the shows were all mainstream consisting of 5 well-known musicals and a comedy. Perhaps due to the recession, with theatre being a discretionary expense, Mirvish felt he needed to appeal to a larger audience to keep up the subscription numbers. This year he is back with his usual eclectic selections - there are 3 dramas, a comedy and 3 musicals on the playbill.

The event was hosted by the stars of the play "Four Hands Two Pianos" which is not on next season's subscription, but is being marketed as an extra show to be offered at discount to subscribers. Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt performed favourites like Chopsticks and Heart and Soul on duelling pianos before launching in on more ambitious songs to demonstrate their musical prowess. Then they went on to describe each of the upcoming shows, sometimes introducing producers, directors or actors from the show to further the promotion.

The first show is a drama called "The Railway Children" which will be shown in the new Roundhouse Theatre and includes a real train that is being transported all the way from London England. Next will be the Noel Coward comedy "Private Lives" starring Kim Cattrall of Sex in the City fame. Kim was on hand at the event to give a little star power to the presentation. The third show is the musical "Chess", with original music and lyrics written by the two male B's of ABBA, and deals with a highly political chess match between an American and a Russian. Another drama called "Blue Dragon" follows the life of a Canadian now living in Shanghai and will consist of dialogue in English, French and Mandarin with subtitles. I have a feeling I'll either love or hate this one... Each of these shows were introduced using promotional video clips.

The casts of the musicals "Mary Poppins" and "Hair" each performed a medley of numbers from their shows. Mary Poppins and Bert sang and danced to well-known songs like Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and ChimChim Cheree amongst others. I spent most of their performance thinking how much I liked her dress.

The cast of Hair went pyschodelic to hits including the title song Hair and Aquarius, spinning their long locks in a frenzy. They ended the show by throwing flowers into the crowd in a show of 1960s flower power.

But the highlight of the event went to the presentation for the drama "War Horse". This acclaimed West End London drama featuring hand-spring puppets follows the adventures of a boy and his beloved horse who is sold to the army during WWI. The star of the show, a 6 foot tall puppet horse named Joey was brought out during our preview event and it was amazing to see how life-like he was, even though the puppeteers that manipulated him were clearly and purposely visible. The puppetry reminds you of the Lion King, but takes it to the next level in terms of movement, look and feel. While our usual subscription seats are at the back of the theatre, for this event I was sitting within the first 10 rows of the Orchestra and got a very good view of Joey. To fully appreciate the artistry, you need to be closer so we've decided that we need to upgrade our seats for this show. The video clip that shows the horses in battle at full gallop is too breathtaking to describe.