Mirvish will bring the stage adaptation of André Alexis’s Giller Prize-winning novel Fifteen Dogs to the CAA Theatre.DAHLIA KATZ/Crow's Theatre
Two Canadian premieres are headed to Toronto this fall as part of Mirvish’s 2024/2025 Off-Mirvish season.
The Thanksgiving Play, written by Indigenous playwright Larissa FastHorse, will make its Canadian debut on Sept. 28 at the CAA Theatre. The satirical comedy, which will run until Oct. 20, tells the story of four white theatre aficionados trying to create a culturally sensitive elementary school play about the origins of Thanksgiving. FastHorse’s play, written in 2015, had its world premiere in 2018 and made its Broadway debut in 2023.
Titanique, a jukebox musical set to the music of Celine Dion, opens on Dec. 5. The show, a satirical retelling of the story of the Titanic, premiered in Los Angeles in 2017 before opening off Broadway in 2022. Mirvish is co-producing the show with Montreal’s Segal Centre for Performing Arts, where it will run from Oct. 27 to Nov. 24 before heading to Toronto.
“When we heard about a spunky off-Broadway musical that paid homage to Céline while having fun with one of the world’s most popular films, Titanic – which, by the way, was made by another Canadian artist, director and producer James Cameron – we knew we had to bring it home to Canada,” David Mirvish said in a statement announcing the Off-Mirvish season. Similar to its off-Broadway counterpart in New York, the Off-Mirvish series features smaller, less mainstream productions that might not appear in the main season.
Mirvish will also bring the stage adaptation of André Alexis’s Giller Prize-winning novel Fifteen Dogs to the CAA Theatre. The play, like the book, follows a group of 15 dogs that have been given human consciousness and language as they roam Toronto. Fifteen Dogs, adapted and directed by Marie Farsi, first premiered at Crow’s Theatre in 2023 and will run from Jan. 25 to Feb. 16, 2025.
Finally, Life After, written by Canadian composer, lyricists and writer Britta Johnson, will open April 16, 2025. The play, which opened at Canadian Stage in 2017, follows 16-year-old Alice after the premature death of her father, a famous self-help author. Life After won six Dora Mavor Moore Awards the year of its premiere, including best new musical or opera.
Mirvish’s previously announced 2024-25 mainstage season this year includes a touring production of Mamma Mia!, the return of Disney’s The Lion King, Life of Pi and Moulin Rouge! The Musical.