MARGUERITE – Original Cast Recording (Broadway Records – plus digital)
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
Marguerite is written by Anton Dudley (book and lyrics) and Michael Cooper (music). The show received its New York premiere at Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) with direction by Dev Bondarin and music direction by Yan Li. It is now being released as a CD and available as a download through Broadway Records, starring the incomparable Cady Huffman.
Who is this Marguerite, you may be asking? Well, she was Canada’s first female saint, Marguerite Bourgeoys. Her ever-present faith, combined with solid determination, helped her bring liberated women to the New World and to build the city of Montreal.
This new musical is a one-woman epic accompanied by a solo piano and cello. The one woman involved is Huffman. Well known to Broadway audiences (La Cage aux Folles, Will Rogers Follies, The Producers) her voice soars like one of the bells at her Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal. It needs a powerful voice and also a singer/actor who can carry a whole show on their own shoulders and make it not only interesting but also musically enthralling.
Don’t confuse this with the 2008 Boublil/Schonberg musical of the same name – two entirely different animals.
We learn all about Marguerite’s struggle to start a new religious community in Montreal and to ‘uncloister’ women in the Catholic Church. That seems a bit boring when you put it in print but Huffman brings out all the humour in the hardship that this exceptional woman had to endure. Complete with Indian ambushes, sweltering summers where ladies had the nerve to wear their skirts mid-thigh and the attitude of locals towards her plight.
Lasting just over an hour this show immerses you so much that you feel you maybe want to know more about Marguerite herself other than her bid to bring to fruition her dream. However, with Huffman’s wonderful tour de force as Marguerite, you are happy with what you get.
Nick Wakeham
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.