TORONTO — Because the theatre business struggles to remain afloat throughout COVID-19, acclaimed Montreal-raised producer Adam Blanshay stays optimistic with a number of irons within the hearth, together with a homegrown undertaking.
This week the founder and CEO of Adam Blanshay Productions was among the many producers nominated for a best-musical Tony Award for “Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” which received 14 nods in whole.
Broadway continues to be darkish after shutting down in March because of the pandemic, and theatres around the globe, together with in Toronto and London, the place Blanshay relies, have for probably the most half additionally needed to hold their doorways closed since spring.
Blanshay says the web Tonys broadcast set for later this 12 months will probably be “a possibility to deliver quite a lot of pleasure” amid “the hardship and negativity and additional closures.”
The producer can also be making a musical theatre internet collection referred to as “The Theatre Channel,” with stage stars performing classics at The Theatre Cafe within the coronary heart of London’s West Finish.
And he is growing a brand-new Canadian musical he plans to launch at a yet-to-be-determined date in Montreal.
The previous Simply For Laughs Theatricals CEO says he cannot reveal the identify or particulars of the brand new musical however guarantees it is “very thrilling.”
“Theatres will resume full occupancy. It is a matter of time,” Blanshay mentioned Thursday in a telephone interview after the Tony nominations had been introduced.
“Folks want uplifting content material, folks want difficult content material, folks have to chortle, as at all times. And we’re simply trying in direction of 2021, 2022 and past. On the identical time, I’ve fully and totally turned my enterprise onto itself.”
“Moulin Rouge! The Musical” received the second-highest quantity of Tony nominations Thursday, behind a present with one other Canadian connection — “Jagged Little Capsule,” that includes the music of Ottawa-born singer Alanis Morissette.
“I am as excited as could be below the circumstances,” mentioned Blanshay.
“Jagged Little Capsule” received 15 nominations, together with finest musical, a class through which Toronto impresario David Mirvish was named. Mirvish was additionally named within the best-musical nomination for “Tina — The Tina Turner Musical.”
This is not the primary Tonys foray for Blanshay, who has been concerned in additional than 60 productions.
In 2015, for example, he additionally received nominations for 2 of his Broadway performs — “Wolf Corridor, Components One & Two” and “The Curious Incident of the Canine within the Evening-Time.” Each had been co-produced by Simply For Laughs Theatricals.
The Adam Blanshay Productions web site says the corporate has acquired six Tony Awards, seven Olivier Awards, and one Helpmann Award for theatre in Australia.
“Moulin Rouge! The Musical” relies on Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 movie and premiered in Boston in 2018 earlier than hitting Broadway in June 2019. Blanshay received concerned after listening to concerning the present from lead producer Carmen Pavlovic in Sydney, Australia, the place he labored on a manufacturing of “Matilda The Musical.”
Seeing it for the primary time in Boston was “sensory overload,” he mentioned, noting the Tony-nominated choreography from Sonya Tayeh creates “the identical frenetic, sensible vitality that Baz Luhrmann had together with his enhancing.” The present additionally has many hits that deliver down the home, he added.
“By the tip persons are simply fully beside themselves,” mentioned Blanshay.
A U.S. tour of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” is deliberate, as are London and Australian productions, however all have been postponed throughout the pandemic.
Meantime, Blanshay plans to launch 10, 30-minute episodes of “The Theatre Channel” on its web site (https://www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk/channel/). The primary episode launched Oct. 2 and a second, Halloween-themed episode will launch Oct. 30. Viewers can watch by shopping for tickets on the location.
“It is fairly controversial, however we’re being requested to retrain, rethink our enterprise mannequin by the U.Ok. authorities, and that is what I have been doing — for higher or worse,” mentioned Blanshay, referring to the government-backed CyberFirst profession marketing campaign, which included a not too long ago pulled commercial that prompt a ballet dancer ought to retrain in cyber safety.
“Nevertheless it’s pleasure to be using artists and creatives to create work proper now, and to see folks displaying as much as work with large smiles on their faces every single day and with the ability to create.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Oct. 16, 2020.
