THE MASTER PLAN Comes to the Crow's Theatre

The 2023.24 Crow’s Theatre 40th anniversary season kicks off with multi-award-winning playwright Michael Healey’s THE MASTER PLAN, the highly anticipated stage adaptation of the best-selling book Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy, recently nominated for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, by The Globe and Mail journalist Josh O’Kane, directed by Crow’s Theatre Artistic Director Chris Abraham.

A Crow’s Theatre commission, THE MASTER PLAN is a biting satire about the messy affair between Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs as they attempt, but inevitably fail, to build a smart city in Toronto. 

“After burning through Josh’s page-turner last summer, the person I most wanted to read the book was playwright and news junkie Michael Healey,” Chris Abraham reflected. “Michael’s body of work, including 1979 and his trilogy on Canadian politics made him the obvious candidate to wrangle Josh’s dizzying, surprisingly moving, and forensic account of the downfall of Waterfront Toronto’s landmark project. His genius for creating theatrical heat and comedy, and his genuine insight of current affairs and backstage politics made me want to get him and Josh in a room together, so I did!

“I have been incredibly lucky to put together a crackerjack team and some of my favourite actors to bring this amazing multi-year saga to life, and to yank with the likes of John Tory, Justin Trudeau, Dan Doctoroff, and others in the boardrooms of Toronto’s political and business class. We can’t wait to welcome audiences behind closed doors and to share this story with you.”

Chris Abraham (Uncle Vanya, Crow’s Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing, Stratford Festival) has assembled the formidable cast of Mike Shara (The Importance of Being Earnest, Stratford Festival, Take Me Out, Canadian Stage) as Sidewalk Labs’ CEO Dan Doctoroff; Ben Carlson (Richard III, Stratford Festival, Mary Poppins, Grand Theatre) as Will Fleissig, Philippa Domville (If We Were Birds, Tarragon Theatre, Time After Time: The Chet Baker Story, Crow’s Theatre) as Meg Davis, and Tara Nicodemo (Cringeworthy, Planet 88, The Seagull, Crow’s Theatre and The Company Theatre) as Kristina Verner, the team at Waterfront Toronto; Christopher Allen (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Orphans for the Czar, Crow’s Theatre) as Cam Malagaam, a Sidewalk Labs designer; Yanna McIntosh (Ruined, Obsidian Theatre, Pretty Hard Cases, CBC TV) as Helen Burstyn, board chair of Waterfront Toronto; and Peter Fernandes (Fifteen Dogs, Crow’s Theatre, Kelly vs. Kelly, The Musical Stage Company). 

The award-winning design team includes set and props designer Joshua Quinlan (Fifteen Dogs, Crow’s Theatre), costume designer Ming Wong (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Crow’s Theatre), lighting designer Kimberly Purtell (Uncle Vanya, Crow’s Theatre), sound designer Thomas Ryder Payne (Red Velvet, Crow’s Theatre), and video designer Amelia Scott (The Assembly, Porte Parole). 

Michael Healey is a five-time Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning playwright. The Drawer Boy, his first full-length play, premiered in Toronto in 1999, winning the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, the Chalmers Canadian Play Award, and the Governor General’s Literary Award. His other award-winning works include Rune Arlidge, 1979, and his trilogy on Canadian values and politics Generous, Courageous, and Proud. 

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