The Wizard in Toronto

Friends suggested we go to see a pantomime of “The Wizard of Oz” here in Toronto at the Elgin & Winter Garden Theatre on Yonge St, just down from Dundas Square. It was a pleasant evening out for dinner and a play, we got to try a new pub and the play was very entertaining, a pantomime of “The wizard Of Oz”, where Dorothy was deposited in downtown Toronto from the farm in Guelph. I learned that rather than being a play where the characters express meaning through mime or gestures which is that a Pantomime was in ancient Roman theatres, the English reimagined it as a musical comedy with slapstick and topical jokes and based on fairy tales or nursery rhymes produced for families around Christmas time. This production of “The Wizard of Oz” certainly fit the English definition, with the setting in downtown Toronto , the Emerald Palace being the CN “power”, and Mayor Chou as the wizard. The music and singing were excellent, and the production was full of jokes and slapstick, but what was most interesting was the amazing theatre where it was presented. 

We have walked by the Elgin & Winter Garden theatre many times as we explored Toronto, and thought it was just one of the many old theatres around the city, but actually going into the building for a play showed just what an amazing place this was. Originally built in 1913, it is the last remaining example where two theatres were built in a stacked arrangement with one on top of the other.  Both theatres were originally intended for vaudeville productions. During this era many stars such as Joan Crawford & Clark Gable, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Sophie Tucker, Milton Berle, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy were featured there. 

The two theatres were vastly different, the Elgin was a traditional gold and marble decorated venue, but the Winter Garden upstairs was decorated to make you feel you were outside in a garden with the ceiling decorated with leaves and lit with lanterns and the columns fashioned to look like trees. This was the theatre we saw the Wizard of Oz in and it really does make you feel you are sitting under big trees in a garden. 

The Elgin theatre was converted to a movie theatre in 1928 and the Winter Garden theatre was closed and remained shuttered for 60 years. By the 70’s, the Elgin was mostly showing low budget B films or mild pornography, but the theatre was purchased by the Ontario Heritage Foundation in 1981 and a full restoration was started in 1987. This involved using hundreds of pounds of raw bread dough to clean the long unused Winter Garden’s elaborate watercolour decorations. The theatres reopened in 1989 and are now one of the finest theatre venues in Canada. 

So, if you ever get a chance to see a play in this beautiful theatre complex you will be amazed at the beautiful venue.