'Very moving': Screenwriters on the Tim Hortons musical

A snowstorm, a Tim Hortons and a group of Canadian artists loosely sums up ‘The Last Timbit,’ a musical hitting the stage in Toronto this month. However, the writers involved explain that it is much more than that. To them, it is a celebration of community, Canadians and togetherness.

A snowstorm, a Tim Hortons and a group of Canadian artists loosely sums up ‘The Last Timbit,’ a musical hitting the stage in Toronto this month. However, the writers involved explain that it is much more than that. To them, it is a celebration of community, Canadians and togetherness.

The production is based on a snowstorm that happened in Sarnia, Ont., in 2010. According to The Weather Network, it created whiteout conditions so bad on Ontario’s Highway 402 that 360 motorists were left stranded and a good number of people were forced to hunker down inside a local Tim Hortons.

Speaking with CTV News on Friday, two of the writers, Annika Johnson and Britta Johnson, shared their experiences working with the cast and writing the musical.

They explained that they were approached to partake in the writing of the musical in the fall of 2023 by a member of the advertising agency, Gut Toronto.

Here’s what they had to say about working on the production.

This interview has been shortened and edited for clarity.

Annika: We were approached to write this show back in the fall by someone from Gut Agency who had this idea about this Tim Hortons musical, and she reached out to us first kind of being like ‘do you think this could work?’ and we were like ‘I think it actually could,’ and it has been surprisingly easy to write it. It’s based on a true story that they gave us about a group of people who were stranded in a Tim Hortons during a snowstorm, and then we have added this extra element...