Any show – and pretty much anything – can happen when The Confidential Musical Theatre Project returns to Toronto.
There’s nothing quite like the ephemeral thrill of live performance. And The Confidential Musical Theatre Project (CMTP) takes that thrill and dials it up to 11. You see… on October 25 at Christ Church Deer Park, Toronto audiences will take their seats, not knowing what musical they’re about to see. At the same time, while the cast members will have prepared their individual parts, they will never once have rehearsed the show together. A one-night venture into the unknown for everyone, it promises to be risky and fraught … and deeply exhilarating.
The Confidential Musical Theatre Project marks the Toronto revival of a beloved experiment in theatrical spontaneity. Mounting the production is Vita Bella Entertainment, a new live-entertainment company founded by Zachary Mansfield and Paulina Luciani. Mansfield, a veteran producer who has collaborated with major institutions including Soulpepper, Opera Atelier, and Toronto Dance Theatre, is currently Senior Producer for TO Live. Luciani, an award-winning actor, singer, and multidisciplinary artist, has performed for nearly a decade on stage and screen, creating for organizations such as Luminato Festival, Tafelmusik, and Young People’s Theatre.
Together, they are rekindling a phenomenon that was the brainchild of Marion Abbott, and whose first surprise 2014 production (of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George) “was a huge success,” explains Luciani. “Every performer at every level in their career wanted to be a part of it, and audiences were drawn to the idea of a mystery show.” The concept caught fire, and travelled across Canada, the U.S., and beyond – with more than 1,500 artists ranging from Broadway veterans to community players having since “kept the secret”.
For audience members, The Confidential Musical Theatre Project is much more than a traditional night of musical theatre. As Luciani explains, “a show is cast, the cast and anyone involved is sworn to secrecy about the title and their role, the musical is performed bare-bones without any rehearsals, and the audience arrive not knowing what musical they are about to see.” The result is an immersive, long-form mind worm of an experience: “you’re not seeing a traditional staged musical. The performance actually begins when the ticket is purchased and the concept is advertised. It teases your curiosity, and you start asking yourself, ‘What is the show going to be?’ ‘Is it a show I’m going to recognize, or will I be introduced to something I wasn’t already familiar with?’. And ‘how are the performers going to do this without rehearsal!?’
Then during the actual performance, “audiences are thrilled by the fact that it’s not a rehearsed and polished show — because it means anything can happen up there. And what’s really impressive is seeing talented people who have honed their craft be playful and spontaneous –and recover well. It’s really what live performance is all about.” Moreover, the resulting connection between actors and audience is special: “With Confidential, audiences will feel a stronger connection to the performers because the performers are actually experiencing the show for the first time with them!”
For the actors, performing without rehearsal is “exhilarating and a little terrifying,” Luciani grants – and that’s exactly where the magic lies. “When you’re performing a role for the first time in front of an audience without rehearsal, you are relying on your instincts, imagination and vulnerability. You can rehearse how you do things on your own all you want, but you don’t know what someone else will do up there with you. So you have to throw preparation to the wind, and be ready to play off of someone else and really be in the moment.” And that improvisational immediacy is why Vita Bella Entertainment brought on director Kristen Pepper, who “was committed to ensuring that each performer we cast is a really good actor, as well as singer.”
Although Luciani and Mansfield were not part of that inaugural Sunday in the Park with George in 2014, they recognize that its success derived from “the novelty of it all, and the fact that witnessing something like that is really impressive. Sunday in the Park with George, as with any Sondheim show, has a difficult score. So the fact that people performed it — and very well — without rehearsals is a feat.” And a critical element of that feat is the music, so she is quick to highlight the skill of the pianist who will play and accompany all of the actors live – also for the very first time, at the Toronto show: “We have Steve Lavoie, who has done previous Confidentials, and he is truly a master at this.” And while Luciani won’t spill the name of the show, she does share that for the Toronto revival, they’ve chosen “a musical that will be impressive to see performed without rehearsal, but that will also encourage everyone’s sense of play and curiosity.”
The Confidential Musical Theatre Project has always drawn artists at every career stage — a mix that, Luciani notes, “makes it unique and exciting for performers. The concept doesn’t give room for ego, seniority or politics because everyone needs to be committed to the concept, and lean on each other on the day, in order for the performance to work.” As showtime, “what you’ve done and who you know doesn’t matter.” The necessary spirit of humility and collaboration requires that “Everyone in the cast has to be an artist who is curious, and wants a platform to flex their creative instincts.” This means it “gives talented performers who are just starting out the opportunity to work with seasoned or established performers and learn from them”. And Luciani is proud that “our cast carries on that tradition. We have cast members who have performed for Shaw Festival, Mirvish, and regional professional theatres. We have cast members who are emerging names in Toronto, and some who are still in theatre school. Regardless of experience, everyone is talented enough to be there, and everyone is united by a common goal.”
And that goal is simple: bring people together through the unpredictable joy of one magical live performance. The Confidential Musical Theatre Project is, in every way, a celebration of trust — between artists and audience, stage and backstage, and the current moment and whatever might come next.
To Luciani, “it’s what live performance is all about” – and that’s the real secret worth sharing. “I’m so excited to see how this new generation of artists and arts lovers react to it!”.
Venture into the thrill of the unknown with The Confidential Musical Theatre Project, on for one night only on October 25, 2025 at Christ Church Deer Park, Toronto, presented by Vita Bella Entertainment. Tickets are available here.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2025
