In the final 12 months, Tim Hortons has handled cottaging Canadians to a ship drivethru, revived its beloved Dutchie doughnut and launched flatbread pizzas.
But maybe its largest shock will come this summer time, on the heels of its sixtieth anniversary on May 17, when it enters a realm so surprising for a fast-food big that even its executives count on some folks’s first reactions to be, “What?!”
The head-scratcher will come within the type of “The Last Timbit,” a musical for which Tim Hortons has assembled a who’s who of Canadian artists to stage on the Elgin Theatre in Toronto this June.
The manufacturing is loosely based mostly on a 2010 snowstorm that was so unhealthy, drivers on a freeway east of Sarnia, Ont., have been compelled to hunker down in automobiles and others needed to wait out the inclement climate at a neighborhood Tim Hortons.
Turning the story right into a theatrical manufacturing was the brainchild of promoting agency Gut.
Tims was decided to present Gut as a lot room to be artistic as attainable, so it didn’t even specify the agency needed to give you an occasion. All the chain stated was to search out “something with heart” and that might mirror the connection the fast-food eatery has with its clients, recalled the chain’s chief advertising officer Hope Bagozzi.
When she was pitched on a play, even she was shocked.
“What on earth would we know about pulling something like this together … in a really highly professional way,” she stated was her response.
“Our agency, that’s not their specialty. It’s certainly not ours.”
Despite it being new territory and Tims having to wrangle expertise effectively outdoors its consolation zone, she felt “cautiously optimistic” in regards to the thought.
“It’s a little wacky but certainty it felt grand (and) of the kind of ambition we had,” she stated.
So Bagozzi and her employees set about making it occur.
Among their first calls was Michael Rubinoff, a Toronto lawyer and theatre producer who turned the story of passengers on planes diverted to Gander, Nfld. after the 9/11 assaults in New York into hit musical “Come From Away.”
“We didn’t imagine that he would actually come on board. We just thought we would try to pick his brain on, ‘Are we crazy? Should we do this? How would we go about it?’” Bagozzi recalled.
Rubinoff wasn’t fazed by the unlikely caller. Though many would assume he was shocked to listen to a fast-food model needed to leap into theatre, he didn’t discover it uncommon as a result of “Tims has been part of Broadway for many years.”
“The Tims logo is on one of the backdrops in ‘The Book of Mormon’ that people don’t realize and of course, in the musical I’m involved in, ‘Come From Away,’ Tims plays a really important part,” Rubinoff stated.
“After the opening number, the first line is ‘I start my day at Tim Hortons’ and we have a scene in the Tim Hortons and we come back to it, so Tim Hortons in musical theatre didn’t seem as outlandish to me as it might have to other people.”
Alongside Rubinoff, different expertise began flowing in.
Nick Green, the playwright behind “Casey and Diana,” wrote the script and Anika and Britta Johnson of “Life After” created the music and lyrics, which embrace a track referred to as “What would you do for a Timbit?”
The forged options Stratford and Shaw competition regulars Andrew Broderick, DeAnn deGruijter and Danté Prince, in addition to Broadway stars Chilina Kennedy, Sara Farb, Jake Epstein and Kimberly-Ann Truong. Kaya Kanashiro from TV present “Sort Of” additionally has a job.
Most have been shocked Tims, which is spending the 12 months targeted on increasing its afternoon and night gross sales, was behind the play. Once they noticed the calibre of theatrical expertise on board, they realized “this is going to be something that they’re excited to attach themselves to,” Rubinoff stated.
The manufacturing comes as arts organizations have struggled to retain company funding. Last summer time, Bell stopped funding the Toronto International Film Festival after 28 years of sponsorship. In March, the Bank of Nova Scotia ditched its title sponsorship of the Contact Photography Festival in Toronto.
Hot Docs, Canada’s largest documentary movie competition, has additionally warned its future is in jeopardy.
Such struggles haven’t been misplaced on Rubinoff, who referred to as “The Last Timbit” a “major investment.”
“We only get better and we only strengthen those skills when we have the opportunities to actually do the thing, and this is the opportunity to do the thing,” he stated.
He’s approaching the undertaking with the identical seriousness as he does some other theatrical manufacturing. There’s been months of perfecting the script and desk reads and shortly, rehearsals will start.
The music has already turn into an earworm.
“These songs have been on loop. I am telling you I can’t sleep without hearing the songs,” he stated. “I wake up hearing the song, so I know that it’s a great sign.”
While he doesn’t need to give away too many hints in regards to the tunes or the play’s plot, he stated on the core of the storyline is a mom and daughter impacted by the storm. (The final Timbit they’ll vie for is a birthday one.)
And although the play is supposed to combine humour and coronary heart, he stated, “nobody will dress up and dance like a Timbit, but I don’t want to say no to anything.”
That consists of touring with the manufacturing, which can premiere in entrance of Tims franchisees visiting Toronto after which proceed with 5 exhibits for the general public. Tickets go on sale Friday.
Those who snag seats will be capable to purchase Tims-centric merchandise from Roots Corp., which doubles because the play’s wardrobe accomplice, and can seemingly discover a concession stand of Tims favourites, together with Timbits, Bagozzi stated.
“Those won’t dance away,” Rubinoff chimed in. “You can enjoy them.”