Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre has been putting on theatre productions in Victoria for 10 years, and Blue Bridge Sings!, the company’s 10-year anniversary show, is both a birthday party and a reunion. People who were in Blue Bridge musicals like Fire, Little Shop of Horrors, My Fair Lady, and Red, Hot Cole! will return for this performance to sing the songs they did the first time around. Blue Bridge Sings! director Brian Richmond, who is also the founder of Blue Bridge Theatre and has taught theatre at UVic, says that some amazing performers will take the stage for this show.
“Blue Bridge has been very, very fortunate to attract some of Canada’s most skilled and beautiful singing voices from all the performers it’s had in its musicals over the years,” says Richmond. “We’ve managed to enlist a number of them in to recreate their performances for Blue Bridge Sings!”
Richmond—along with musical directors and the rest of the crew—has picked 26 songs from the theatre’s performances over the years to be in the show; he says it will be a special night for the audience, for those in the performance, and for himself.
“My job as a director will be to make sure that the singers will enter and exit, and to give the show a visual overview that will make it pleasing for the audience,” he says.
Richmond says that Blue Bridge is mainly known for its productions of classic dramas.
“Looking back over our list of musicals over the years, we’ve also done productions of a number of extraordinary musicals,” he says. “First of all, it’s just a birthday party—it’s the opening event in what we hope will be a year-long birthday party for Blue Bridge, so it serves that function—and then the second function is just to give people a really great evening of entertainment.”
Richmond says that, thankfully, the most challenging part of the whole process is already over for him.
“It’s just lining up the talent and getting them committed to performing for us for these five evenings. That’s done, thankfully,” he says. “And the most fun part is just hearing everybody sing.”
Blue Bridge Sings!
Various times, Thursday, November 30 to Sunday, December 3
$37 to $47, The Roxy Theatre
bluebridgetheatre.ca