Local arts groups are scrambling to find new venues and to re-sell tickets following the temporary closure of the city-owned Meridian Centrepointe Theatre due to flood damage from the Canada Day storm .
With the theatre closed for renovations until the end of 2026, some shows were moved to the other city-owned theatre, Shenkman Arts Centre, in Orléans, while some were postponed until next season and a few were cancelled. Tickets to all shows were automatically refunded by the Centrepointe box office.
Still other presenters made their own arrangements, with comedy shows by Danny Bhoy and Jonathan Van Ness rebooked at Bronson Centre, and a local production of Come From Away finding a new home at a downtown high school (more about that in a moment).
But the challenge of finding a new stage with an orchestra pit and enough seats is proving to be huge for the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society, a not-for-profit registered charity that has been producing live operettas and musicals for Ottawa audiences since 1906. It’s the longest-running organization of its kind in Canada.
To mark its 120th anniversary celebration, Orpheus had a big season planned, consisting of three blockbuster musicals to be staged at Centrepointe Theatre . Season-subscription packages and individual tickets were all selling well ahead of previous years.
First up was supposed to be a production of Frozen, the Disney movie-turned-musical, running Nov. 20-29, followed by Les Misérables in March and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat next June. Both of those shows were to be staged at Centrepointe, too.
But, after seeing photos of the damage, Orpheus managing director J.T. Morris is wondering if the theatre will be ready by 2027. Heavy rain poured down the loading dock, and sewers backed up. A grand piano was ruined, audio gear was destroyed and the Les Lye Theatre on the lower level was swamped.
“It was six feet of water in the hallways,” Morris said in an interview, describing images he saw. “The whole orchestra pit filled with water, and in fact, because part of it was open to the stage level, the water came up, spilled onto the stage and then went into the audience. The first few rows of seats seemed to get damaged, too.”
City of Ottawa officials have not confirmed the extent of the damage, nor the cost of repairs. Morris figures they’re still assessing it.
For Orpheus, the loss of a home stage is a major setback. Although auditions had not yet started, more than two dozen behind-the-scenes personnel were already in place. According to Morris, it takes up to 150 people, including cast, crew and musicians, to mount a show.
Perhaps more importantly, advance tickets were selling well, a trend that’s unusual for Ottawa, which tends to be a last-minute ticket-buying market. More than 4,000 tickets had already been sold, with two nights on track to selling out, before the box office refunded them.
“Frozen in particular is just a hot ticket everywhere,” Morris said. “It was such a popular movie and the generation that grew up with it are now at that age, in their 20s, early 30s, where they’re starting to have kids. And, on top of that, we’re the first local theatre company to have a show.”
But they still need a venue. So far, Morris said, the most likely spot is Adult High School on Rochester Street, where Orpheus produced shows for almost 30 years starting in the 1960s. He expects an update on its availability from the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board this week.
“Other than that, we’ve really run out of existing theatre options,” Morris said, noting the Orpheus board of directors had set a deadline for securing a venue. “We have to decide by Sept. 12 if we can realistically put on the show.”
Another local non-profit musical-theatre company managed to find a venue that was available on the same September dates it had booked at Centrepointe Theatre.
Suzart Productions will present the made-in-Canada musical Come From Away at L’École secondaire publique de La Salle from Sept. 10 to 19, a run coinciding with the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
The timing is perfect because Come From Away depicts what happened when commercial planes were diverted to Gander, N.L., on Sept. 11, 2001. A big hit on Broadway, the Suzart production of Come From Away is one of the first to be staged by an amateur company.
Suzart board president Chris Natuik, who also acts in the show, said they were already three months into rehearsals and had sold more than 4,000 tickets when they heard about Centrepointe’s closure.
“At that point, we started working our networks,” Natuik said. “We had our cast, our production crew, our board, all our community members reaching out, and through some personal connections ended up finding out that de La Salle was free during that period and they were willing to host us.
“Within a couple of weeks, we got a contract in place and now we’re trying to rebuild our ticket sales .”
Both Orpheus and Suzart rely on ticket purchases for most of their revenue.
“If the whole season doesn’t happen, then we’re in big trouble,” Orpheus’ Morris said. “That’s when we’ll have to really come up with alternative programming and do massive donation campaigns and get into the grant world again just to keep going.
“But, at the end of the day, it’s our anniversary season and we do want to get the show up and running,” he added.
Lynn Saxberg is the arts reporter at the Ottawa Citizen. For years she has been covering music festivals like Bluesfest, performances at the National Arts Centre and Canadian Tire Centre, as well as art exhibitions, comedy shows, the club scene and more. Sign up to receive weekly updates from Lynn Saxberg.
