‘Maggie’ set to open at Theatre Aquarius, as (grand) mother of all musicals
Did you have a dear gran who could roll your heart over any trouble and call a kind of magic into your world? Or a grammy, nona, nana, bubbe, oma, abuela or (in my case) Mummum?
If you did or do, or even if you didn't but can even imagine anyone like that, you will want to see the musical Maggie," starting at Theatre Aquarius on April 19, in perhaps the biggest opening this city has ever seen.
Scottish-Canadian country music star Johnny Reid - famous for What Love Is All About," Let's Go Higher" and so many more songs - had such a grandmother; oh, did he ever, and he has imagined her back into being, from her youth on, in song, narrative and character.
Maggie" will make her grand (motherly) entrance on King William Street in humble old Hamilton, which Johnny and producer Michael Rubinoff have chosen over every other place in the world as the stage for the unveiling of their new creation.
This is huge news for the city, for our Theatre Aquarius and for our standing as an evolving arts focal point.
Not only is Juno Award-winning Johnny Reid a major force in popular music, but Michael Rubinoff, the producer of Maggie," is the man who incubated and produced (he was originating producer) Come From Away," the Broadway hit and biggest musical ever to come out of Canada.
It augurs well.
My grammy was a big part of my life," Johnny tells me. The day she left the world was a sad one for me. I flew to Scotland (for her funeral), and from that moment I had to find a way to bring her back to life.
But, he asked himself, How do I introduce her?"
Only one answer presented itself. If I can put her on stage. Tell her story. The story of a young woman widowed, raising three boys, cleaning school floors" to make a living.
That idea, which Johnny never let go of, set in motion an odyssey of theatrical momentum that is culminating, for now, in the much-anticipated Hamilton run (it moves onto the prestigious Charlottetown Festival in June), and culminating, ultimately, who knows? Perhaps at some future Tony Awards?
I didn't know how (to advance the idea into reality)," recalls Johnny, who was born and raised in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and came to Canada in 1989 when he was 16.
After sending out feelers, he was put on to the Canadian playwright Matt Murray, author of The Myth of the Ostrich," cowriter of Grow" and many other credits.
I didn't know how, until I met Matt Murray. We got together at a hotel for what was supposed to be 10 minutes and it turned into four hours." They agreed then - Matt Murray would co-write the story. And he did.
When Michael Rubinoff learned of Maggie," he pulled the project into his Canadian Music Theatre Project (CMTP) incubator at Sheridan College. They workshopped it.
You need two things to make a great musical," says Michael. A compelling story. And I haven't seen (enough) stories in musical theatre with strong women, pillars of community. This is a compelling story. And you need to be able to musicalize it."
There was never any doubt about Johnny's strengths on that count but when Michael went to see Johnny perform at his legendary live shows, he knew he was in possession of something very special.
Together Johnny and Michael put together an ideal team.
There is Bob Foster as musical director, Dharma Bizier in the title role and Mary Francis Moore, Theatre Aquarius artistic director, doing direction and dramaturgy. Her early role in the workshopping was to steer the initial run to Theatre Aquarius.
It was also, says Johnny, his own affection for this city, which reminds him, he tells me, of working class Lanarkshire.
A truly special element of the musical's development, says Michael, was Johnny inviting Dharma Bizier on tour with him to try out some of songs in Maggie."
She opened every show for me," says Johnny. She was singing beautifully before but by the time we finished, her command and vocal ability were astounding. I was excited to have her come in."
And now they're all ready. Michael says that all through the development, he was as moved, each stage of the way, as he was at the very first.
The music in Maggie" is more Celtic than Johnny's country fare but it's familiarly his.
In his richly accented voice as he speaks, and in the expressiveness of his face, one can almost feel the lively air over the Clyde River so far away but so close to his being, the place he was born and where his grandmother lived.
In that voice, in his country repertoire, when he sings, and in the lyrics and shape of his songs, there's a great generosity and directness of feeling. Listening to some of the songs previewed from Maggie" on YouTube and elsewhere - songs like My Confession," Used To Be Fire," and Queen for a Day" - one recognizes his signature.
As he talks to me about his beloved grandmother he does so in a way that makes me think of my own, my Mummum, and the conversation happily costs me an afternoon of tearful remembrance.
Indeed, as Johnny says, this is a story not only of his grandmother but a generation of women who held together their communities with love, hope and humour, and of people like them who exist today. When people watch this musical they're going to find a piece of themselves," he says.
Maggie" runs April 19 to May 6. Performances are Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 1:30 p.m. Tickets www.theatreaquarius.org/maggie or 905-522-7529 or at Theatre Aquarius, 190 King William.
Jeff Mahoney is a Hamilton-based reporter and columnist covering culture and lifestyle stories, commentary and humour for The Spectator.jmahoney@thespec.com