A scene from the British production of The Harder They Come. A scene from the British production of The Harder They Come. (Robert Day/Mirvish)The Harder They Come, a musical based on the 1972 film that launched the career of reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, will come to Toronto this summer as part of the Mirvish Theatre subscription season.

Producer David Mirvish announced a 2009-10 theatre season featuring six musicals and three comic dramas in Toronto Tuesday.

Other productions set for 2009-10 are:

  • Stuff Happens.
  • Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
  • Fiddler on the Roof.
  • Little House on the Prairie — The Musical.
  • Young Frankstein.
  • Priscilla Queen of the Desert
  • Cloud 9
  • August: Osage County

The lavish announcement featured a performance by Cliff himself and selections from the political comedy Stuff Happens with actor Barry Flatman playing former U.S. president George W. Bush.

Cliff performed You Can Get It If You Really Want and other hits from the film version of The Harder They Come, described as the first feature to come out of Jamaica, by writer-director Perry Henzell.

Henzell died in 2006, but not before he'd written the script for a musical based on his tale of a would-be musician who becomes a wanted man in the mean streets of Kingston, Jamaica.

"The 1970s were a turbulent time in Jamaica," Justine Henzell, the director's daughter, said on Tuesday. "He wanted to make sure Jamaicans had the chance to see themselves on the screen."

She described how her father shopped the movie around the world's film festivals, winning awards, but failing to find a distributor. He ended up single-handedly negotiating most of the film's distribution.

Chaim Topol in Fiddler on the Roof. He's on a farewell tour in the role he created. Chaim Topol in Fiddler on the Roof. He's on a farewell tour in the role he created. (Branco Gaica/Mirvish)By the time The Harder They Come hit London theatres, Bob Marley was becoming a star and reggae was the music of the day.

Jan Ryan, producer of the London show, said she saw the film in a Brixton theatre in the mid-1970s and nurtured the idea for a stage musical based on the film for more than 30 years.

In 2004, she met with Henzell and convinced him to write a version for the stage. It debuted at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2006, was revived a second year and then went to the Barbicon in London in 2008.

Ryan said the musical has drawn multicultural audiences with its exuberant young cast and music. It begins its North American tour in Toronto.

Fast-paced comedy

Stuff Happens, a play by David Hare that purports to show what happened inside the White House as George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney got America into the Iraq War, was first performed in Toronto last year.

Studio 180, a small company of 15 players who brought the play to the Berkeley Theatre, will be working with Mirvish for a production in a larger theatre next November.

The fast-paced comedy has been a hit with audiences in London and has played in Los Angeles and off-Broadway in New York.

More laughs come in Pulitzer-Prize-winning play August: Osage County, by Tracy Letts, a comedy that centres on a family reunion set in Oklahoma.

Steve Blanchard and Melissa Gilbert in Little House on the Prairie - the musical. Gilbert, who played Laura in the TV series, will star in the role of Ma in the stage version.Steve Blanchard and Melissa Gilbert in Little House on the Prairie - the musical. Gilbert, who played Laura in the TV series, will star in the role of Ma in the stage version. (Michal Daniel/Mirvish)The season also features The Fiddler on the Roof, with Chaim Topol, star of the original motion picture, making his farewell tour as Tevye, the humble milkman with too many daughters.

Mirvish previously announced the Australian production, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, which makes its North American premiere in Toronto, before going on to Europe and Japan.

Other musicals include Andrew Lloyd Webber's London revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a musical production of Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein that has played in New York and a new musical Little House on the Prairie, based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and starring Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura in the TV series.

Mirvish now owns four Toronto theatres — the Royal Alex, the Princess of Wales, the Canon and the Panasonic.