Aaron Costa Ganis, left, and Elizabeth McGovern in The Secret Conversations.Jeff Lorch/Supplied
A bluegrass musical from Steve Martin and Edie Brickell is one of five shows coming to Toronto as part of Mirvish Production’s 2025-26 Off-Mirvish season.
The Broadway musical Bright Star, a creation of the banjo-playing funnyman and the What I Am pop star, is a nostalgic, romantic story inspired by a newspaper article about a baby found in a valise, set in the 1920s and 1940s in the American South. Martin and Brickell previously collaborated on the Grammy-winning 2013 album Love Has Come for You.
After lasting 30 previews and 109 regular performances at the Cort Theatre in 2016, Bright Star will have its Canadian professional premiere this September. It will be co-produced with Garner Theatre Productions and feature a Canadian cast of actor-musicians.
All five Off-Mirvish shows will be staged at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre.
Making its North American debut next spring is Cyrano, a gender-flipping, modernized adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac by the Australian actor-playwright Virginia Gay. Gay starred as the poetic titular character in Australia and Edinburgh but will not be reprising the role in Toronto as it conflicts with her television work in her home country.
In December, Stephen Mallatratt’s 1987 blockbuster The Woman in Black makes its debut in Canada.Tristram Kenton/Supplied
Downton Abbey star Elizabeth McGovern, on the other hand, will again play the lead in Ava: The Secret Conversations, the play she wrote about Ava Gardner, the Hollywood femme fatale once described as the “world’s most beautiful animal.” McGovern based the two-hander on the book The Secret Conversations by Gardner and British journalist Peter Evans. Aaron Costa Ganis will co-star as Evans when the play makes its Canadian premiere this November.
In December, Stephen Mallatratt’s 1987 blockbuster The Woman in Black also makes its debut in this country. It is based on Susan Hill’s 1983 gothic horror novel about a mysterious presence that haunts a small English town. The original production was performed 13,232 times in London between 1989 and 2023, making it the second-longest-running non-musical play in West End history, after The Mousetrap.
Making its North American debut next spring is Cyrano, a gender-flipping, modernized adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac.craig sugden/Supplied
In January, 2026, Canadian theatre icon Louise Pitre will appear in Kimberly Akimbo, a coming-of-age crowd-pleaser from David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori that snagged five Tony Awards – including top musical – in 2023.
Mirvish previously revealed a coming mainstage subscription season composed of seven musicals, including the Toronto premiere of Alan Doyle’s Tell Tale Harbour.
The final production of the 2024-25 Off-Mirvish season, Britta Johnson’s Life After, opens Wednesday. The Canadian Stage production of the musical won six Dora Mavor Moore Awards after its sold-out run in 2017 at the Berkeley Street Theatre. It was subsequently produced at San Diego’s Old Globe theatre and Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. It returns to Toronto’s CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre in a new production.
The Secret Conversations makes its Canadian premiere this November.Jeff Lorch/Supplied
