There’s a new-old musical theatre player in town.
Acting Up Stage Company, which was founded 13 years ago, has changed its name to the Musical Stage Company and it aspires to make Canada a leader in musical theatre.
With the help of a $1-million creative capital campaign, the company is doubling its production budget and expanding its performance schedule, including teaming up with Mirvish Productions to bring the Tony Award-winning Fun Home to Toronto.
Musical Stage calls itself “the leading not-for-profit musical theatre company in the city and across the country,” an ambition it aims to underline with its new name.
Its goals, outlined in a news release, include:
- Making Canada a leader in musical theatre and creating original musicals that break new ground
- Reaching thousands more Torontonians with musical theatre
- Expanding nationally and internationally while promoting Canadian musical artists and Canadian stories
“I am so proud of how we have been able to impact musical theatre in Toronto since our establishment in 2004. But there is more work to be done,” artistic and managing director Mitchell Marcus said in the release.
The company’s 2017-18 season opens in May with Onegin, an original Canadian musical co-created by Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille, co-authors of Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata. Following its Toronto run, the show will open the mainstage season at the National Arts Centre.
Next up is Life After, an expanded version of the 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival hit by Britta Johnson, co-writer of the immersive Sheridan College musicalBrantwood. It’s onstage Sept. 23 to Oct. 22 in a co-production with Canadian Stage and Yonge Street Theatricals.
Johnson also becomes the company’s inaugural Crescendo Series artist, which comes with a three-year residency and a commitment from Musical Stage to produce three of her new musicals.
Also in the fall, Musical Stage continues its annual UnCovered concert series, with Brent Carver, Melissa O’Neil, Sara Farb and Andrew Penner singing the songs of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, Nov. 14 to 16.
In 2018, the company brings Fun Home to the Off-Mirvish season. Adapted from Alison Bechdel’s 2006 graphic memoir by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori, Fun Home won five Tonys in 2015, including Best Musical.
Running April 13 to May 6, 2018, it will be the first local musical production featured in the Off-Mirvish program and will include an all-Canadian cast, Musical Stage said.
Robert McQueen, who worked with Mirvish on Mamma Mia!, will direct.
Under its old name, Musical Stage produced Canadian premieres of shows such as Caroline, or Change, The Light in the Piazza, Grey Gardens and, most recently, Tony winner Passing Strange.
Besides expanding its performances, Musical Stage says it will triple development initiatives and support to Canadian musical creators, and quadruple free youth training. New programs include:
- The Aubrey & Marla Dan Fund for New Musicals, funded with a gift from the Aubrey & Marla Dan Charitable Foundation, will make a $25,000-a-year investment for three years in commissioning new Canadian musicals.
- The existing One Song Glory program, which offers free training to young Ontarians, will launch a single-day satellite program in various Ontario communities.
- Make Me a Song is a partnership with the Regent Park School of Music in which eight Canadian composers are commissioned to write original choral compositions based on the stories of youth in Regent Park School of Music choirs. These songs become the annual curriculum for the choir.
Go to MusicalStageCompany.com for information.
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