I wrote this ar­ti­cle for the November 2008 is­sue of Ontario Dentist, the jour­nal of the Ontario Dental Association. The sub­ject of the piece, Dr. Mike Lococo, is a won­der­ful man who is try­ing to make a dif­fer­ence in his com­mu­nity. I have pub­lished this on my blog with the per­mis­sion of Ontario Dentist.

Be Our Guest

Dr. Mike Lococo Lights up Niagara Falls

The thun­der­ing wa­ters of Niagara Falls bring many tourists to the city. Dr. Michael Lococo wants to give them an­other rea­son to visit.

“The Niagara re­gion has casi­nos, winer­ies and beau­ti­ful coun­try­side,” says Dr. Lococo. “Now we have world-class theatre.”

A den­tist for the past 40 years, Dr. Lococo is also the co-founder of Silver Mist Productions. Established in 2006 with busi­ness part­ner Linus Hand, the com­pany has staged pro­duc­tions of Aladdin, Jr. and Beauty and the Beast at lo­cal the­atres. Beast will be re­turn­ing this year to the Niagara Centre for the Performing Arts be­gin­ning December 1. There is also a pro­duc­tion of Seussical at the Sheraton on the Falls Theatre start­ing December 15.

A mem­ber of the Ontario Dental Association since 1961, Dr. Lococo has had an avid in­ter­est in the the­atre since he was a stu­dent at the University of Toronto. While his love of the arts took a back seat to his suc­cess­ful ca­reer as a den­tist, he has re­cently fo­cused his ef­forts on re­ju­ve­nat­ing his home­town of Niagara Falls through theatre.

Over the last 30 years, in­dus­try has been shift­ing away from the re­gion and with it the eco­nomic health of down­town Niagara Falls. Department stores, restau­rants and other re­tail­ers were clos­ing shop and mov­ing out.

“The first im­pres­sion vis­i­tors get is of a run-down city with boarded-up build­ings,” says Dr. Lococo. “It has be­come a disgrace.”

After the con­struc­tion of Fallsview Casino, there was a re­newed in­ter­est from in­vestors and con­sor­tiums to in­ject new life into the city. At the same time, Linus Hand, a gen­eral man­ager of Mirvish Productions the­atres for 16 years, moved back to his home­town. Like Dr. Lococo, he be­lieved the way to re­vi­tal­ize down­town Niagara Falls was to turn it into a world-class the­atre district.

“This was the thing that is go­ing to bring down­town Niagara Falls to re­spectabil­ity,” says Dr. Lococo.

The two part­ners started a pro­duc­tion com­pany and their first show was Aladdin, based on the 1993 Disney an­i­mated movie. After pool­ing their money and hir­ing top tal­ent from Toronto’s the­atre scene, the pro­duc­tion ran in the sum­mer of 2006. The show wasn’t ex­actly a hit.

“The sum­mer was a dis­as­ter,” re­calls Dr. Lococo. “We ex­pected the tourists to come. But who thinks of Niagara Falls as a world-class the­atre destination?”

The show was re­mounted in December of that year to co­in­cide with the Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights. Silver Mist also reached out to lo­cal schools and got bus­loads of kids to see the mat­inée pro­duc­tions. Word of mouth spread and Aladdin be­came a hit.

The fol­low­ing year they pro­duced Beauty and the Beast. The re­sponse was so suc­cess­ful it’s be­ing re­peated this year. Actor Gabriel Burrafato starred as the Beast last year and is re­turn­ing to reprise his role.

“As an ac­tor, you like to have the op­por­tu­nity for roles like this,” Burrafato says. “The pro­duc­tion val­ues are phe­nom­e­nal. The mu­sic and cos­tumes are Disney-certified.”

Dr. Lococo wants to ex­pand his vi­sion be­yond down­town Niagara Falls to the en­tire re­gion. “Our goal is to get the tourists here. We are the key. You get peo­ple to the Falls and it’s only a hop, skip and a jump to wine coun­try and beyond.”

While it’s easy cor­ralling lo­cals and tourists to his pro­duc­tions, it may prove dif­fi­cult get­ting Toronto res­i­dents away from their own the­atre dis­trict. But Silver Mist isn’t com­pet­ing with Toronto pro­duc­tions like Dirty Dancing and We Will Rock You.

“Beauty and the Beast and Seussical are fam­ily shows. Our area is a fam­ily area. We’re of­fer­ing the most eco­nom­i­cal va­ca­tion for fam­i­lies. Our din­ner and ho­tel pack­ages cost just as much as what you pay for one show in Toronto.

“What we’re of­fer­ing is world-class en­ter­tain­ment at an af­ford­able price,” ex­plains Dr. Lococo.

Richard Ouzounian, noted the­atre critic for the Toronto Star is highly com­pli­men­tary about Dr. Lococo’s efforts.

“Every city ought to have some­one like Mike Lococo, who loves the place where he lives and wants to see that the best the­atre pos­si­ble is avail­able there. I find his en­ergy, com­mit­ment and taste amaz­ing and I wish we had him in Toronto.”

Despite the time and ded­i­ca­tion that goes into pro­duc­ing two mu­si­cals, Dr. Lococo still prac­tices as a den­tist. He ad­mits there are times when jug­gling den­tistry with the­atre wears thin on him and Jackie, his wife of 48 years. Does he some­times wish he had never be­come in­volved with Silver Mist?

“If I had to com­pare den­tistry to show biz, it’s not even close. What I’m do­ing now [with Silver Mist] is the hard­est thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he says. “It’s like get­ting caught in a current.

“But then you watch 1,000 kids laugh­ing and hav­ing a ball, their faces light­ing up. I think we are on the right track.”

“His heart is def­i­nitely in it,” says Gabriel Burrafato. “His pas­sion shows when you meet him.”

Perhaps den­tistry and the­atre are not that dif­fer­ent: they both make peo­ple smile.

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For more in­for­ma­tion on show times, tick­ets and va­ca­tion pack­ages visit www​.sil​ver​mist​.ca.