David & Hannah Mirvish are excited to announce the North American premiere of Just For One Day, a new musical about the making of the monumental Live Aid concert in 1985.
Just For One Day will play a limited run January 26 to March 16, 2025, at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre – in Live Aid’s 40th anniversary year.
Tickets to the Toronto engagement will go on public sale on Monday, October 7, 2024, on mirvish.com and 1-800-461-3333.
The production will then travel back to London and will have its West End debut at the Shaftesbury Theatre from May 15, 2025.
“We’ve been following the development of Just For One Day from its early workshops,” said David Mirvish. “Live Aid was a monumental event and movement that harnessed the power of popular music and brought more than a billion people together in aid of famine relief. How Live Aid came to be, the passion of the many people involved, the challenges faced and the ultimate triumph — this is the stuff of great storytelling and what would make a great musical. At the musical’s world premiere opening at The Old Vic in February, I was delighted to experience the final product of all those years of development. It is a magnificent achievement, and now it is time for Just For One Day to be seen far and wide.
“We are delighted that Toronto has been chosen as the next stage in Just For One Day’s journey. Lead producer Jamie Wilson, who has been shepherding this project from the very beginning, will reassemble the original creative team for the run at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre.
“I’m also pleased that 10% of all ticket sales from the show’s Toronto engagement will be donated to the Band Aid Charitable Trust, which was founded in 1984 and has raised over £140 million ($265 million CAD) to support organisations dedicated to the prevention or relief of poverty and famine through charitable grants.”
On July 13, 1985, music united the world. Forty years on, discover the story of Live Aid in a whole new way — at Just For One Day – The Live Aid Musical.
The show’s world premiere production “blew the roof off the Old Vic” (Baz Bamigboye) in early 2024, where it became the theatre’s fastest-selling musical ever.
This exhilarating night out “rocks in all the right ways” (WhatsOnStage), with hit songs by Bob Dylan, David Bowie, The Who, U2, Queen, Madonna, The Police, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross and more of the iconic artists who made history at simultaneous charitable concerts in London and Philadelphia.
Live Aid was an unprecedented global music event that brought 1.5 billion people together, and they all have a story to tell about ‘the day rock ‘n’ roll changed the world’. Whether you saw it live, watched it from home or weren’t even born yet, you won’t want to miss this “rip-roaring” (The Telegraph) and “remarkable” (Daily Mail) new musical written by John O’Farrell (Mrs. Doubtfire, Something Rotten!) and directed by Luke Sheppard (& Juliet, The Little Big Things).
The production features Musical Supervision, Arrangements & Orchestration by Matthew Brind, Choreography by Ebony Molina, Set by Soutra Gilmour, Costume by Fay Fullerton, Lighting by Howard Hudson, Sound by Gareth Owen, Video & Animation by Andrzej Goulding and Casting by Stuart Burt CDG.
The cast will be announced at a later date.
Produced by Jamie Wilson Productions, Kevin McCollum, Sonia Friedman Productions, Gavin Kalin Productions, Kenny Wax Ltd, The Ambassador Theatre Group, Mirvish Productions, Nederlander Theatres, No Guarantees, Burnt Umber Productions, Stephen C Byrd, Willette & Manny Klausner and The Old Vic by permission of The Band Aid Charitable Trust.
The Band Aid Charitable Trust was set up in 1984. Over the last 38 years it has been operated by the same group of unpaid trustees and with no employees. The Trust’s mandate is the relief of hunger and poverty in Ethiopia and the neighbourhood thereof. It has raised and spent in excess of £140 million. During its 38-year history it has funded food, medicine, housing, hospitals, surgery, immunisation, bridges, irrigation, water supplies, livestock, schools and much, much more – including bee keeping! In tandem with these charitable projects the Trust has created, nurtured and protected intellectual property to develop regular annual income streams to enable the Trust to continue its activities. Just For One Day is a natural part of that evolution. All of the Trust’s income from the ticket sales of Just For One Day will go directly to these charitable activities.
