Anne and Gilbert heading to Ontario
The P.E.I. musical Anne and Gilbert, which covers material in the two books that followed Anne of Green Gables, will be the main production at the Thousand Islands Playhouse next summer.
The move is a big step up for the Island musical, which ran for its first season in 2005at the Victoria Playhouse, a tiny community theatre on the south shore of Prince Edward Island, and its second, this past summer,at the Jubilee Theatre in Summerside.
The Thousand Islands Playhouse runs one of the most popular theatre festivals in Eastern Ontario, mounting 10 shows a year from May to November and selling about 60,000 seats.
"The more times the show is produced in different places, the more people come to know it and love it and love the music," said Anne and Gilbert producer Campbell Webster.
The new musical picks up on the characters of Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe from the end of Anne of Green Gablesâ the Musical, telling their love story. Webster said there is another love story intrinsic to the new show.
"Anne and Gilbert, in a way, is a love letter to Prince Edward Island," he said.
Beyond being good news for the show, Webster expects the off-Island production of Anne and Gilbert will bring more tourists to Prince Edward Island.
Webster's company is also in negotiations to bring the musical to two major Western Canadian theatres and to Toronto. Future plans include productions in Japan and Korea in 2008.