Segal Centre celebrates diversity, inspiration and storytelling as it unveils its 2019-2020 season line-up

On the heels of recently capping off its 2018-2019 season on a triumphant note with the brilliant documentary-style musical production of “Indecent” – which chronicles the evolution of Sholem Asch’s controversial play “God of Vengeance” from Poland to Broadway – the Segal Centre for Performing Arts officially unveiled its complete line-up for their 2019-2020 season.

Segal Centre Artistic and Executive Director Lisa Rubin (pictured below) unveiled the impressive line-up of upcoming shows at a special gathering of media, subscribers and local theatergoers, that will at the very least, cater to the eclectic in you.

For their flagship series of six plays, the season begins with “The Pianist of Willesden Lane” (September 8-29), a musical memoir that tells the true story of Jewish musical prodigy Lisa Jura, who manages to escape Nazi-occupied Vienna for the safe haven of London, as its endures the worst of the Blitz. The story is told through the point-of-view – and musical performances – of Jura’s daughter Mona Golabek, who is herself a Grammy-nominated piano virtuoso. “Mythic” (October 27-November 17) gives a modern twist to a part of ancient Greek mythology – the story of the goddess Persephone – with the rest of those mythic gods appearing in the form of popular rock music stars, power-hungry politicians and professional socialites.

The 2020 portion of the season starts with “Small Mouth Sounds” (February 9 – March 11) at the centre’s Studio Theatre. It literally deals with the sounds of silence, as six unlikely characters flee the city for a silent retreat, and find out the hard way how really difficult it is to keep their mouths shut. Louise Pitre (who is remembered for her show-stopping performance as Edith Piaf in the Segal Centre’s presentation of “The Angel and the Sparrow”) teams up with W. Joseph Matheson to bring you “The Times They Are A Changin’” (March 1 – 22), a lively musical salute to the Jewish musicians and singers – such as Bob Dylan, Mama Cass, Simon and Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen and Carole King -- whose legendary songs provided the soundtrack for the 1960s. “Oslo” (April 19 – May 10) is the Tony-winning dark dramedy that recalls all the back-channel negotiations, unlikely friendships and quiet heroics that eventually led to the historic 1993 Oslo Accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The season concludes with the world premiere of Paul Van Dyck’s “Siberian Summer” (May 31 – June 21), a road trip comedy that involves three women “of a certain age” and one of their sons as they go on a lengthy road trip aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway from St. Petersburg to Beijing, which quickly becomes a journey of self-discovery.

As well, the Segal Centre will be offering its many fans and supporters throughout the new season a variety of productions that will be presented on its stages by such guest theatre companies as the Teesri Dunya Theatre, the Tableau D’Hote Theatre, Porte Parole and the Black Theatre Workshop, which will be conducting the final presentations of its Artist Mentorship Program.

The mainstay Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre troupe will present a trio of productions this season: a production of “The Sages of Chelm”, a live play reading of the Yiddish-language version of Neil Simon’s hit comedy “The Sunshine Boys” and their annual “Lyrics and Latkes” Chanukah sing-along show.

Add to that the return of Sunday @ The Segal pre-show lectures, the Monday Night Talkbacks, the Broadway Café live karaoke nights, and the Big Broadway Sing-Along with Nick Burgess, then 2019-2020 will be a season to remember and enjoy at the Segal Centre.

For more information, or to purchase individual tickets starting July 29, call 514-739-7944, or go to www.segalcentre.org.

“Boom X” a time travelling blockbuster

Three years ago, Montreal theatregoers were dazzled by “Boom”, Rick Miller’s breathless, multimedia journey into the people, events and pop culture that made up the post-World War II Baby Boomer generation.

And how did Miller follow up this exciting episode of time travelling? By putting together a sequel that is just as breathtaking, just as spectacular and just as fun as the original. “Boom X”, which is playing at the Segal Centre until March 10, explores the 25-year period between 1970 and 1995 in the same way as “Boom”, only this time he focusses on the era that nurtured Generation X.

This show is like a newsreel that’s ratcheted up several notches, as Miller takes the reins as your guide to this rather turbulent, change-filled era in modern history. He starts off with a sort-of prelude in 1969 by acting out Jimi Hendrix’s famous electric guitar interpretation of the Star Spangled Banner, as he shows the best (Woodstock) and the worst (Altamont, the Manson murders) of what the final year of the 1960s offered.

From there, Miller gives a more personal touch to “Boom X” as he relates his own growing up in NDG during that period, as well as conducting interviews with four people he knew, and how the events of that period shaped and influenced their thinking and career paths as they became Gen Xers in their own right. Through his boundless energy, comic ability and his strong talent for mimicry, Miller takes the audience on a nonstop, whirling dervish of a historical panorama of 25 years that shaped modern history and the people and events that shaped it, such as Pierre Trudeau, Ronald Reagan, Rene Levesque, Mikhail Gorbachev, disco music, video games, grunge music, the Montreal Expos, Star Wars and so much more.

As well, I credit Miller for his uncanny ability of not only relating to his audience on an intimate level, but holding their attention for this two-hour plus spectacular. This was marvellously exemplified with one little performance piece he did just prior to the intermission, in which he performed with his guitar the top 20 hit songs of 1984 in two minutes, and encouraged the audience members to shout out the song title(s) in question if they knew it (it made for some great exercise for the brain).

“Boom X” is a wonderful blockbuster of time travelling (which leaves Mr. Peabody and Sherman’s Wayback Machine miles behind in the dust), which makes me eager to find out what is up Rick Miller’s sleeve with the upcoming third and final installment of his Boom trilogy. If we want to get a vivid, enjoyable understanding of our modern world was and is all about – and the culture that went with it – let Rick Miller tell that story through his “Boom” shows; it’s living history at its entertaining best.

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In other Segal Centre news, the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre (DWYT) will present an all new sing-along show to celebrate Purim called “Harmonies & Homentashn” on March 24 for two performances at its Segal Centre Studio venue; show times are at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Join in with a number of the Yiddish Theatre’s singers and performers – as well as KlezKanada – for a selection of festive holiday songs that will be sung in English, Hebrew and of course, Yiddish. Tickets are $25, with special rates available for students, seniors, subscribers and groups.

Also, following its sold out run at last year’s Montreal Fringe Festival, the critically-acclaimed production “Don’t Read the Comments” will be remounted for a limited engagement at the Segal Centre. It will run for five performances on March 6, 7, 9 and 10. Written by and starring Sarah Segal-Lazar, “Don’t Read the Comments” is set in a TV talk show, the play deals with such subject matters of sexual encounters and consent, and is told via storytelling and the dark arts of clown and bouffon.