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Musical retrospective kicks off Blue Bridge Theatre’s 10th season

PREVIEW What: Blue Bridge Sings! Where: Blue Bridge at the Roxy, 2657 Quadra St. When: Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 8 p.m. (2 p.m. weekend matinées) Tickets: $32-$47 Reservations: 250-382-3370, bluebridgetheatre.

PREVIEW
What: Blue Bridge Sings!
Where: Blue Bridge at the Roxy, 2657 Quadra St.
When: Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 8 p.m. (2 p.m. weekend matinées)
Tickets: $32-$47
Reservations: 250-382-3370, bluebridgetheatre.ca

In a prelude to a hysterical show-stopper from Something Rotten, an amusingly inept soothsayer — Nostradamus’s nephew, no less — tells Nick, a struggling playwright, that “the musical” represents the future of theatre.

“What the hell are musicals?” asks Nick early in the loopy Broadway farce that posits the notion that musical theatre was born in the era of William Shakespeare, depicted here as a hilariously narcissistic rock star.

When Nostradamus explains that a musical is a play “where the dialogue stops and the plot is conveyed through song,” Nick replies — by song, of course — that this is the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard of.

“It’s absurd. Who on Earth is going to sit there while an actor breaks into song? And what possible thought could the audience think other than ‘This is horribly wrong?’ ” sings Nick.

He isn’t the only theatre buff who might disagree with Nostradamus’s declaration that seeing a musical is preferable to watching a drama or “a mother having sex with her son … ewww” in a play from Greek mythology.

As far as Brian Richmond is concerned, however, there’s room for all kinds of theatre and while Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre specializes in staging 20th-century American classics, musicals are nothing to sniff at.

“I program musicals because I love musicals,” says the theatre company’s artistic director, noting Blue Bridge has had a history of producing musical theatre since its inception in 2009.

“Some of my favourite productions have been musicals,” says Richmond, who appeared in one himself — as Henry Higgins in director Sara-Jeanne Hosie’s 2013 production of My Fair Lady.

“I realize audiences tend to think of Blue Bridge more for dramas, but I thought this would be a nice way of starting our new season,” he says, explaining why Blue Bridge Sings! was chosen to kick off the theatre’s 10th-anniversary celebrations.

The show, which opens Thursday, Nov. 30 at 8 p.m., is a retrospective of highlights from musicals the company has staged over the past 10 years, with most numbers brought back to life by the original performers.

(For $100, or $150 per couple, theatregoers can attend an opening-night gala fundraiser at 6 p.m. at Norway House, 1110 Hillside Ave., where fine wines and food, and silent and live auction items will be available.)

Co-hosted by Hosie and Kholby Wardell, who last appeared together in Red Hot Cole!, Blue Bridge Sings will feature numbers from that Cole Porter revue and many others, with musical direction by Christopher Donison, the Canadian composer, pianist, longtime music director of the Shaw Festival and CEO of Music By the Sea.

The lineup includes selections from The Fantasticks, Little Shop of Horrors, My Fair Lady, Cruel Tears, Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave and Judy!, with Tracey Moore reprising her role as Judy Garland.

“We’ve had so many terrific performers grace our stages, in musicals as well as dramas, and we wanted to feature the talents of people like Kholby, who started out as a UVic grad and has gone to great acclaim,” says Richmond. He cites as an example Wardell’s work as Noel Gruber in productions of Atomic Vaudeville’s Ride the Cyclone, including its runs in Chicago and off-Broadway.

Richmond says he is looking forward to welcoming back performers such as Moore and Kale Penny. Moore is a voice director and artist, was the original voice of Serena in Sailor Moon, and has appeared on Broadway. Penny is the actor and singer who caught David Foster’s attention during the 2011 Mount Doug Idol. Penny scored his first professional gig in Blue Bridge’s production of Cruel Tears.

While Richmond admits it was a challenge rounding up performers with complicated lives, he says he’s pleased about getting as many on board as he did, including Gotta Getta Gimmick’s Sarah Carle.

He says performers who are unable to make it because of other commitments — including Amanda Lisman, who is appearing in Belfry Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol, which opens the same night, and Zachary Stevenson, in the midst of an extensive Buddy Holly tribute tour — will be there in spirit and fondly remembered.

As well as reprising music from The Fantasticks with her co-star Jacob Richmond, Sarah Jane Pelzer will substitute for Lisman as Eliza Doolittle in a My Fair Lady number, and Penny will sing songs originally sung by Stevenson.

Hosie, in town to direct the Canadian College of Performing Arts Company C production of Wintertime that opens Nov. 29, also managed to shoehorn the 10th-anniversary celebration into her busy schedule.

“I’ll do anything to help the theatre survive,” says Hosie, who will reprise music from Little Shop of Horrors and A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline.

“I did over 1,000 performances as her, so it’s still there,” she says. “And I’m so looking forward to playing Audrey to Kholby’s Seymour again.”

Because of the tight schedule and compressed rehearsal process, there was only one stipulation, added Hosie with a laugh: “I wrote Brian an email back saying ‘Ms. Hosie will not be learning any new material.’ ”

The familiarity factor is part of what Richmond feels should make the show appealing as audiences journey down memory lane.

“We’re doing the numbers the way we did them in the original productions,” he says, describing the revue as “a kind of a birthday-party offering.”

As a gift to the theatre’s musical-loving patrons, Richmond has added a popular, albeit challenging, Broadway musical to its 10th anniversary lineup — Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

The Stephen Sondheim classic is slated to open in July, ending a season that begins April 24 with Swan Song (and other Farces), a collection of one-act Chekhov plays, followed by Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and Michael Healey’s Canuck comedy The Drawer Boy.

For many theatre companies, including a musical on a season’s theatrical menu has become de rigueur.

“It’s where the money is made because there’s often a bigger audience,” says Hosie, comparing their popularity to Shakespeare plays that routinely draw crowds to Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach.

“Even though they cost more to do, they can pay for the rest of the season, I think,” says the actor, director and choreographer, who has earned a living doing musicals from coast to coast.

“I’m so grateful to my parents [legendary Canadian entertainers Bill and Sylvia Hosie] for encouraging me to wear multiple hats,” she says.

While the cost of producing musicals can be prohibitive for a professional company — up to $100,000 in some cases — Richmond says there’s enough of an appetite in Victoria to incorporate musicals in some form.

“We’ve come up with some amazing creative solutions,” says Richmond, whose financially challenged company’s version of Sweeney Todd will be leaner than most, staged with nine performers.

“We can still produce them in a way where we have integrity, and it opens up doorways creatively,” he says. “Just because it’s smaller doesn’t mean the musical is getting short shrift.”

mreid@timescolonist.com