This year, 20 musicals were eligible to receive Betty Mitchell Award nominations, a larger number than usual. “Almost every theatre company presented a musical last year,” says Vertigo Theatre artistic director, Mark Bellamy. “Musicals are often a lot harder to put on. You have to find the right talent within the community, and you have to have the resources to pull it off. You can’t do that if the community is not thriving. But, we have an incredibly healthy and thriving community.”

Last season, Vertigo staged a large-scale production of the Betty-nominated musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. “Musicals tend to be a lot more expensive. You’ve got to have a band, musicians and time to rehearse just the music and the band. There’s a financial challenge as well as a technical challenge,” says Bellamy. “With Edwin Drood, we had 18 people on stage, singing, acting, dancing and playing instruments. It was ridiculously fun but challenging.”

Playwright, composer and performer Ethan Cole, who received three nominations for his new musical, The Astonishing Adventures of Awesome Girl and Radical Boy produced last season at Lunchbox Theatre, would agree. Among them, he received a nomination for Outstanding New Play.

Cole has been interested in the musical genre for several years and has been writing short musicals since he graduated from the University of Calgary. A course he took at the U of C first turned him on to the genre. “I did one unit studying musicals. It really made me realize that there’s more to musicals than Cats and Phantom of the Opera,” he says. “There’s a whole facet of subversive theatre that’s not cheesy, corny or any of those terms that people usually associate with it.”

When asked if he thinks this past season, which saw 20 musicals eligible for a Betty nomination, was an anomaly, Cole replies, “In some ways it’s an anomaly, but I prefer to think of it as the beginning of something really great.”

Cole is quick to credit many other artists who, he says, have laid the groundwork for “great musical theatre” in the city. “I’m standing on the shoulders of great Calgarians who’ve laid the base for this scene,” he says. “We're starting to see a new wave of stuff — shows like Urinetown and shows by local playwrights. It’s very exciting.

“I’m a part of this generation playing a part in what the Calgary theatre scene will look like in the next while,” he adds. “Musicals will play a part of that. What we really need to work on, though, is growing the theatre audience. There’s an untapped audience lying in the far-out suburbs of Calgary that we need to tap into.”

Cole is currently writing a musical about recycling for Evergreen Theatre, and he’s also working on a full-length rock musical. He also has grander visions for Calgary. “I would like to see a new musical theatre festival. I think we have room to grow, and strides to take, to focus on musical theatre even more.”

Bellamy points out, however, that after a season rich in musicals, many groups, including Vertigo and Sage, are taking a break next year. “The perception is you must be making buckets of money,” he says. “But it’s not like they’re huge money makers. They’re expensive to produce.” Though, as I’m sure Cole and Bellamy would agree, a whole lot of fun.

The Betty Mitchell Awards will be held at Stage West on Monday, August 25.