Upfront

Abstract

Film producer Garth Drabinsky has been trying for years to gain control of the Winter Garden Theatre complex, a 69-year old multi-space facility on Yonge Street in downtown Toronto. Drabinsky - working with W.B.C. Productions (which owns both the Bass ticket agency and Concert Productions International) told the Province and Famous Players (which actually owns the facility) that if given control, they would convert the main floor into a 1,600 seat movie/legitimate theatre and the long-dark secon d-floor Winter Garden vaudeville house into a 900-seat playho use chiefly for the transfer of Canadian productions.