Taking musical theatre ‘Into the Woods’ to find new audiences

Not-for-profit organization Halifax Musical Concerts hopes to introduce emerging artists and art to new communities with their unique semi-staged performances

CITYnews halifax \ Steve Gow

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A unique pair of musical concerts are coming to Halifax Regional Municipality in April.

Not-for-profit professional musical theatre company Halifax Musical Concerts will be presenting the play Into the Woods on April 1 in Upper Tantallon and again in downtown Halifax on April 2.

The Tony Award-winning musical originally made its debut on Broadway in 1987 — where it ran successfully for two years with more than 760 performances. The Halifax Musical Concerts version may admittedly appear slightly less lavish.

“This is a semi-staged reading,” says Halifax Musical Concerts artistic director Christopher Wilson. “The focus is basically on the storytelling, so the actors are performing the entire show on book with a music stand.”

Indeed, the respective one-night events may feature the entire acclaimed Stephen Sondheim play without the use of broad, decorated sets and an expansive behind-the-scenes crew of stagehands, but Wilson insists Into the Woods still promises a wildly entertaining evening with many theatrical elements.

“There are prop elements, there are costume elements, there are even potentially some choreographic elements,” adds Wilson, who will also act as narrator for the performances. “And ideally, we’re going to be using projections which help denote setting and time.”

As a result of the scaled down staging, Halifax Musical Concerts is able to be bring the Broadway classic to distinct audiences at unconventional venues. In this case, St. Luke’s United Church on St. Margarets Bay Road in Upper Tantallon and St. Matthew’s United Church on Barrington Street (next to Government House).

“The expenses are much less at the fore and we are able to get to doing the work without cost relative to attendance being prohibitive,” explains Wilson, adding  ultimately he hopes to put on similar shows around the province. “You can bring these satellite shows to further reaching communities without them feeling that they are not getting access to the things that they love to do and don’t necessarily have to drive two hours to do it.”

Launched near the start of the pandemic in 2020, the business model of Halifax Musical Concerts seems ready-made for today’s challenges. In addition to plays, Wilson says the organization has also hosted cabarets and adds they were one of the first theatrical performances to return to the stage during an event at The Carleton after the initial first waves of COVID-19.

“They were really excited to expand their programming by offering musical theatre,” recalls Wilson of being part of The Carleton cabaret. “Our first show back in October of 2019 was sold out (because) people were just so hungry to see live theatre.”

That early success only confirmed Halifax Musical Concerts was filling a creative gap in the marketplace. As well, it helped affirm Wilson’s decision to focus more on the Halifax model after moving from Ontario (where he ran a similar business) at the outset of the pandemic.

“In 2020, when the Atlantic Bubble existed, things were more lenient in Atlantic Canada than they were in predominantly in every other part of the world,” notes Wilson, who had previously owned property in HRM but only spent part of the year in the province. “(But now) I’m calling Halifax home.”

Wilson is now thrilled to introduce his unique theatrical experience to new audiences, starting specifically with Into the Woods in April.

Inspired by such Brothers Grimm fairy tales as Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk, the Stephen Sondheim musical fulfills a variety of storybook characters wishes, only to reveal the consequences of their actions may come back to haunt them.

“This play is so poignant,” says Wilson, who also teaches voice at Dalhousie University in the Faculty of Music department. “I would argue that there really isn’t one scene that this show doesn’t address — it addresses family, community, yearning, relationships, and on the flipside, the devolution of relationships, loss and then most importantly, accepting things as they are rather than the way you wanted them to be.”

For tickets or more information on Into the Woods, visit the website.