DanCap Productions announces 6-show season for 2007/08

Aubrey Dan, President of Dancap Production Inc., today announced details of the company's inaugural season.  Starting in September 2007, the company will present six blockbuster musical events from Broadway and London's West End including Tony Award-winners The Drowsy Chaperone, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, My Fair Lady, Avenue Q, Jersey Boys, and Marion J. Caffey's 3 Mo' Divas.

"We want to play a part in Toronto's cultural renaissance.  Our colleagues in the visual arts, ballet and opera are making great contributions to the revitalization of this city and we're eager and determined to bring more exceptional theatre to Toronto audiences," said Aubrey Dan.
 
Although better known as a businessman and philanthropist, Aubrey Dan is no stranger to the Toronto theatre scene having co-produced URINETOWN: The Musical (2004), Ain't Misbehavin' (2005), and Hair (2006) with CanStage. Other producing credits include The Wedding Singer, the current Broadway musical The Pirate Queen, and the North American touring production of 3 Mo' Divas.

To help realize his plan and make his vision a reality, Mr. Dan has brought together a team of seasoned theatre professionals led by managing director Paul Shaw along with producers Peter Lamb and Jordan Fiksenbaum, who have extensive experience in the musical theatre business throughout North America.
 
"I'm thrilled to be part of the birth of a New Theatre Company," said Paul Shaw.  "We're beginning by presenting the finest and most exciting Broadway musicals here in Toronto and our vision for the future includes creating and building our own shows with Canadian artists and craftspeople, and then taking these shows to Broadway and beyond."  

Hundreds gathered at the Elgin Theatre to celebrate the launch of Toronto's newest theatrical company featuring a sampling of spectacular performances from the 2007/2008 season, hosted by Academy Award-winning star of stage, film and television, Cloris Leachman.

The company unveiled the Dancap Customer Appreciation Program (CAP), the first live theatre loyalty program of its kind in North America, which allows customers to earn points towards free tickets to individual Dancap shows.  The program offers three CAP membership levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Dancap member benefits include a subscription to My Dancap e-newsletter, a special ticket hotline, Head of the QTM – access to tickets before they go on sale to the general public, preferred seating, and ticket exchange.
 
The company also launched its website www.dancaptickets.com <http://www.dancaptickets.com/> which features Cloris Leachman as the theatre savvy web host who guides visitors through the site's offerings including "My Dancap", the group sales room and more.

Dancap Productions Inc. 2007/2008 Season:
The Drowsy Chaperone starring Bob Martin as Man in ChairSeptember 19 – October 14, 2007
Opening Night: Sunday, September 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Elgin Theatre
Launch of North American Tour
  

"Bliss comes to Broadway. The best new musical of the season! You'll love it!"
- Ben Brantley, The New York Times
"Musical theatre lovers, rejoice! Here comes a show you've been waiting for forever!  A delicious tribute to the therapeutic powers of musical theatre."
- Lisa Karlin, CBS Radio

What better way to launch Dancap Productions than with the most successful Canadian musical to run on Broadway!  The Drowsy Chaperone returns home to Toronto, where it began its sensational journey, for the launch of the North American tour.  Bob Martin will star as Man in Chair, a die-hard musical fan who plays his favourite cast album, a 1928 smash hit called "The Drowsy Chaperone", while the show magically bursts to life in the background.  This glamorous, hilarious tale of a celebrity bride and her uproarious wedding day has won a multitude of awards including five Tonys, seven Drama Desk awards, and four Outer Critics Circle awards.  The show's stellar creative team includes Canadians Bob Martin, Don McKellar, Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. The show is directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw (Spamalot). Visit www.drowsychaperone.com <http://www.drowsychaperone.com>
  

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
January 29 – February 10, 2008
Opening Night: Tuesday, January 29 at 8 p.m.
Elgin Theatre

"Can you spell I-R-R-E-S-I-S-T-I-B-L-E? 'Spelling Bee' is riotously funny and remarkably ingenious. Gold stars all around." - The New York Times

"Perfect in every possible way – that rarity of rarities, a super-smart musical
that is also a bona fide crowd-pleaser." - The Wall Street Journal

In the Tony Award-winning new musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't necessarily make you a loser. This tuneful, offbeat and at times heart-warming show offers audience members the opportunity (strictly voluntary) to become part of the action as on-stage spellers. Visit www.SpellingBeeTheMusical.com <http://www.SpellingBeeTheMusical.com>

Marion J. Caffey's
3 Mo' Divas
A Musical Celebration of Class, Sass & Style
March 4 - 16, 2008
Opening Night: Thursday, March 6 at 8 p.m.
The Winter Garden Theatre
  

"Soaring vocal talent…sublimely displayed range and power." - Los Angeles Times

"3 Mo' Divas storm every genre…These singers are genuine multi-threats."
- Edmonton Journal

3 Mo' Divas is an entertaining, theatrically staged concert, which celebrates and showcases the magnificent versatility and power of the female voice.  Three incredible singers take on the formidable task of crossing eight musical styles and 400 years of music in one evening, including opera, Broadway, jazz, blues, soul,
 R & B, spirituals and gospel, all the while maintaining the integrity of each musical style.  Due to the extraordinary vocal demands of the production, there are two casts of Divas, each performing four shows a week.  3 Mo' Divas follows the great success of Broadway writer/director, Marion J. Caffey's international hit, Three Mo' Tenors, which opened to critical and audience acclaim in New York City.  Caffey has directed several shows in Toronto including the Dora Award-winning box office hit Cookin' at the Cookery.  Catch Diva Fever at www.3modivas.com <http://www.3modivas.com>


My Fair Lady
May 8 - 31, 2008
Opening Night: Friday, May 9 at 8 p.m.
Toronto Centre for the Arts

"This is still one of the great musicals, dazzling, sophisticated, funny, sharp and generous – and it gets a production to match" – The Sunday Times, London

My Fair Lady,Lerner & Loewe's legendary musical, premieres in Canada direct from its 50th Anniversary London production and U.K. national tour starring acclaimed British theatre actors Christopher Cazenove and Lisa O'Hare who earned rave reviews for their dynamic performances as Professor Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. Christopher Cazenove is best known to Toronto audiences for his role as Ben Carrington on television's "Dynasty". Based on the Cameron Mackintosh/National Theatre of Great Britain's award-winning London sensation, and hailed as "the revival against which all others will be measured" this glorious new production features one of Broadway's most beloved scores including "The Rain in Spain," "I Could Have Danced All Night' and "Get Me to the Church on Time", and brings together the original U.K. artistic team with direction by four-time Tony® winner Trevor Nunn (Les Misérables), choreography and musical staging by two-time Tony® winner Matthew Bourne (Mary Poppins) and production design by Anthony Ward (Gypsy). Visit www.myfairladythemusical.com <http://www.myfairladythemusical.com>


Avenue Q
July 29 - Aug 31, 2008
Opening Night: Tuesday, July 29 at 8 p.m.
Elgin Theatre

"A subversive and uproarious new musical. Wicked fun for grown-ups!"
- The New Yorker

Avenue Q is Broadway's smash-hit 2004 Tony Award® winner for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. A hilarious show full of heart and hummable tunes, Avenue Q is about trying to make it in NYC with big dreams and a tiny bank account.  Called "one of the funniest shows you're ever likely to see" by Entertainment Weekly, Avenue Q features a cast of people and puppets who tell the story in a smart, risqué and downright entertaining way. Recommended for ages 13 and up. Visit www.avenueq.com <http://www.avenueq.com>

Avenue Q has not been authorized or approved by The Jim Henson Company or Sesame Workshop, which have no responsibility for its content.


Jersey Boys
Coming Soon
  

"Too good to be true!  Jersey Boys is terrific – a show dynamically alive in music,

while as a drama, it catches the very texture, almost the actual smell of its time."

- Clive Barnes, New York Post

"The most exciting musical Broadway has seen in years."

-Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune

Jersey Boys, the 2006 Tony Award®-winning Best Musical about Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Four Seasons: Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi, makes its Canadian premiere. This is the story of how four blue-collar kids became one of the greatest successes in pop music history. They wrote their own songs, invented their own sounds and sold 175 million records worldwide – all before they were thirty!  Jersey Boys features their hit songs Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry, Rag Doll, Oh What a Night and Can't Take My Eyes Off You.The Jersey Boys creative team is comprised of two-time Tony Award®-winning director Des McAnuff who hails from Toronto, book writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, composer Bob Gaudio, lyricist Bob Crewe and choreographer Sergio Trujillo.  For more information, visit the show's official website at www.JerseyBoysTour.com <http://www.JerseyBoysTour.com>


All performances will take place at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre (189 Yonge Street) in Toronto with the exception of My Fair Lady, which will be presented at the Toronto Centre for the Arts (5040 Yonge Street) in Toronto. For a complete performance schedule visit www.dancaptickets.com.
 
CAP memberships - Bronze (FREE), Silver ($50) and Gold ($100) – go on sale April 28 and will be available by calling 416-644-3665, toll free at 1-866-950-7469(SHOW) or on-line at www.dancaptickets.com.  Members may purchase a Starter 3-Pack from $170 or 6-Show Pack starting at $310.   Group bookings of 20 or more are on sale as of April 28 for all Dancap shows.  Single tickets for The Drowsy Chaperone go on sale June 18.
  

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