Mirvish in Toronto kicks off their 50th anniversary theatre season with war stories from Afghanistan and Iraq vets, Jim Henson style puppets, and Broadway favorites Les Miserables and Aladdin

A Golden Anniversary means a golden season from Mirvish; a record 18 shows in its four venues for the 2013/2014 season.

The three new shows announced today all sound like terrificadditions to the season that has already been announced.

Today they announced the third show in the Off Mirvish Series. The Two Worlds of Charlie F, is a docudrama about men injured in Afghanistan and Iraq. The script is based on interviews with veterans and the cast are veterans. The other two shows are God of Carnage (Nov 23 to Dec 15) and Dead Metaphor, a new comedy by George F. Walker.

Puppet Up: Uncensored is pretty much the other end of the spectrum. It’s an improvised puppet show definitely for adults. It’s from the Jim Henson Puppet Company but don’t expect Miss Piggy and Kermit.

They are also mounting The Musical of Musicals, The Musical! the hit of this summer’s Fringe Festival.

The subscription season has already been announced; it starts with Les Miserables (Sept 27), Aladdin (Nov 1 to Jan 5) before it moves on to Broadway, Once (Nov 26 to Jan 5), Heartbeat of Home (Jan 21 to Mar 2), Metamorphosis (Jan 28 to Mar 9), Arrabal (Feb 4 to May 11), and finishes with The Last Confession (Apr 18 to Jun 1) starring David Suchat and Brian Bedford. There are two bonus shows – Book of Mormon (Sep 16, 2014) and  I Love Lucy (Oct 15 to Nov 3).

The season includes the return of some favourites: Chicago (March 26 to 30)with Elvis Stojko  making his professional acting debut as Billy Flynn, We Will Rock You (April 29 to May 4) and Disney’s The Lion King (April 30 to June 15).

It’s a something for everyone mix, drama, comedy, dance, and musicals. It all starts on September 27.