March 28, 2014
The GazetteMarch 27, 2014
By Pat Donnelly
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The Segal Centre has gone musical theatre mad.
At the annual season launch, held Thursday, artistic producer Paul Flicker and newly appointed artistic and executive director Lisa Rubin unveiled what is to come for the Segal Centre “Dreams big!” 2014-15 season, using several staged musical numbers to illustrate what’s in store.
Rubin, an experienced singer, stepped forward to deliver a song from Belles Soeurs: The Musical, based on Michel Tremblay’s iconic play. This co-production (with Copa de Oro Productions) will première Oct. 19-Nov. 9, 2014.
The dates for the Tremblay musical were announced last month. Yesterday, however, producer Alan Sandler revealed the names of the 12-woman cast: Lili Connor, Élise Cormier, Lisa Horner, Geneviève Leclerc, Anik Matern, Geneviève St. Louis, Stephanie McNamara, Marcia Tratt, Astrid Van Wieren, Paul Wolfson, and Jocelyne Zucco. (It’s an all-star Montreal/Toronto team.)
Belles Soeurs, directed by René Richard Cyr, is but one of three musical slated for the Segal’s five-play subscription season. The première of a new musical version of Mordecai Richler’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, with music by Alan Menken and book by David Spencer, is slated for June 7-28, 2015. And a Copa de Oro production of Forever Plaid, by Stuart Ross, a four-man revue of hits from the 1950s directed by Roger Peace, will run Feb. 1-15, 2015.
(The new Menken/Spencer musical version of Duddy Kravitz is not to be confused with either of two previous incarnations, one of which bombed in Edmonton in 1984, and the other which had a successful run in Yiddish at the Segal Centre in 1997.)
Rounding out the Segal season will be two non-musical modern classics, The Graduate, adapted by Terry Johnson from the Charles Webb novel and subsequent movie, and Travesties, by Tom Stoppard.
Andrew Shaver will direct The Graduate, which is slated to kick off the season on Aug. 31, 2014. Shaw Festival veteran Brigitte Robinson will star as Mrs. Robinson, opposite Luke Humphrey as her young suitor.
Montreal film actor/producer/director Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky) will make his theatrical directorial debut with Tom Stoppard’s Travesties in April 2015.
Outside the subscription season, within the Segal’s Power Jazz lineup, yet another Copa de Oro produced musical, White Gardenia: The Billie Holiday Musical, also directed (and written) by Peace, will be performed by local jazz diva Ranee Lee in May 2015. Another hot Power Jazz item: Happy Birthday Oliver!, a birthday party and concert with guests such as Lee, held in honour of legendary pianist Oliver Jones, on his 80th birthday — Sept. 11, 2014.
On the Yiddish Theater front, Bryna Wasserman will be returning from New York to co-direct (with Rachelle Glait) The Dybbuk, by S. Ansky. This production will also tour to the International Jewish Performing Arts Festival at the Folksbiene Theatre, now headed by Wasserman, in June 2015, prior to its Aug. 9-27, 2015, Montreal run.
Other Yiddish events will include a May 14, 2015, gala marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Dora Wasserman, founder of the Yiddish Theatre company bearing her name.
At the Segal Centre Studio, there will be a première of a new play, We Are Not Alone, by Damien Atkins, directed by Chris Abraham and Christian Barry, co-produced by Toronto’s Crow Theatre and the Segal Centre.
Black Theatre Workshop and Youtheatre will be back in the Studio, too. BTW artistic director Quincy Armorer will direct Gas Girls, by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, running Oct. 21-Nov. 8, 2014. Youtheatre has two productions planned for March, 2014: Simon and the Egg, written and directed by Michel Lefebvre, aimed at 7- to 12-year-olds, and Oxymorons, by Nadège Grebmeier-Forget, for age 13 and older.
Red Body Productions will present Bunny Bunny, Gilda Radner: A Sort of Love Story in the Studio Nov. 20-29, 2014. And a French show, Quintette pour cordes sensibles, which won the Segal Centre Award for Most Promising Ensemble at the Montreal Fringe Festival last year, plays Sept. 18-23.
For more information about the Segal Centre’s 2014-15 season, call 514-739-7944 or visit www.segalcentre.org