Every year, Jade Bruneau looks forward to the start of summer. This is the season when musical theater flourishes in Quebec. “There is a real craze for musical theater shows,” says the actress, a big fan of this theatrical form. “And the audience is very loyal. There are people who come back two, three or four times to see a show. During the tour of Belles-Sœurs, I remember a spectator who told me that she had seen the show 12 times! »
The director Serge Denoncourt has also tamed the “musicals”. At Just for Laughs, he took over from Denise Filiatrault and Serge Postigo at the helm of summer musicals. After the success of Annie last year, he directs Hair, on view from June 16. “It’s another scenic beast to tame. It completely takes me out of my comfort zone at 60,” he says.
Although he directed Les choristes, his new passion remains the French adaptation of Anglo-Saxon musical comedies from London and New York. Doesn’t he fear the Americanization of Quebec culture by favoring these big hitters from the West End and Broadway? “No, stop it!” At Duceppe, we edit translations of American plays by Miller or O’Neill. At La Licorne, we program English and Irish pieces… Hair or West Side Story are classics of the repertoire. It is not a matter of Americanizing our culture. »
According to Serge Denoncourt, in Quebec we do musical theater in our own way. “And we do it very well,” he adds. Luc Plamondon does rock opera; René Richard Cyr, of the musical theater [The umbrellas of Cherbourg, The man of La Mancha]. Before, there was Michel Tremblay [The heroes of my childhood, Tomorrow morning, Montreal awaits me]. »
Patrick Rozon is proud of the summer tradition of musicals, which began 20 years ago at Just for Laughs. “There is a market for the genre in Quebec. Year after year, 200,000 tickets are sold to see musicals, all producers combined. The musical is the total spectacle, with a very Wagnerian side,” he says, referring to the German composer’s concept of the total work of art.
In the near future, the Chief Creative Officer of Just for Laughs wishes to develop an “original musical creation” component.
Just for Laughs will not stop producing shows with Broadway licenses. Big productions help riskier creations financially, without artists known to the public. “But we’re going to build a different business model for creation. We’re going to go there in stages. With a platform like Zoofest, you can present a musical in a room with 300 or 400 seats. And do co-productions with other theater companies, tours abroad. »
In a room on rue Parthenais, about twenty young guys and girls, barefoot and long hair, demonstrate with placards. We can read slogans from May 68: “Make love not war”, “Under the cobblestones, the beach”… The stage is part of Hair, a “musical” emblematic of the boomers and the “peace and love” movement “. Among these interpreters, there is Sarah-Maude Desgagné, a singer of the 2022 vintage of Star Académie; Éléonore Lagacé, winner of the Zénith show; Philippe Touzel, who we saw in The Melody of Happiness, Grease, Footloose and who is also making a career in France.
This poster does not include big stars. Increasingly, producers are hiring performers with a musical theater background. Previously, we only auditioned singers. “There is a great excitement in musical theater right now. The graduates of recent cohorts have never worked so much in their specialty, ”notes Geneviève Charest, who teaches singing in the musical theater program at Lionel-Groulx College in Sainte-Thérèse.
“I believe we were chosen for the right reasons. To bring truth to the musical,” says Philippe Touzel. His classmate Félix Lahaye, who discovered musicals in high school, adds that musicals allow him “to do everything” and to exercise all facets of his profession. Same story from Kevin Houle, performer and composer who also signs the music of Lili St-Cyr this summer, a show that will be presented in Kingsey Falls.
Actor Robert Marien has been fighting for 40 years for the recognition of musical theater in Quebec. According to him, we must give ourselves the means and the time to develop creation here. By investing in workshops, laboratories, research. “We have inordinate expectations for our musicals,” he says. I experienced the difficult reception of Gala and Le Petit Roy. I remember the premature end of I, by Marc Drouin. “Recall that in 1998, very badly received by critics and the public, the musical of the author of Pied de poule had canceled its tour, despite an investment of $ 400,000 from the Quebec government.
“If a show doesn’t work right away, we become cautious, laments Marien, while it is with trial and error that success is born. American musicals can go through eight or ten iterations before landing on Broadway. Robert Marien would like to see the creation of a separate category to process requests for musical theater grants.
All creators and lovers of this form will tell you: the musical has always been between two chairs. Between varieties and theatre. The actress Marie-Pierre de Brienne has applied for a grant for a musical theater project for her new company. “My case didn’t fit into the right category,” she says. The employee asked me if I did theater or music. I answered him both… and with dance. He said, “But you can’t do all three at the same time!” »
The musical by Gerome Ragni and James Rado is directed by Serge Denoncourt and produced by Just for Laughs. At the St-Denis Theater from June 16; at Salle Albert-Rousseau in Quebec City starting December 12.
A musical creation about the scandalous life of the queen of striptease in Montreal in the 1940s. Music: Kevin Houle. Director: Benoit Landry. Choreography: Alex Francoeur. With among others Marie-Pier Labrecque, Lunou Zucchini, Kathleen Fortin. At the Kingsey Falls Theater starting June 30.
The stage adaptation of the popular film with Whitney Houston, in a new version directed by Joël Legendre on choreographies by Steve Bolton. At the Capitole, in Quebec, from June 28 to August 13. In revival at the Théâtre St-Denis, from November 23 to December 3.
The return of the famous von Trapp family, with 25 actors, in a staging by Gregory Charles. From August 4, at the Salle Albert-Rousseau, in Quebec City.
The new staging of a classic of the genre by René Simard. At Espace St-Denis from October 17, 2023, then at Salle Albert-Rousseau, in Quebec City, in December 2024.
A new musical “a bit punk” signed by Les Cowboys Fringants and created by Les 7 Doigts de la Main. Director: Sébastien Soldevila. At the Grand Théâtre de Québec from November 22. At the Maisonneuve Theater in Montreal, from December 6 to December 23.
The success of Richard Cocciante and Luc Plamondon celebrates its 25th anniversary. At Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts, from August 2 to 10.
Directed by René Richard Cyr. With Benoît McGinnis in the title role. On tour in Quebec, then back in Montreal from October 20 to 28 at the TNM.
