BRIAN BOYDon music...
There's quite a wow factor to Dublin's spanking new Grand Canal Theatre. To open on March 18th and to stage everything from Swan Laketo Chitty Chitty Bang Bangto Rufus Wainwright, it's going to operate as a sort of little-sister venue to the 02 just across the river. Designed by the "starchitect" Daniel Libeskind, the 2,100-seater venue is indecently spacious (seven bars in the front of house area), the venue is a West End style theatre which will finally give Irish audiences a chance to see all the shows that were previously too big to fit in any Irish venue – or just didn't make any economic sense to haul over the Irish Sea.
Owned by developer Harry Crosbie and run by Live Nation – (in a manner not dissimilar to how the 02 is run), the new theatre means that hugely popular shows such as Mamma Mia!and Les Miserables(both confirmed for runs in the theatre next year) will be available for the first time to Irish audiences. Musically, it's a bonus for those acts who, as yet, don't have the pulling power to fill the 02.
The head of Live Nation in Ireland, Mike Addison, says the theatre will open up a whole new entertainment strand. “We’re going to be focusing on theatre, ballet, opera, family shows and music. There’s a very generous front of house which has been designed with modern usage in mind. This country really doesn’t know what is has been missing due to no such venue existing before. The existing stages we have simply can’t stage big theatrical and musical spectaculars.
“There’s a whole theatrical, ballet, opera and musical theatre circuit in Europe with all the shows designed for a 2,000-seater venue, so finally we’ll the chance to bring them over. The Grand Canal Theatre isn’t going to be competing with anyone else in Ireland; we’re opening up a whole new market – there is no other 2,000-seat theatre on the island,” Addison says.
And so much for the recession impacting on ticket sales: so far, there are numerous sell-outs for the theatre, including the opening Russian State Ballet Swan Lakeshow, as well as shows by Rufus Wainwright, Christy Moore, US comic/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham and many of Mario Rosenstock's long run of Gift Grub shows.
And they're announcing shows at a rate of knots. Due in later this year is the West End production of Hairspray(with Michael Ball in the lead role) as well as When Harry Met Sally and One Night in Istanbul(the most popular play in the city of Liverpool since records began, unsurprisingly).
Within walking distance of Dublin city centre (just off Pearse Street at the new Grand Canal Square), the theatre is already fielding enquiries from numerous musicians.
The sound at the venue is a mini-miracle. The acoustics of a venue usually depend on how many people there are in the audience (the sound can get “lost” if a venue is half full or less), but the way the seats are designed in the Grand Canal Theatre means they resemble (in terms of form) the human body, so the sound should remain of a high standard regardless of a full house or a poorly attended show.
Over the first few months, the music programme features shows by Ronan Keating, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Red Hurley, Josh Ritter, Rufus Wainwright, Christy Moore, Randy Newman and Don McLean. The venue is expected to announce the addition of Ray Davies to their programme soon – the type show that Davies does (he talks about his songs, how they were written, what they mean to him etc) is particularly apposite for the venue.
And that really should be the main point of the new theatre. There’s a whole layer of musical acts out there who can scale down their show to suit the specifications of the new venue. An all-seated venue demands a very different type of performance and show structure to such spaces as the 02. The bigger Irish bands, who have long since left the pub circuit behind, might want to take a look at what this venue has to offer and come up with a venue-specific show. It’s also a great place to record your live DVD.
