The U.K. stage smash hit “The Railway Children” will make its North American premiere in Toronto this spring in a unique new theatre nestled in an historic setting fitting of the play.
Co-producer Robert Richardson says this show will “change the way we look at theatre in Toronto.”
The production stars a vintage 66-tonne steam engine and the cast will be announced at a later date. Previews start May 3, producers announced Wednesday.
The musical stage adaptation of Edith Nesbit’s 1906 children’s classic will be mounted in the 1,000-seat Roundhouse Theatre, just south of Bremner Boulevard between Lower Simcoe and Rees Streets. It will be a 20,000 square-foot semi-permanent modular tent in Roundhouse Park, the home of the Toronto Rail Heritage Centre -- a stone’s throw away from the CN Tower and Rogers Centre.
“We think what this is going to mean is a whole new experience for theatre-goers to come to a very site-specific venue and to be able to bring families to what we think is a very beautiful, wholesome story in a completely different location than they've ever gone to," Richardson said.
The story tells the tale of three children whose privileged lives change when their father is wrongly accused of espionage. They are forced to move from a spacious home in London to a modest cottage in rural Yorkshire next to the railroad tracks.
Toronto’s version of the play will be similar to the popular U.K. production which was originally staged at the National Railway Museum in York and then remounted at the former Eurostar terminal at Waterloo Station in London where the show set box office records.