The idea for a performing arts centre that could serve the needs of an increasingly dynamic city predates the building's opening by almost 20 years. In the mid-1940s, then-mayor Nathan Phillips issued a challenge to Toronto industrialists to underwrite the cost of a multipurpose centre for theatre, music and dance. Response to Phillips' challenge was not immediate.

In 1954, someone with a strong belief in the civic responsibility of corporate business stepped up to the plate. E.P. Taylor, the racehorse-loving head of the O'Keefe Brewing Company and Argus Corporation, was already one of the city's most generous philanthropists. Now he offered to build a performing arts centre that would not only serve the needs of local institutions but also introduce Toronto citizens to a world of entertainment more diverse, spectacular and inspiring than anything they could imagine.

Taylor assigned one of his key executives, Hugh Walker, to oversee the job of building what, for its first 36 years was to be known as The O'Keefe Centre. For those old enough, the Centre's red-carpet opening on October 1, 1960 will forever be a night to remember. The city had never seen such glamour, nor been so enchanted, even if the pre-Broadway premiere of Lerner and Loewe's Camelot starring Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet. From that moment, the constellation of bulbs that light the Centre's huge marquee have been the welcoming portal to millions of visitors, including an assortment of heads of state, prime ministers and sundry royals, all marvelling at the wonders within.

Camelot was just the first in a long and continuing line of spectacular productions, featuring - and this is but a selective list - such legendary artists as Ethel Merman, Mickey Roonie, Angela Lansbury, Alfred Drake, Howard Keel, Yul Brynner, Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey and Katharine Hepburn. Even Rudolf Nureyev, more familiar to Centre audiences in his frequent role as a ballet superstar, tried his hand at musical theatre as the Siamese autocrat in The King and I.


Other great performing legends have graced the Sony Centre stage in a range of solo shows, revues and jazz spectaculars - Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Marlene Dietrich, Diana Ross, Anne Murray, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Danny Kaye, Shirley MacLaine, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., Bill Cosby, Jack Benny, Liza Minnelli and Liberace. Large-scale ballet and dance is another performing art well suited to the Centre's ample stage. Apart from regular seasons offered by The National Ballet of Canada, which made the Sony Centre its home from 1964 to 2006, and frequent visits by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the theatre has welcomed a diverse range of celebrated international dance companies.

One of the earliest, Les Ballets Africains, offered the unusual sight of topless women. By the mid-1960s Toronto's puritanical side had loosened considerably! Other visitors have included Britain's Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, the Dutch National Ballet, the National Ballet of Cuba, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Folklorico of Mexico, and those great Russian troupes, the Kirov and the Bolshoi. It was during a 1974 Bolshoi visit that a young Mikhail Baryshnikov, on loan from the Kirov, bolted from the Centre's stage door, down The Esplanade and into a waiting getaway car and freedom.

Like The National Ballet, The Canadian Opera Company also made the Sony Centre its home stage, from as early as 1961 to 2006. Many of Canada's greatest singers as well as a host of international opera stars have performed for Centre audiences in COC productions. In addition, although touring opera is now virtually unheard of, in earlier days the Sony Centre played host to The Met and to such towering voices as those of Birgit Nilsson, Placido Domingo and Renata Scotto.

In 1996, the building was renamed in recognition of a major gift from the Canadian software company, Hummingbird Communications Ltd. The $5-million donation allowed the Centre to undertake a number of capital improvements and repairs, among them the installation of an elevator and an acoustic reinforcement system for the auditorium. In September 2007, Sony bought the naming rights to the Centre and a 10-year partnership was born. When the Ballet and Opera moved to the Four Seasons Centre in 2006, it meant a wide open programming schedule which has allowed the Centre to place even greater emphasis on being an important community resource where people from all backgrounds can gather to share their distinct and vibrant cultures. Notable performances that reflect this mandate include the spectacular Last Empress with its dramatic, musical portrayal of an important figure in Korean history, the Virsky Ukrainian Dance Company, South Africa's Soweto Gospel Choir, Shaolin Warriors, Ricky Cheng, David Rudder & Friends and Club Tropicana.

In 2006, the Sony Centre received approval from the City of Toronto to enlist architect Daniel Libeskind (who also designed the “crystal” addition to the Royal Ontario Museum) for a redesign of the entire complex. The redevelopment features the 49-storey residential “L Tower”on the south-west corner of the property. The Sony Centre closed on June 26, 2008 to begin the theatre renovations which will be unveiled on October 1, 2010.

Excerpted from materials by Michael Crabb and Rosie Shaw.