In the News

Theatrical production is one of the riskiest businesses on earth. You can never tell what will be a hit, and what a flop. The Government of Ontario must have known that when the producers of The Lord of the Rings asked for money. It happily coughed up $3-million anyway, predicting the show would be a boost to tourism in Toronto and a boon to the entertainment industry. At minimum, said its boosters, LOTR (as it was nicknamed) would run for a year, generating millions.

No wonder, then, that its boosters were a little defensive on Wednesday when the show's producers announced that it would close after a run of just six months. Producer Kevin Wallace blamed (guess who?) the critics, saying that their pans of the $27-million extravaganza had poisoned the public against it. Toronto Mayor David Miller agreed, saying that the local critics were simply wrong and calling the show's first act "the best theatre I have ever seen and I have seen a lot of theatre."

He's entitled to his opinion, but his complaint only underlined the moral of this tale: Governments should not be in the entertainment business. Swept up in the hype of the megamusical, entranced by inflated estimates of all the taxes and tourists it was supposed to bring in, they threw away the public's money on a gamble they were not suited to make.

Producer David Mirvish says that Ontario might still recoup its investment if the show does well in London, where it will open next June. But, then, he also claims that the show has already generated $600-million in economic activity. Wow. Ontario should subsidize more flop musicals. The province could get rich on failure. Come to think of it, that is the very premise behind The Producers, the Mel Brooks show about a pair of theatrical low-lifes who put on the worst musical possible after figuring they can make money if it closes early. To their horror, the show is a hit.

Too bad that didn't happen with LOTR. Whether the bitter producers want to face it or not, it just didn't catch on with audiences. If it had, all the critics in all the papers could not have kept it from succeeding. Look at hits like Mama Mia!. Many critics disliked it, but it played in Toronto for five years and went on to make hundreds of millions of dollars around the world.

Guessing what will click with audiences is the trickiest of arts. Even seasoned producers often get it wrong, and they have the ulcers to prove it. Governments are ill-equipped to pick winners and losers in any commercial field, a job better left to private investors. But for governments to try to pick winners on the stage is folly of, well, theatrical scale. There may even be a play in it.