<P> The Toronto Centre for the Arts, previously known as the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts, is a performing arts centre in the former city of North York in Toronto, Ontario, Canada . It opened in 1993 as the North York Performing Arts Centre designed by Canadian architect Eberhard Zeidler for musicals, theatre productions and other performing arts . At opening, North York awarded management of the centre to Livent who sold the naming rights in 1994 to Ford Motor . It originally housed three theatres: the Main Stage Theatre with 1,727 seats, the George Weston Recital Hall with 1,036 seats, and the multi-purpose, 200 - seat Studio Theatre . When Livent declared bankruptcy in 1998, the City of Toronto assumed control of the facility . </P> <P> The Main Stage was home to the Dancap Productions' Canadian production of Jersey Boys from August 2008 until August 2010 . Prior to Jersey Boys, the facility was the home of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Sunset Boulevard in 1995 and a 1993 production of Show Boat that transferred to Broadway . However, after Dancap ceased operation, the Centre had difficulty finding enough tenants for the Main Stage, and began a series of renovations from 2014 to 2016 that divided the Main Stage into two smaller theatres . The Greenwin Theatre was built on the stage and backstage areas, and seats 296, while the remainder of the auditorium became the Lyric Theatre, seating 576 and featuring LED backlit acoustic panels that can change colour with the lighting design . </P>

North york centre for the performing arts toronto