Why it matters: Calgary as a proving ground for Broadway

When Beaches, A New Musical opens on Broadway in spring 2026, it will mark a first for Calgary’s professional theatre scene: a large-scale musical that premiered in the city and went on to a Broadway run.

The production had its international premiere at Theatre Calgary in May 2024. Previews in New York begin March 27, 2026, with an official opening set for April 22 at the Majestic Theatre. The show is scheduled to run through Sept. 6, with tickets going on sale in January.

While the Broadway announcement may feel sudden, Theatre Calgary artistic director Stafford Arima says the pathway for a project like Beaches has been years in the making.

“When I became the Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary in 2017, it was important for me to find a special project that had the potential to move from Theatre Calgary to Broadway,” Arima said. “Beaches was that project.” 

Arima’s approach draws on long-standing industry practice. New musicals are often tested outside New York before opening on Broadway, traditionally in U.S. cities like Boston, Chicago, or Philadelphia.

“In the 90s, there was this new exploration of a market up in Canada that could basically do the same thing,” Arima said, noting that Canadian cities began to function as viable development hubs. Conveniently, Canada is a place Arima knows well, being a Canadian.

When Arima arrived in Calgary from New York and Toronto, he saw the potential for Theatre Calgary to operate at that level, given the right project and partners.

“It became for me a goal that I really wanted to explore and see if I could make happen when I moved here to Calgary,” he said. 

The decision to premiere Beaches in Calgary was shaped by existing creative relationships and practical capacity.

Arima first connected with producer Jennifer Maloney-Prezioso in 2020, after inviting her to see Theatre Calgary’s production of The Louder We Get. Around the same time, he realized he already had long-standing professional ties to several key members of the Beaches creative team, including book writer Iris Rainer Dart and director Lonny Price.

“So I dropped the invitation,” Arima said. “I said, you know, maybe you’d like to bring Beaches here and develop it here at Theatre Calgary before taking it abroad.” 

Producer Jennifer Maloney-Prezioso has said Theatre Calgary’s ability to support the production’s scale was central to that decision, citing both onstage and offstage infrastructure.

According to Arima, the Calgary premiere functioned as a full out-of-town tryout, giving the creative team an opportunity to see the show realized at scale and to evaluate how it played with live audiences.

“That audience really tells and telegraphs for the creative team what’s working, what’s not working,” he said. 

Arima added that Theatre Calgary audiences are particularly useful in this process because they bring a mix of entertainment-focused and theatre-literate responses, allowing the creative team to assess clarity, pacing, and impact.

As the production moves to Broadway, Theatre Calgary does not remain involved on a creative level. That separation, Arima says, is standard for an international premiere.

“Theatre Calgary doesn’t really continue on a creative level with the production because we were the international premiere,” he said. “We had the theatre, the infrastructure to give this life.” 

Decisions about casting, staffing, and creative continuity now rest with the Broadway producers and are shaped by resources, logistics, and cross-border work regulations.

While Beaches moves forward independently, Arima says the transfer places Theatre Calgary in broader industry conversations about where new work can be developed.

“It’s important for everyone to realize that theatre exists across so many parts of our country,” he said, adding that being part of Beaches development helps position Calgary as a viable site for future large-scale projects.