Stage Door News
Stage Door News
– The Musical Stage Company (formerly Acting Up Stage Company) presents the Toronto premiere of the hit Canadian musical by Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille - ONEGIN. ONEGIN will run in Toronto from Saturday, May 13 to Sunday, June 4 (Opening night: May 17) at the Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs (26 Berkeley St.). Tickets run from $35 to $59 and are available by phone at 416-368-3110, online at www.canadianstage.com, or in person at the Canadian Stage box office.
A thrilling, contemporary adaptation of Pushkin’s timeless poem and Tchaikovsky’s renowned opera, ONEGIN uses a high-energy musical score to tell a sweeping tale of unrequited love, infatuation and intrigue. When the young and innocent Tatyana falls in love with the self-obsessed aristocrat Onegin, he firmly rejects her, arousing passionate love letters, noble duels and second chances.
A new Canadian musical from two of the creators of Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata, ONEGIN wowed west coast audiences in 2016 winning an unprecedented 10 Jessie Awards. Through Hille and Gladstone’s original and rousing score, audiences are swept into a musical experience as immersive as love itself.
The Musical Stage Company Artistic Director Mitchell Marcus says, “I am honoured that we can produce ONEGIN as the first show under our new name. It is a perfect example of our firm commitment to the most innovative and exciting Canadian musicals. Like our most important past work, ONEGIN is contemporary, thought provoking, passionate and moving. I believe it will be remembered in the history books as one of the great Canadian musicals and I feel very fortunate that we get to create the second production ever and share it with Toronto audiences for the first time."
ONEGIN had its world premiere a year ago at The Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver where it was a sold-out smash and received rave reviews across the board, praising the show for the deep emotional connection it makes with audiences. This new production features an almost entirely new cast, directed by Gladstone who will be working with a new creative team, with Hille providing musical supervision.
Gladstone and Hille came up with the idea for the musical following the success of their collaboration with author and CBC Radio personality Bill Richardson on the 2012 production Do You Want What I Have Got: A Craigslist Cantata (which The Musical Stage Company also produced). Gladstone was particularly interested in working on an adaptation and had recently assistant-directed a Vancouver Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s Onegin.
“I remember thinking ‘No one has ever updated this’ and it is actually quite modern in terms of character and story and what they’re going through,” says Gladstone.
Hille adds, “A young woman falls in love with someone who is perhaps a little difficult - as young women will do. And what happens when there’s love and it’s not recognized? It is utterly tragic. The story is about real love and bad timing. It’s a story of not recognizing someone in time.”
Though the indie-rock musical score is original, Hille and Gladstone have borrowed the opera’s structural template and incorporated musical lines lifted directly from Tchaikovsky’s composition.
Leading the Toronto cast are Hailey Gillis (SPOON RIVER, THE DYBBUK) as Tatyana and Daren A. Herbert (FATHER COME HOME FROM THE WAR, THE WILD PARTY) as Onegin. They are joined on stage by Rebecca Auerbach, Shane Carty, Josh Epstein, Peter Fernandes and Elena Juatco.
Gladstone and Hille are joined behind the scenes by Chris Tsujiuchi (music direction), Linda Garneau (choreography), Denyse Karn (set design), Alex Amini (costume design), John Webber (lighting design) and Adam Harendorf (sound design).
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About Onegin
By Amiel Gladstone and Veda Hille
Based on the poem by Pushkin and the opera by Tchaikovsky
Produced by The Musical Stage Company in collaboration with Canada’s National Arts Centre
Directed by Amiel Gladstone
Music direction by Chris Tsujiuchi
Musical supervision by Veda Hille
Choreography by Linda Garneau
Set design by Denyse Karn
Costume Design by Alex Amini
Lighting design by John Webber
Sound design by Adam Harendorf
Running time: 2 hours with one 20-minute intermission
Cast
Madame Larin, others: Rebecca Auerbach
Prince Gremin, others: Shane Carty
Vladimir Lensky: Josh Epstein
Many others: Peter Fernandes
Tatyana Larin: Hailey Gillis
Evgeni Onegin: Daren A. Herbert
Olga Larin: Elena Juatco
About The Musical Stage Company
The Musical Stage Company is Canada’s largest not-for-profit, professional theatre company dedicated to musical theatre. We create transformative experiences through musical storytelling locally, nationally and internationally by:
1. Connecting audiences to stories that matter
2. Connecting Canadian stories to the world
3. Connecting young people to their voices
4. Connecting diverse voices to each other
Established in 2004 as Acting Up Stage Company, we unveiled our new name in 2017 alongside the ambitious goals of making Canada a leader in musical theatre, reaching every Torontonian through diverse musical stories, and creating a national and international presence.
Our productions – including award-winning contemporary musicals, world premieres and concerts – are seen live by 30,000 people over the 80+ nights that we are onstage annually in venues both traditional and surprising. We incubate new Canadian musicals from development to production, investing in Canadian musical theatre writers and building national and international partnerships. To date, our work has been recognized with 53 Dora Award nominations, 10 Dora Awards and 10 Toronto Theatre Critics’ Awards.
Highlights include: Passing Strange, Reframed, Grey Gardens, The Wild Party, Once On This Island, Falsettos, Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craiglist Cantata, Caroline, or Change, Ride the Cyclone, Parade, The Light In The Piazza, and Elegies: A Song Cycle.
Beyond the stage, we build and enrich communities through musical storytelling. Our robust education programs develop the artists and audiences of tomorrow, offering musical theatre training that boosts self-confidence and self-expression for over 100 young people each year without cost to the participants. We also curate innovative musical programs in partnership with diverse organizations, maximizing the resonance of our work across disciplines and communities.
For more information visit: www.musicalstagecompany.com
Photo: Daren A. Herbert and Hailey Gillis in Onegin. ©2017 Matt Barnes.
2017-03-29
Toronto: The Musical Stage Company presents the Canadian musical "Onegin" May 13-June 4