TORONTO – A stage show about the life of legendary Broadway director-producer Harold (Hal) Prince will not make its world premiere in Toronto after all.
Dancap Productions, which announced last October that “The Prince of Broadway” will debut in the city this summer, now says the show will instead open directly on the Great White Way in November.
Producers say the musical is forgoing its pre-Broadway engagement in Toronto due to costs.
“Over the past year, the scale of the show has grown so considerably that the costs of a pre-Broadway try-out no longer make financial sense,” Aubrey Dan, president of Dancap Productions, said in a statement.
“While we are of course disappointed that the production won’t premiere in Toronto, the financial implications coupled with the creative team and acting company schedules necessitated this revised plan to open directly on Broadway.”
“Prince of Broadway” will run down the highs and lows of the life of the 21-time Tony Award winner, whose large body of work includes “West Side Story,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and “Showboat.”
David Thompson is writing the book for the show, which will cull material from the theatre giant’s Broadway musicals.
“I’ll miss opening in Toronto because that city has been very good to me on many occasions,” said Prince, who is co-directing the show with Susan Stroman.
“But hopefully, Torontonians will visit us in New York and, if things turn out as well as we wish, we’ll visit them subsequently.”
