The province of Ontario is subsidizing the Toronto Lord of the Rings musical with a $2.5M (U.S.) loan. As posted earlier, A.R. Rahman is composing the music, his theater sequel to Bombay Dreams. It promises to be the most expensive theater production ever:

Ontario’s officials – on behalf of their 12 million citizens – have signed on as investors for the show, which is expected to be one of the most expensive ever… the provincial government will contribute some $2.5 million of the show’s $23 million budget… The stage version’s $23 million price tag would make it more expensive than any show on Broadway. “The Lion King,” by comparison, cost Disney some $20 million…

Air Canada has donated more than $1 million worth of airline tickets to help the creative team – which includes… an Indian composer, A. R. Rahman; and a Finnish folk music group, Värttinä – commute back and forth to Toronto…

Press materials circulated for the show call it “the biggest and most ambitious theatrical production ever staged,” promising a three-and-a-half-hour event that starts even before the curtain rises. (Hobbits are to prowl the aisles as the audience enters.) [Link]

The one fiscal conservative left in Canada was outraged:

… eight of every 10 Broadway shows fails to earn back their money… “This government is certainly creative when it comes to spending taxpayers money, but not when it comes to saving it…” Kheiriddin noted that the province dropped $1-million to get popular American talk-show host Conan O’Brien to host a week of TV shows in Toronto last year.

But Bradley said… $4.6-million in grants offered by the province following the SARS outbreak generated some $50-million for Ontario’s tourism industry. [Link]

<

p>You’d think the overlap between show tunes and Dungeons & Dragons players would be minuscule. But with the success of the Monty Python adaptation Spamalot, perhaps they don’t need to worry:

Like Las Vegas – which has imported several major Broadway shows in recent years, including “Avenue Q” and “Mamma Mia” – Toronto seems to be angling for tourists with a taste for theater, a demographic that it hopes will also sample other of the city’s cultural outposts, like the Royal Ontario Museum. “We’d like to be second behind New York…” In May, Ms. McInnis’s office paid for a print advertising campaign to woo potential ticket-buyers in Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland and Rochester, all within striking distance of Toronto.

Mr. Wallace said that the production’s second company is expected to head to London, meaning that no Broadway opening is likely before 2008. [Link]

I’ll second that for any Lordheads in New York: Toronto is just $120 on a regional jet and about an hour’s flying time.

Previous post here.