October 16, 2014
The SuburbanOctober 15, 2014
By Walter Lyng
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With the official opening of Belles Soeurs: The Musical at the Segal Centre a week away, rehearsals are going strong and central to the process are the original score and songs composed by Neil Bartram. Musical director and orchestrator for the production Chris Barillaro recently spoke to The Suburban about how that’s been working out.
“My job is to teach the music and make sure all the harmonies are working and to orchestrate the show from scratch,” he says. “In this context it is a little bit different than with other shows because it’s a brand new score. There’s no real reference.”
Based on Michel Tremblay’s 1965 play, Les belles-soeurs, the musical presents the story of 12 women, made up of mothers, daughters, sisters and neighbours, each with their own poignant voices. When Germaine Lauzon, a wife and mother, wins 1 million trading stamps from her local grocery store, she believes that her dreary life will take a turn for the better, but she eventually becomes entrenched by the realities of jealousy, gossip, competition and bitter longing of those who surround her.
“It’s basically an adaptation of the play,” says Barillaro. “It really is a new entity. It works really well because in the play, all of the characters get their moment and we’ve taken those moments and musicalized them. So instead of someone having a monologue, it will be a song.”
Barillaro says that the production will offer a generous helping of musical numbers, which touch on different styles.
“It has some ‘60s influences but there is also contemporary musical theatre style in it,” he says. “A bunch of people who have seen a workshop production have told us that they can’t get the songs out of their head. That’s a good sign.”
Belles Soeurs will run from Oct. 19 to Nov. 9. For more information, visit www.segalcentre.org