Canadian musical theatre spotlight will shine on Hamilton

The National Centre for New Musicals at Theatre Aquarius is wrapping up its second year of supporting new productions and hosting a summit to put their work at centre stage.

Hamilton will be the epicentre of Canada’s musical theatre world when the National Centre for New Musicals (NCNM) at Theatre Aquarius hosts a three-day summit starting this weekend.

Composers, lyricists, book writers, producers, directors, dramaturgs, presenters, and theatre leaders from across the country will witness showcases of musicals in development, talk about big ideas, and mix and mingle with colleagues with the goal of building future collaborations.

Musical theatre conferences are common but this is the first one to be held in Hamilton. Theatre Aquarius artistic director Mary Francis Moore and executive director Kelly Straughan have taken everything they have liked from the many gatherings they’ve attended to build this summit.

Moore and Straughan are proud to show off Theatre Aquarius’s King William building, and look forward to showcasing smart and creative storytelling, and to giving attendees a relaxed and fun experience that will allow collaborations and friendships to flourish.

The NCNM has a truly national approach to incubating and developing new musicals. Jury members located across the country provided input into the 260 submissions received for the 2025 cohort, from which three were chosen.

Launched by Theatre Aquarius in spring 2023, the NCNM “aims to be a transformative force in both Canadian and international theatre, amplifying voices and elevating Canada’s global presence in musical theatre.”

With both an eight-month remote incubation stream for early-stage projects and a hybrid development stream for projects with a draft in place, NCNM supports musical projects at any stage of development with tailored dramaturgy, mentorship with industry professionals, and music supervision. 

“We're able to just sort of pick what is artistically exciting, and we truly meet each project  where it's at,” says Moore. “Every project is in a very different place in development. So some projects could go into rehearsal tomorrow, and other projects need two more years.”

Bringing theatre leaders face-to-face with musical creators, especially emerging ones, is an opportunity to make special connections, says Moore.

NCNM allows the team behind each musical project to decide what they want out of their time within the program. Some want a dramaturg to work on their script in order to present at a workshop. Others want to focus on a score. Still others want to work with a movement director to bring their script to life on stage.

While Aquarius may have its eye on staging some of the productions at NCNM, a number of them have interest from other artistic directors and producers, and that’s just the goal of NCNM, she says.

It’s about finding the perfect place to premier Canadian musicals.

In order to do that, the NCNM Summit will showcase musicals in its development stream in 2024 and 2025, the latter of which are now in the midst of two weeks of intensive workshopping sessions with industry professionals to get their productions closer to their opening night.

Featured works will be:

• The Danish Guest, with a book by Stephen Gallagher and music and lyrics by Anton Lipovetsky imagines a relationship between Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen;
• The 7 Fires, by Dillan Chiblow and Landon Doak, is inspired by the Anishinaabe 7 Fire prophecy, and sees seven strangers meet in the woods where they receive dreams from their Ancestors;
• The Pryce Academy, withbook, music and lyrics by Mazin Elsadig and Philip McKee, and additional music by Juan Ayala and Jennifer Ayala Moore, happens at an elite prep school in present day North America where a progressive new curriculum asks students to start a business that is both ethical and profitable.
• The Blue Castle, with book and lyrics by Saleema Nawaz and music by Scott Christian, is based on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s timeless romance and set in early 1900s Muskoka. It’s the story of a woman reclaiming her power and gaining the courage to live life on her own terms – and finding purpose, friendship, and love along the way.
• Clown Riot, with story by Christo Graham and Tyrone Savage, and music and lyrics by Christo Graham, tells the spectacular true story of clowns and firemen, brawls and brothels, death-defying escape acts and a mob of angry protestants … all set against the backdrop of 1850s Toronto: a city on the brink of industrial and political revolution.
• Out, with book by Kalos Chu, music by Ian Chan, and lyrics by JuHye Mun, is a coming-of-age drama-comedy musical that weaves together stories of three queer Asian kids in their mid-20s.

The summit kicks off on Jan. 25 with a cabaret of new musical theatre, includes a trip to Electric Diner for a musical theatre trivia night, showcases Hamilton food offerings, and includes a performance of selections from musicals developed at Theatre Aquarius, including It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken, which will close this season, and Beautiful Scars, which was staged in 2024.

“We're so proud of this city right now, and so much of what we're doing is leaning in to Hamilton and our identity and who we are, and who Theatre Aquarius is in this city,” says Moore. “This is built in Hamilton for Hamilton, and people will come here and see what's magical about being here.”

The summit will also present an excerpt from The Nine Lives of Ross Fordham, an inspiring true musical story of one man’s brushes with death, presented by his Hamilton-based grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The summit will also include a panel with producers Hannah Mirvish, Victor Pokinko, and David Daniels who will share real-world insights, creative pathways, and practical advice on taking a show from first spark to full-scale production.

“These are people with very different producing models, very different backgrounds, really different scope and scale of the projects that they produce, locally and internationally,” says Moore. “So we kind of wanted to give that breadth to people, because this country is so huge that sometimes we think our only option is to get a workshop and then some commercial producers.”

The summit came about thanks to the initial support of Tourism Hamilton, which was followed up by funding from the Canada Council for the Arts.

“We knew that presenting of these projects was important,” says Straughan. “When this money came in, it allowed us to really get a critical mass of artistic directors, producers, and you name it all in one place at one time to see these shows.”

The incite Foundation for the Arts, which provided $500,000 in foundational funding for the NCNM, has also supported the summit, along with private funder Judith King-Siganski.

“There are so many examples of champions like this in Hamilton and we are so lucky to have that,” says Straughan. “The way in which Hamiltonians are stepping up for this theatre and really investing in what we're doing is incredible.”