Just three days to see a once-in-a-lifetime show

For only three days, from Nov. 12 to 14 you can see a musical review featuring 59 cast members, 15 song performances featuring solos and production numbers with as many as 30 people on stage at once.

All Together Now: a global event celebrating local theatre is co-produced by West End Theatre Project and TMurphy Entertainment Inc. in association with the Sault Community Theatre Centre. 

Money raised locally will go to updating theatrical lighting and wireless communications equipment for the Sault Community Theatre.

"That way this doesn't just benefit us, it benefits everyone who uses the theatre," co-director Lucas Beaver (co-directing with Timothy Murphy).

Tickets are now on sale and there is a somewhat different show planned for each of the performances.

"We wanted to showcase as many people as possible," said Beaver. "Often in a musical, there might be five or six leads and then the rest is ensemble." 

"We have six performances where we have three different actors performing that song two different times," he said.

Each performer brings their own interpretation and flair to the role.

But, logistically, it really complicates things. It means the cast is essentially performing several different shows, which means different lighting and sound cues, choreography and blocking.

Different people will perform solos on different nights and the solos are staged differently for each performer. For example, Beaver said, there are three different actresses performing the song She Used to Be Mine from the musical Waitress. Audience members will see a different show with different performers depending on when they see the show.

In addition, the complications from adhering to COVID-19 protocols add another layer of complexity to the logistics of producing the show.

"Microphones have to be sanitized between performances," Beaver said. "They were always cleaned but now we have to be really on top of it."

All COVID-19 protocols will be strictly observed front and back of house, he added.

All Together Now promises to be an experience to remember as it marks the return of live community theatre in a spectacular way.

Normally, production companies pay as much as $12,000 - $15,000 for the rights to stage major productions like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and other 'big box' productions, as Beaver calls them.

This time, Musical Theatre International, one of the licensing bodies for a huge number of productions, got behind community theatre and put this review together, offering it for free, but there was a condition.

"They put this review together to kind of jump-start and assist theatres local theatre groups getting back on their feet, to fundraise – whatever they want to use this production for," Beaver said. "The only stipulation was that it had to be presented between Nov. 12 and 15."

The team at Musical Theatre International brought together a group of professionals to curate its entire collection of music and choose 35 songs to offer producers. Each company could choose up to 15 songs from that list and be granted the rights to perform those songs but the show will be gone forever after Nov. 15. They won't be offering the rights to perform the All Together Now review ever again. 

Beaver said he and Murphy chose songs based on how they wanted the evening to flow and looked for material that would best showcase the local talent.

"There are songs and musicals (in this review) that will not be able to be performed here," he added. "We don't have the racial casting or the rights might not be available yet because productions like Come From Away might still be on Broadway."

Songs from older musicals like Annie, Frozen and Sister Act will also be performed in All Together Now in the Sault.

More than 2,500 organizations will be performing the review in community theatres in more than 40 countries around the world in the same timeframe.

Each of them will have their own interpretation of the material and their own approach to its production.

Beaver said auditions for this show were special and stood out from auditions for shows he's been involved with over his career in theatre. 

"Some people were very emotional, or were emotional afterwards," Beaver said. "There were some tears. We all know we miss the arts but it really didn't hit us until all of a sudden it's back and you realize, 'Oh my god, I haven't been doing this for so long'."

But, Beaver said, it's good to be back in the theatre and to really get his project off the ground at last.

The West End Theatre Project had been due to launch about a month after the first COVID-19 lockdown 

Val and Chris Horsepool (Beaver's mom and step-father) purchased a church across the street from the Sault Theatre Workshop and were going to start the West End Community Theatre but that never came to fruition.

"We had always talked about how, when I moved home full time, I would relaunch that and use it as my company," Beaver said. 

After returning to the Sault from Toronto almost every year to be involved in local theatre productions, Beaver took the plunge and moved back full time in the winter of 2020 but COVID-19 gathering restrictions made him think twice about launching the rebrand West End Theatre Project.

All Together Now is the project's first official production and next year it will produce two shows – Sister Act, scheduled to run March 30 to April 2, 2022; and Elf, the Musical which is scheduled to run Nov. 30 to Dec. 4, 2022.  

For more information, visit the West End Theatre Project Facebook page.