THUNDER BAY – Thom Currie says he’s not sure if he’s ready for patrons tossing toast at the Magnus Theatre stage.
But it didn’t stop him from choosing to add the cult favourite The Rocky Horror Picture Show to the seven-show 2018-19 lineup, which the Thunder Bay theatre’s artistic director unveiled on Tuesday.
“It’s going to be an absolute hoot,” Currie said of the Richard O’Brien production, which has been thrilling audiences around the world since it was first introduced on the silver screen in 1975.
“To get to work with Julie Tomaino again, who did We Will Rock You with us last year, did the choreography on that, I’m kind of beside myself. This is going to be a great year.”
The unofficial season kicks off in July, with Back in 59, a jukebox musical written by Currie himself and features songs from the early days of rock and roll.
Things take an interesting turn on the main stage with the introduction of Bang Bang, a drama penned by Kat Sandler about a white playwright who uses the shooting of an unarmed black man as the starting point for a hit play about to be turned into a major movie.
Following the Rocky Horror Picture Show’s run, Magnus dips into the Christmas season with Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol, which Currie said is not only fun for the entire family, but also test the theatre company’s capabilities.
“I’m thrilled to do A Christmas Carol because we’re going to unpack all the special effects that we’re capable of here at Magnus, because at its core it’s a ghost story,” Currie said.
The one-man show Huff, written and performed by Cliff Cardinal, continues Magnus’ tradition of offering up an Aboriginal show each year. It tells the darkly comic tale of Wind and his brothers, who have solvent abuse issues and are at high risk of suicide.
Currie is particularly excited for the second show of the second half of the season, a co-production with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre of Buying the Farm, written by Shelley Hoffman and Stephen Sparks, who met and fell in love on the Magnus stage and named their lead character after the theatre itself.
“For a theatre the size of Magnus and a community the size of Thunder Bay, to all of a sudden stand shoulder to shoulder with one of the largest theatres in the country is absolutely thrilling to me,” Currie said.
“To work with those playwrights, Shelley Hoffman and Stephen Sparks is thrilling to me because I’ve known them both for years and years at the various theatres I’ve worked at.”
The season concludes with Boeing Boeing, a French farce first produced in the 1960s based on the work of Marc Camoletti.
A recent smash revival on Broadway, it’s the story of lothario Bernard, who is juggling three girlfriends whose unexpected schedule change brings all three to his apartment for an overnight stay on the same night.
Evening performances are staged Tuesday to Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with matinees on Wednesday at noon and Saturday at 2 p.m.
Tickets range from $21 to $45 and are available at the box office by calling 345-5552 or online at www.magnustheatre.com, where a new booking system allows patrons to select their seat for the upcoming season.
Other highlights include a community fundraiser involving local lawyers, a number of concerts and the new Magnus Theatre Young Company, which will stage a classic play during the 2018-19 season.
