A little morsel of bountifulness for everyone is how Theatre Calgary’s Artistic Director Stafford Arima described the company’s 2025–26 season.

The emphasis for the upcoming year is on providing Calgarians an unparalleled season of accessible productions, with returning sold-out shows in a first for Theatre Calgary, and new productions that will likely themselves become sold-out events.

Although Arima said they haven’t titled the season something like the season of escape, there was an absolute intention to take audiences on journeys and give them the opportunity to step outside of their lives and the world for a few hours at a time, and just be entertained.

“Theater has become, I think in many ways, so much more in more important than it was maybe 15 years ago. When you think back to the to the days of the Great Depression, what seemed to stay kind of in business were the Ziegfeld Follies, and Florenz Ziegfeld still had people lining up to pay their 15 cents,” Arima said.

“These offerings are about escapism, some through laughter, some through thought-provoking stories, and some through just taking us to a new place on this planet and a new surrounding.”

While the days of 15 cent theatre productions have long since disappeared, Arima said that there was a continued emphasis being put on making the season affordable through Theatre Calgary’s Theatre for All initiative, which offers tickets on the main floor for $49 for every show.

“I feel in many ways that that the most important ingredient that we can continue to offer is great value for your the ticket price: excellence on the stage and stories that have the capacity to to move people, to touch people, to inspire people, and allow a couple of hours of escape,” he said.

Theatre for All has been made possible through the donations of more than 2,700 people who gave over $6.6 million to make the lower ticket prices available.

The company has also seen a 60 per cent growth in new audiences coming to Theatre Calgary productions as a result, many of whom have never been to the theatre before. That’s also influenced the decision in the new season’s selection of productions, Arima said.

A returning sold-out audience favourite starts the 2025–26 season

The season kicks off with a return of Made In Italy by Farren Timoteo—running from Aug. 26 through Sept. 21—which saw a sold-out run at Theatre Calgary in 2023.

Timoteo’s one-man show tells the story of growing up Italian in Jasper in the 1970s.

“When we did Made in Italy a couple of seasons ago, we had no idea that there would be this overwhelming response to the material. We didn’t have the ability to extend it just because the performer Farren Timoteo had another engagement. But the amount of phone calls, emails to the box office, ‘why aren’t you extending it? We couldn’t come. We wanted to bring our friends,'” said Arima.

“With this overwhelming need and desire to see it again, I thought with the team, ‘well, let’s reprogram it. Let’s see what happens.'”

He said that bringing back a production so soon, especially as a season opener, was unprecedented in Theatre Calgary’s history.

“I will tell you already the phone calls that we’re getting and people inquiring about Made in Italy, there’s something about this story and this incredible performance that Calgarians really want to see,” he said.

That production is being followed by an adaptation of Dial M for Murder, made famous by the Alfred Hitchcock film, but began originally as a stage production.

The story is full of Hitchcockian twists and turns as Tony suspects his wife is cheating on him, and plots murder.

Arima said that it would be the first time in the company’s history that the play has been performed on a Theatre Calgary stage.

“Obviously, that murder mystery genre is something that Theatre Calgary has done in the past, and we’re reviving some of these great plays. What I’m going to say is get your tickets now, because these are hot titles,” he said.

Dial M for Murder runs from Sept. 30 through Oct. 26, in a partnership presentation with Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company.

The annual Calgary Christmas tradition of A Christmas Carol is also returning for its 38th time, featuring stage veteran Doug McKeag returning as Scrooge.

Arima said that for 2025, there was absolutely no question that Theatre Calgary would be putting on A Christmas Carol given just how much it has been in demand every year.

“When we tried Little Women a few years ago, I was actually saying this to someone else recently that we just got so many angry emails from everybody. Truthfully, I think that not being at Theatre Calgary for 35+ years, I didn’t necessarily recognize the importance of this tradition,” he said.

“The amount of people that came to see it last year superseded many, many years before. This desire to experience this show around the holiday season just seems to be ingrained in Calgarians, as much as the Stampede is. So, there’s, for me, no question to ever just decide to switch it up.”

The new year opens with brand new World Premiere of The Tale of the Gifted Prince

Starting on Valentine’s Day, and running until March 15, 2026, is the Tale of the Gifted Prince, which is a fantasy story set in China.

It tells the story of a kingdom on the edge of rebellion, with only Prince Ren armed with five humble gifts and a quest to find a shaman to save his father’s throne.

“This is a brand new musical, and perhaps a story that people are not aware of. What it does do is it introduces our audiences and our patrons to something new and something that has not yet hit the stage,” said Arima.

The production will be directed and choreographed by Darren Lee, who recently played the King of Siam in a West End production of The King and I.

“I am profoundly excited for this musical, as it has been a dream of mine to have the world premiere on our stage. This will be a work
of songs, magic, and imagination that all families can experience, and will never forget,” said Arima.

The April 7, 2026 through May 3, 2026, production of A Doll’s House also takes audiences on an international journey, he said, but this time to Europe.

A perfect marriage and a wife with a secret has led to shocked audiences for more than a century, and has been one of the most produced plays worldwide according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

That production, which is a modern adaptation of the story, is also being done as a presentation with the Arts Club Theatre Company.

“This masterpiece of the theatre has been given a fresh, compact, and thought-provoking contemporary treatment by Amy Herzog. This is the adaptation that recently took Broadway by storm, and it is a thrill for us to have the Canadian premiere,” said Arima.

Herzog herself was nominated for a Tony Award, and won a Drama Desk Award for the adaptation of the play.

The 2025–26 season will be closing with an all-new production of the hit Broadway show Come From Away, with book and lyrics by Canadians Irene Sankoff and David Hein.

It tells the story of American flights diverted to Gander, Newfoundland during 9/11 and the connections and friendships made between the two nations.

Arima said that show is being directed and choreographed by Jesse Robb, who, in addition to serving as the choreographer for the 2024 production of A Christmas Carol, was nominated for a Tony for his work on Water for Elephants.

“What’s really exciting about this is that we at Theater Calgary know how to do musicals. We do them very well. This will be an opportunity for those who missed it on the Broadway Across Canada tour to be able to see it back again in their hometown, but also see it again,” he said.

“We haven’t cast the show yet, it will be probably with primarily a Calgarian group of artists. There is a tremendous amount of support for our local artists, and to be able to see them bring this great musical and story to the stage, I think will once again be a showstopper.”

He said that the other advantage of Theatre Calgary putting on Come From Away, even so shortly after the Broadway Across Canada production, was that Calgarians who would otherwise be unable to afford the ticket prices at the Jubilee could more easily take advantage of the Theatre For All pricing.

“It’s a Canadian story that Canadians resonate with. My understanding is people just want to relive that story over and over again.”

For more details, and for tickets, see www.theatrecalgary.com/season2526.