Posted March 24, 2025

Behind the Scenes – National Centre for New Musicals

Mary Francis, Theatre Aquarius produces a full season of excellent shows, runs a new plays festival, and offers a variety of arts programs for young people, among other things. But today I’m hoping that you can tell us about the National Centre for Musicals at Theatre Aquarius.

I can tell you a little bit about how that came to be. When I took over here in 2021, I was flooded with submissions, most of them new musicals. Because I had been developing and directing new musicals prior to my coming to Theatre Aquarius, we were a natural place for people to be sending their musical work to. But given the number of submissions coming in, it was clear to me right away that I wouldn’t be able to produce that many. I realized that I was looking at them through the lens of, “Is this something I could produce?” Not, “Is this something I could help develop?” or “Is this something I could help foster the growth of?” And when you get to be at a theatre like Theatre Aquarius and you have access to theatres across the country and to colleagues across the country, you start thinking, “What can I do to help? How can I meet a project where it’s at and help to support it?” Or: “How do we get it to the next theatre or to the next phase of development?” There might be a piece that doesn’t speak to this community or to my audience, but I know that it would really resonate with an audience at a different theatre elsewhere. That’s what got me thinking.

I had been working at the time with Michael Rubinoff on a project, we were probably seven years into the development, but we hadn’t had a professional production at that point. This process takes so long. For somebody to invest in a musical—really into the full development of it—it’s a labour of love and it’s a long-term commitment, both financially and timewise.  I wanted to create a place where we could meet the project where it’s at, help with the development of it, and then pass the project on without staking a claim on it. Often a project gets attached to a theatre. Then if the theatre can’t do anything with it right away, it can just atrophy. So that was all percolating with me. And then Michael and I started chatting and he said, “Do it. I’ll be on your advisory committee.” So I talked to a couple of other colleagues, Sean Mayes and Lily Ling, who are both Canadian music directors working on Broadway right now, two of my favorite music directors to work with. They said the same thing: “If you do it, we’ll support it; we’ll come on board.” And we have an incredible team here at Theatre Aquarius who worked diligently to launch the program.

Can you tell us about some of the musicals that you have produced at Theatre Aquarius?

The projects that we’ve been able to put on the stage didn’t necessarily come out of NCNM because it just got off the ground last year, so they were works that we had already in development. We produced MAGGIE by Johnny Reid, Matt Murray, and Bob Foster in 2023; that was the first original new musical this theatre had done in quite a long time. The audience response was overwhelming—I feel like we could have run that show for much longer. Many people saw it more than once; they were coming back and bringing their grandchildren saying, “This is our culture, this is our history.” It wasn’t just Scottish people; it was people who had left their country of birth. They could talk with their kids and grandkids about what it’s like to leave where you’re from, what it’s like to leave your family. What that does to a family and to a culture. That show really had a big impact on our community.

Beautiful Scars, of course, is by Tom Wilson and Shaun Smyth, who at the time were two local writers. (Shaun has since moved back to Calgary.) Tom is a hometown hero. He’s an artist who has had incredible success and lives and makes his work here in Hamilton. Tom is a prolific artist with a beautiful soul, and to birth that show here, to invite the Indigenous community and the non-Indigenous community to meet and to gather in our space and to share this story of joy and reconciliation—the hope and the laughter and the tears that came through that, and through Tom’s and Shaun’s words—that was that was a gift.

We’ve also produced the premiere of Pollyanna, the musical by Linda Barnett and Stephen Gallagher (who’s a local playwright). We produced the premiere of The Nine Lives of Ross Fordham in our Studio space in January by Brandon, Jason, Liam, and TJ McGibbon who are a mostly Hamilton-based family. They created an original piece about their grandfather, who basically escaped death nine times as a cop in Toronto in the 50s. It was performed by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, through story and song, telling the story of his nine lives. His children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, in the community where they live, telling this story in our studio, all original music. These shows have such significance and importance in different ways to us. That one felt very special.

These shows were further along in their development. By the time MAGGIE hit the stage, it had been in development for eight years. After the Aquarius production, MAGGIE was then picked up by Goodspeed Musicals in Connecticut, the first Canadian musical to be on the Goodspeed mainstage. The day they raised the Canadian flag over Goodspeed, it was just iconic.

But while all that was happening, the NCNM program was getting started. We had multidisciplinary theatre artists from every province and every territory on our jury because we wanted to make sure that the submissions were being viewed through a really wide lens—dancers, choreographers, music directors, librettists, actors—they each had a chance to read the submissions and then the list would get narrowed down. This past year we chose five projects. One of the shows was just an idea, but the idea was great, and the sample they sent us from their idea was really exciting. The other four are in various stages of development. One piece is pretty much ready; after this year of development, it’s ready to go on the stage. Other shows we’ve cracked wide open and taken them apart again. And the needs of every show have been very different. It’s been exciting to match the artistic teams with the writers. “I think you I think you’d really like this dramaturge. Why don’t you chat and then see what happens?” One of the writers wants to explore the physical language of their piece. So, they’ve got a workshop with a movement director to explore the movement language of the work. We recently completed a public presentation in Toronto of one of the pieces and had artistic directors, producers and community there to hear the newest version of the draft and support the creative team.

We’ve been able to host events and invite the music theatre community. We had a speed-dating event and invited book writers, lyricists, composers, directors, choreographers. They met and talked about their projects or what they were looking for in a collaborator. There were quite a few matches, then they all came to see Beautiful Scars. Anything we do, we try to make it available virtually as well, so that people across the country can join in.

Are there any particular themes or styles you’re seeing emerge in new Canadian musicals?

What we want to say is “Don’t limit your imagination.” We want to encourage writers to not write from a place of scarcity. Maybe they’re thinking, “If I write this thirty-seven-actor musical, will it ever get done?” But what we’re trying to say is, “It’s only in development right now. Dream big!” No one in theatre has ever said, “We’ve got too much money. Don’t give us so much.” But we want playwrights to know that they can write as large as their imaginations will let them. And then we can figure out all the logistics.

I did want to ask about the recent announcement about the Tragically Hip musical. Sounds exciting!

We’re thrilled to be a part of this project. And of course, it’s great to work with Michael Rubinoff again after the success of MAGGIE. We hosted the workshop for It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken last fall here at Theatre Aquarius. We are fortunate to have this venue because we can develop a piece here and move it to a commercial theatre quite easily.  We held auditions for the project last week. The astonishing level of talent in this country continually blows my mind.

One last question: What do you love about musicals?

So many things…What I love about working in musicals is the collaboration; I’m a collaborative person by nature. I appreciate the relationships between the director and choreographer and the music director and the writer and then of course, the actors, the designers…  I feel like every part is so integral to the storytelling. And then there’s the music…

Every time we start a new project, we’re beginners again, right? There are not a lot of jobs where we get the chance to be beginners the way we are at the start of a new story. We get to take all of this experience, all of this wisdom, and then start at day one and be a beginner again. I really appreciate that.

That’s a beautiful place to end, I think. Mary Francis. Thank you.

Thanks so much for asking me.