Canada needs more simulcast moments showcasing our performing artists

Last August, arguably one of the single most extraordinary television events in Canadian television history took place. It was, of course, the coast-to-coast live broadcast (on CBC's television and digital platforms) of the final Tragically Hip concert ever, which was attended by the Prime Minister and a few thousand others in the Hip's hometown of Kingston.

The broadcast attracted an estimated 11.7 million viewers over the course of the evening (about four million at any given time), a flat-out staggering figure.  And I bet they didn't even count everyone, because I watched it in a bar in Edmonton with a hundred other people, a scene that was surely played out in almost every bar in every city across the entire country.

It was an extraordinary national moment, an irresistible blend of rock and roll and youthful nostalgia on the part of those of us who weren't so youthful anymore. And if it was one of the single most extraordinary events in Canadian television history, that's probably because — apart from sports and news — there are rarely these kinds of national television moments. The time has come to create some, especially as we celebrate the country's 150th birthday.

There is a growing wave of live performing arts events being broadcast at Cineplex theatres across the country, particularly the (American) Metropolitan Opera and the (British) National Theatre, both of which draw crowds of fans willing to pay to watch broadcasted simulcasts of performing artists in America and Britain.

Why not create a simulcast showcasing Canada's performing artists, so we can watch some of our own?

Think Drake would want some of that? Biebs? The Weeknd? Carly Rae Jepsen? Feist? Arcade Fire? Celine Dion? Or perhaps all of them, performing somewhere on a single night under a single simulcast? Perhaps at the National Arts Center in Ottawa, which is undergoing a $110 million renovation to produce performing arts events that no one except people who live in or visit Ottawa would otherwise experience. And if not our biggest musical exports, how about a national simulcast — Live from the NAC! — of the latest drama by Hannah Moscovitch, or Governor-General Award winning playwright Djanet Sears' production of The Adventures of A Black Girl in Search of God, which was produced by the NAC and at the Centaur in Montreal in 2015?

I'd also love to see contemporary dance — like Betroffenheit,from BC duo Crystal Pite and Jonathan Young, or contemporary opera from Toronto's innovative collective Against the Grain Theatre, broadcast coast to coast.

Or how about a sneak peek of Come From Away, the acclaimed Newfoundland-set musical, before it opens on Broadway in March? (Or after, for everyone who can't afford to travel to New York to see Broadway shows on 75-cent loonies.)

And if it gets too monotonous broadcasting every show from Ottawa, how about doing a few from The Banff Centre, the Davos of the performing arts? Or how about a summertime "best of fringe" performance from Winnipeg's King's Head Pub, where 300 people regularly crowd into on hot July nights to swill beer and laugh at Canadian fringe legends such as Jem Rolls or TJ Dawe?

None of it would cost a lot to produce. And though none of it would be likely to draw 11.7 million viewers — that's okay. Every night can't be the night The Tragically Hip say goodbye. But with a little audacity, imagination and innovation — and not very much cash —  we could create more uniquely Canadian nights for the country's finest performing artists to just say hello.