The Holiday 411, PEOPLE!! SO MANY THINGS! AND ONE NEW EXCITING THEATRICAL VENTURE!!

Hey ALL!!

Hope this December finds you ALL as well as well as can be! (SO MANY AS's!!!!)

It has been a while, my good people, but I have a number of shows coming up this festive month! ALL is very exciting 

So, to choose from on the holiday menu I HAVE (and please, choose more than one option) :

1.  Something OLD(ER) - Sharron's Christmas Party!

2. Something New  - Sharron's Canadian Superstar Variety Roadshow on NEW YEARS EVE in Richmond Hill!

3. Something GREEN AND RED: Sharron and George's SUPERFUN Christmas Sing A-Long! ON TOUR!

 

"Sharron and George's SUPERFUN CHRISTMAS Sing A-Long" at Buddies in Bad Times in TORONTO

....on December 19th, 20th and 21st @ 7:00pm (we are starting earlier this year!!). 

Song sheets!

Cookie BUFFET (maybe you will bring a couple of your special homemade cookies to add?) !

The yearly food drive (bring your non-perishable item!)

Maybe new friends...maybe old acquaintances...a bunch of awesome, kookoo people you never met! 

The guests this year include:

December 19th: Lisa Atkinson, Bruce Dow, Louise Pitre and Joe Matheson

December 20th: Joni Henson and Virginia Hatfield, Shawn Hitchins and Matthew Hines

December 21st: BRAVURA (George Masswohl, James Levesque and Curtis Sullivan), Thom Allison and Micah Barnes

EVERY NIGHT Includes country raconteur, John Austin and the amazing Christmas Carols: Michael Hughes and Ari Weinberg!!

It is a panic AND ALREADY (as of this minute) 2/3rd's SOLD OUT!!

So, put on your fave Christmas sweater, grab your kazoo,  get your TICKETS AND COME ON DOWN!!

HERE IS THE LINK!!

TORONTO Sharron and George's SUPERFUN SING A-LONG

http://buddiesinbadtimes.com/event/sharron-and-georges-super-fun-christmas-sing-a-long/

AND

THIS year we are packing up our friggen jingle bells and taking the show to BURNABY, BC!!

Imagine!

So if you live out that way OR know anyone who does who might dig a night of holiday cheer, #WESTCOASTSHARRONANDGEORGESTYLE pass this info on, if you would!!

Sharron and George's SUPERFUN Christmas Sing A-Long in BURNABY AT the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in BC!!

December 11th and 12th @ Shadbolt Centre for the Arts at 8:00pm!

AGAIN:

Song SHEETS!

Cookie BUFFET (maybe you will bring a couple of your special homemade cookies to add?) !

Maybe new friends...maybe old acquaintances...a bunch of awesome, kookoo people you never met! 

Sharron and George bring up an AMAZING array of special guests from the Vancouver area!

The revolving list of guest include their west coast pals (guests change each NIGHT!) Jennifer Copping (award winning star of TV and Film, cast of Jersey Boys, The Who's Tommy and will be playing Jesus in the Arts Clubs upcoming production of Godspell), David Adams (currently playing Lockstock in the Firehall Arts Centre’s Urinetown, he has also performed at The Arts Club, Vancouver Opera, in Phantom of the Opera, and Showboat), Jovanni Sy (acclaimed playwright, director and Artistic Director of the Gateway Theatre in Richmond), Graham Myrfield ( one of the contestants from the most award winning and acclaimed episode of Global TV’s Canada Sings), and well known Vancouver theatre couple Rebecca Talbot (thrilling musical theatre star of Suessical, Ruthless, the US Tour of Footloose) and Todd Talbot (among being one of Canada’s premiere song and dance men, Todd is one of the stars of the hit TV show, Vancouver's "Love it of List It"). 

Here is the link for tickets:

BURNABY Sharron and George's SUPERFUN Christmas Sing A-Long!!!

http://www.burnaby.ca/Things-To-Do/Calendar-of-Events/Sharron---George-s-Super-Fun-Christmas-Sing-a-long_s_p4732.html?EventMode=View&EventOccurrence=0

AND, have you stopped reading yet!?!? FORGE ON, CAMPERS!!

It is not often that I get to do this anymore BUT Stirling Festival Theatre (near Belleville, Ontario) has asked me to do my:

SHARRON'S Christmas Party 

at their beautiful theatre on December 14th @ 8:00pm!

And they want the NAUGHTY VERSION!! WHAT!?!? I never get to do this show as much as I want to...SO I AM SUPER EXCITED!!!

SUPER!!

AND my guests are....ME!!!

YAY!!

So, if you are near there or know someone who might be, I would love to see you OR them!

GET your tickets HERE! 

Sharron's Christmas Party in STIRLING!

www.stirlingfestivaltheatre.com

AND (JESUS, are you exhausted? Imagine how he felt...)

MY NEWEST VENTURE!!! ARE YOU READY!?!?!

Wanna spend New Years with some awesome peeps!??!?

Well, how about:

Sharron's Canadian Superstar Variety Roadshow in Richmond Hill, Ontario!

December 31st at 10:00pm @ Richmond Hill Centre for the Arts

Please check out the follow press release...yes...I wrote it...but a gal has to promote!!

In her quest to entertain ALL the people Canada, Sharron Matthews, acclaimed world wide comedy cabaret superstar, has put on her high heels and combed this country in an exhaustive search for OTHER Canadian Superstars to take out on the road!
Sharron's Canadian Superstar Variety ROADSHOW features STARS from the worlds of Comedy, Cabaret, Opera, Theatre, Musical Theatre, Jazz, and Concert Performance!
Appearing on screens big and small, from recording studios to the stage, this bonanza of WORLD CLASS entertainers have either starred on and/or written, performed, and produced for every major Canadian TV network, and every important theatre festival in Canada.
Sharron's Canadian Superstar Variety ROADSHOW has something for every audience member, young, old and in between!
Sharron's Canadian Superstar Variety ROADSHOW will make you laugh, will make you swoon, will amaze you, and will leave you spent...Feeling like you have wrung every cent out of your entertainment dollar!
Sharron's Canadian Superstar Variety ROADSHOW is simply a night you will never forget!

Compére/Host/Curator
Sharron Matthews
During Sharron’s 25 year career in musical theatre she has gone from performing in the original company of Harold Prince’s award winning revival of Showboat to portraying Madame Thenardier in a North American tour of Les Miserables with Colm Wilkinson as Valjean and Sutton Foster as Eponine. Sharron has toured her acclaimed comedy cabarets from New York City to Scotland, London to South Africa, all to rave reviews. She was named “Woman of the Year” by the New Current UK, in anticipation of her third Edinburgh Fringe show, “GOLD”. In 2013, Sharron accepted the position of the first Cabaret-Artist-in-Residence at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto. For two seasons she starred on Global TV’s hit show, Canada Sings. On the big screen, Sharron played ‘Joan the Secretary’ in Tina Fey’s iconic Mean Girls and was featured in the movies Cinderella Man and Hairspray: The Movie. In the 2014-15 season, Sharron will premiere two new cabarets, one at Soulpepper’s Global Cabaret Festival and the other at the groundbreaking Rhubarb Festival. In the spring she will embark on a tour of Alberta and the East Coast on a double bill with Canadian icon, Mary Walsh. 

Musical Director
Steve Thomas 
Steve has written or arranged over 25 productions for the stage. He has collaborated with award winning playwright Norm Foster writing the musicals ‘Jasper Station’, ‘Race Day’, ‘Sitting Pretty’ and ‘One Moment’. Other writing projects include, ‘Monsieur d’Eon Is A Woman’, ‘The BBQ King’ ‘Ice Time’ and ‘Stabbat Martha’ with Mark Brownell and ‘Rum Runners’ with Derek Ritschel.
Steve has also provided Musical direction for over 100 productions throughout the United States and Canada, including Theatre Aquarius, The Elgin Theatre, Lighthouse Festival, Drayton Festival Theatres, Vancouver Playhouse, Charlottetown Festival, Showboat Festival, Sunshine Festival, Muskoka Festival, Stage West, Theatre Brockville, Canada’s Wonderland, and Theatre Sheridan.
Steve has toured Canada extensively with Sharron Matthews as an accompanist and musical director, as well as being one of her chief musical arrangers since 2007.

Guests

Bravura

Celebrated Baritone Trio: From the Palace at Versailles, to the City Centre in New York City, the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, to the Four Seasons in Toronto these three thrilling artists have performed all over the world. Bravura takes songs from every genre and makes it there very own, singing in a three part harmony that can only be described as thrilling. Bravura has just completed recording their debut, self titled album)

Kevin Fox

Cellist/Composer/Solo Performer: Although Kevin Fox has been spending the last few years composing arrangements for the likes of Justin Bieber & Kathleen Edwards, recording with artists as diverse as Raine Maida & Celine Dion, & touring extensively with musicians ranging from Chantal Kreviazuk & Steven Page to Tom Cochrane & Olivia Newton-John not to mention touring in support of his own critically acclaimed 2008 release SONGS FOR CELLO & VOICE  he has somehow found the time to write & record his third album, SET RIGHT.

Thom Allison Cabaret/Concert Artist
Thom Allison is a Canadian treasure, having performed in theatres large and small all across Canada. From his critically acclaimed performance as Coalhouse Walker in Ragtime at the Shaw Festival to his many appearances in the Stratford stage in Into the Woods, Three Penny Opera and The King and I, as well as his renowned turn as the MC in Cabaret and Theatre Calgary, Thom is one of the most talented and versatile musical theatre artists in this country. Well known for his turn as one of the three judges on CBC's "Over The Rainbow", Thom recently was honoured to be a part of the original musical, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, which took him to Broadway. Thom is a go to concert artist all across North America.


Micah Barnes

Jazz Vocalist/Performer/Recording Artist
Micah was a part of the accapela vocal group, The Nylons. After the Nylons, Micah launched a very successful solo career touring the U.S.which led to his #1 international club hit "Welcome To My Head" and coverage in Rolling Stone Magazine as "an Indie artist to watch".
Micah's upcoming collection "New York Stories",(due fall 2014), pays homage to the rich musical history of the Big Apple. On this recording The Micah Barnes Trio is joined by special guest Michael Shand on keys and features a duet with the legendary Jackie Richardson. The results are an assured collection of deeply personal and sophisticated songs that remind us that, like Micah's musical heroes Tony Bennett, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Ray Charles, the deepest of musical traditions are always contemporary.

Gavin Crawford

Comedian/Performer/Solo Artist
 Crawford appeared in eight seasons of This Hour Has 22 Minutes to much critical acclaim. He won several Gemini Awards over the years for his work on the show, as well as a Writers Guild of Canada Award. Crawford also co-wrote and starred in the award-winning series The Gavin Crawford Show, which aired on the Comedy Network from 2000 to 2003. In 2008 he hosted CBC’s reality show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? Crawford won a 2011 DORA Award for his work on stage in The Situationists and a Gemini Award for a guest star role on The Murdoch Mysteries. He also won the 2012 Canadian Comedy Award for Best Performance by a Male in Film for his role in French Immersion. The pilot for Gavin Crawford’s Wild West, co-created, co-written by, and starring Crawford, aired in July 2013 on CBC.
Gavin has performed at numerous showcases and festivals, including: the Vancouver International Comedy Festival; the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival; and the Edmonton Comedy Festival. Crawford has produced three one-man shows, Standing/Mis, You Shouldn’t Be Watching This, and Menage.
 
HERE is a link for TICKETS!!!
Sharron's Canadian Superstar Variety Roadshow in Richmond Hill, Ontario!

http://www.rhcentre.ca/Buy-Tickets.html

I Would LOVE to see you at any of these gigs!

As always, your support is greatly appreciated AND I hope you are all rocking it!

Love

Sharron xoxoxo

Sharron and George's SUPERFUN Christmas Sing A-Long VIDEO 2014

Yes.
I have a video for our show.
I know.
It is in HD.
Right?
Who do WE THINK we ARE!?!?!?
Check it out.
COME OUT TO THE SHOW!!!

Musical Dreams, indeed Patricia O'Callaghan.

From the first year I participated in the Global Cabaret Festival, seven years ago, I knew I was lucky enough to be part of something very special. I have written over and over again every year how thrilled I am to be involved...what a joyous time I have and how I always do things there that I never get a chance to do anywhere else...and work with people who I have never worked with before. It also, as a sidebar, really built up a quest to collaborate more often.

SO, I know...I AM NOT gonna wax all poetical and fancy... you already have all THAT information.

BUT I was reminded today, reading an article in The Star about the festival and specifically the wonderful Patricia O'Callaghan, (who I met and had the honour of working with because of the Festival) that we all feel the same way.

"For the artists taking part in Soulpepper’s annual Global Cabaret Festival, it’s about fulfilling “musical dreams” as much as performing.

 The cabaret veteran (O'Callaghan) has been taking part in the festival since it started seven years ago and still finds it “absolutely amazing. Albert (Schultz, Soulpepper’s artistic director) keeps giving all of us artists the power to create shows that fulfill our musical dreams." - R.O. in this article in today's Star
Here is the Full Article:

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2014/10/21/patricia_ocallaghan_indulges_love_of_leonard_cohen_at_global_cabaret_festival.html

This festival, really is a place where Albert gives you the space, TRUST, and time to try out new ideas. And for THAT I am eternally grateful. And after years of happily trying out new musical pieces mixed in with tried and true songs I am going to do a whole new show there.

A NEW SHOW!!

And my show, as you may have figured out by now, if any of  you people are on social media is not just a cabaret...but a show that I have dreamed of doing since I was 14. It is very personal...and the music featured is music that (when I was in college at the grand old age of 17 being told that I was a musical theatre singer and to stay away from popular music) I wanted to sing and yell out from the rooftops from the very bottom of my little young heart and my cheap but fashionable boots. And, now, many years later... with the help of Steve and Brendan, I am doing just that. So, to list it all again...this show is new, it is raw for me, this will be the first time I will perform it without crutches in front of people...and that is THRILLING and SCARY AS SHIT. AND I would love...love love love...to fly this ship with you...and a gal cannot be too coy...but...do you have something to do on Friday at 8:45pm or Saturday at 3:45pm? I know that as of right now, there are some tickets left...let's go for a ride
And while you are at it, get tickets for some other shows too...these are some special performances...        www.globalcabaret.ca

Here are some Prince videos to get you in the mood...but, again, you don't have to love Prince to be a part of this show. I promise.

DISCLAIMER: Not like, I promise and if you don't like it you will get your money back!! So, there is THAT!! You gotta take a chance people.

 PRINCE with Beyoncé because, why not?

Prince KILLS the guitar solo in "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and then throws his guitar in the air....never to be seen again...starts at about 3:30

PRINCE Sings Joni Mitchell...and kills that too.

http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Prince+A+Case+Of+You/42v95p?src=5And  

I wanna know...where were you? What Were You Thinking?

I wanna know people...Where were YOU!? What did YOU THINK? 

Last night, I went to the Soulpepper in the pelting rain, to meet with the young Steve Thomas and younger Brendan Wall in the Tank House, which is the theatre where we will premiere my newest show next week at the Global Cabaret Festival. (THAT is longest run on sentence in the world...) We rehearsed for 5 hours.
I gotta tell you, without being too lordy, that this show is a dream of mine.
So, yes, it is called Prince and Me.
And I know Prince is a pretty polarizing figure...and people really like him or do not like him at all...which is awesome, really.
Who wants to be in the middle? Who?
But seeing and listening to someone like Prince, a person who was exactly who he wanted to be, was pretty life altering for girl growing up in Hamilton at a time when your friends all called each other to find out what the other was wearing to school the next day, because god help you if you stood out...or sang too loud, as Christine (Insert Last Name Here) told me I did one day in choir in G.L. Armstrong Middle School.
Eff that.
The first time I saw him? He was singing this...and I have known EVERY word to every song he has sung since then..
Love him or hate him...where were you when you saw Prince sing Purple Rain? And what did you think?
OH, and this version is in a medley...with Beyoncé because, well...why not?




   

GET YOUR TICKETS to my show Next Friday and Saturday www.globalcabaret.ca

ON Cabaret, What I have learned...THAT sounds too fancy....

Lord, I hate it when summer leaves...leaves...get it...see what I did there.
Yes, I know it... I am a mess.
What?
Oh yes...I hate it when summer is over.
Ontario is so moody in the fall.
The sun disappears for long periods of time.
The wind whips...the rain hurts your face.
I have to go into the bowels of my basement and pull out my horrible rubber boots because god FORBID that the makers of fine rubber boots would make a pair that fits over the calf of a woman whose ancestors carried milk...yes...this woman inherited big calves, is what I am trying to say.
I remember a dude I was working with in Showboat told me that I had milk maid calves...I am not sure what part of that description he thought would make me happy...or that he imagined I would find quaint.
It has stuck with me.
I guess I should be proud that I can shoulder a load...as it were.
What!?
I put on my crap rubber boots and I walked my friend’s dogs today...they are staying with us for a week...they are good dogs for the most part...though, the have crapped in the house EVERYDAY.
I am not having much of that...but what are you gonna do.
GOD!
See how MOODY fall makes me?
ANYHOW, it has been so long since I wrote and this seemed like the perfect time...wait...I have to go grab an effing sweater...jesus, it is cold in this house...it seemed like the perfect time to write some bits and pieces...mostly to collect my thoughts for myself.
Recently, a young person who is new to the entertainment business wrote me an email asking if I had anything coming up that they could come and see...and I wrote them back...anyhow, we emailed back and forth and they ended up asking me what I think I learned from my journey in cabaret thus far..and what I have learned since I started my residency at Buddies.
Well, I walked away from my computer to get a tea...and thought, “Well, the cheek...” and then I started and erased a couple email responses.
I could not collect my thoughts sufficiently to answer...I spend so much time soldiering on, I don’t really look back as much as used to.
Which is good in some ways...not so much in others, I guess...GOD, SO MOODY!
Anyhow, with the seasons changing...lord...this sentence already makes me puke...so, let us just say...I sat down and had a think.
I feel like a change has happened in my creative life (not THE change...not yet...lord...I have THAT to look forward to) and my career.
And I think it is pretty awesome...and sometimes scary...but awesome. And thrilling...and scary.
From 2005 to 2012...for seven amazing years I worked and wrote and sang and promoted and wrote more and sang and told stories and traveled...focusing solely on cabaret ..and it WAS very busy and very wonderful...and I learned more than I could ever have imagined...about so many aspects of cabaret....and, people, I feel like I STILL have not even scratched the surface...
Learning about budgets for touring, about promoting (remember, FACEBOOK, and social media what just really kicking off in 2005...and I promoted everything back then mostly by email, by whatever print media I could get, by postering, by word of mouth...), I learned about show formats and studied my ass off to figure out what worked the best for me, I learned to look at pictures of myself and say, “Yes, I don’t look the way I wish...but god this picture is perfect to sell the show!”, AND I also learned to watch hours of footage of my shows from a place where I (hopefully) could be analytical and honest about my own work and correct the things that needed it, I learned about shaping a piece through glorious repetition, I learned about studying and using the audiences to help shape the piece... I struggled LIKE A DOG for three years to find my very best 15 minutes, the 15 minutes that will sell the show (and let me tell you ...I know  what some of my NOT SO BEST 15 minutes are...and so do a bunch of people in Scotland), I watch other entertainers from all over the world do their work, and I went to my own work that night and felt the influence of what I saw... and the most important thing I learned...are you ready?...I learned a lot about what the word Cabaret meant to me.
NOT all, people...but a lot.
Sounds so lordy, I know, but it is true.
NOW...there is going to more lordiness to follow...you have been forewarned.
And next most important thing that I learned was that I wanted to evolve and grow.
Yes, like a friggen flower.
I don’t want to be stuck doing the same thing over and over again...I want to move forward.
I love Phyllis Diller...I think she was hysterical and most certainly groundbreaking...and probably she liked her life just fine...but she wore the same outfit and wig for 50 years.
I wonder...I wonder if she wanted to evolve...or if she even thought about it...this thought  has given me more than a bit of pause.
Maybe not...again, she might have been totally happy with her work...but what if she wasn’t?
Have I said this before to you?
Maybe I have...but, I gotta say...it is too cloudy outside for me to look back over my blogs...so, again, stay with me...
So, I have not done many big, shiny solo gigs in TO over the last two years and have dedicated myself to touring my tried and true work (which I am SO thankful to have...over 50 pieces in my book...almost 5 full shows that I have tested and shaped in front of 100’s of people...thank you, universe) which was always the goal... AS WELL as write and developing new shows from the ground up....using and discovering different ways or working, collaborating, storytelling and creating.
When I simply needed to sing or I would just burst I would do a gig at Maggie and Heather’s wonderful Pubaret...and, again, I toured a lot, which was also wonderful.
So, in that way I kept current and in touch with a crowd...which I think is super important. ALSO, there was the yearly blessing of the amazing Global Cabaret at Soulpepper... I am always so thankful when they ask me to come...and I get to immerse myself in artists and singing for a concentrated couple of weeks every October. THERE was also the wonderful and new collaboration with Gavin Crawford that started this year! I really wanted another new focus to be working and collaborating with other like minded artists...and working with Gavin has been a treat...a true gift. That dude is a genius...and I learned a lot from him as well.

Gavin: If I am singing you are doing an impersonation of a star.
Me: No.
Gavin: Yes.
Me: No.

And on and on till I worked on Idina Menzel with him. 
I had a blast working with Gavin...and I loved being onstage with him. That effer works hard. AND I LOVE THAT!
And he wishes that when he adds something new to a piece we are working on that I don't make us go all the way back to the beginning...every time. But life is strange...

And last year, jeepers...was it only last year?... I began work on the show I call, Full Dark...which has been a journey and a half for me...three workshops and one workshop run in 8 months.
This has been some of the most challenging work I have done.
At one point I walked offstage after a performance of the show during the workshop run and this was the conversation that occured between me and George:

Me: This show is so fucking hard. When will it sit in the pocket...when will it get easier???
George: You know...I think if you continue to do the show the way you are doing it now, it will never be easy. You can do it this way and it would be perfect...but it will never be easy.

AND THEN I went and cried in the bathroom for a half hour.
I told George and Brendan Healy that I didn’t want to do it again...and then...after a long while...I pulled the binder off the shelf and looked at it another way.
The whole time I worked on that piece I was still learning...learning how to tell the story that I wrote...learning what world it will live in...learning how to put across the songs that I picked...learning what creation was like when you got to work with ALL of the musicians from the very beginning...from the very first day.
THAT was a gift and a blessing.
I am so thankful for my continuing residency at Buddies in Bad Times and also for the workshop run that Sheridan College sponsored. Brendan Healy has been a real champion for me... and he has opened my eyes to a lot of new ideas. I feel very fortunate to have a home there.
AND this month, I will continue work on Full Dark with my first director and dramaturg...WHO  KNEW I could be so effing fancy...and...well, I don’t wanna be coy, but there are some exciting things in the works for that piece.
It has been wild to work on something and walk away and come back and work and walk away again. The distance makes things SO clear.
Who knew!?
Usually, we get to do a show once or twice and we are just so happy when we don’t eff it up...to have this chance to keep working on a story? IT IS MAGIC, people.
And here we are!
So, one day, I had this idea.
And I wrote a bit of it, I worked on it with the awesome Brendan Wall (he plays one million instruments), we put it up at Soulpepper’s Saturday Night Cabaret Series...and I loved it, I truly had a blast...and the audience seemed to dig it.
So.
I love Prince.
I have loved him since 1984.
AND so, I wrote a cabaret called, Prince and Me.
Simple, yes?

(

Now, don’t freak...I know Prince is not everyone’s bag...You may not love Prince...but I believe that you don’t have to love him to come out and see this new creation. There ARE two songs in it I have performed before...OH YA...one of the things that I forgot to mention in this musing is SOMETIMES I work on the same song in different shows over a period of time because it has not found it’s home yet...I will sing it over and over again attached to a different story, in a totally different arrangement, until it finds it’s place...and it almost always does...well, two songs have found their home, I think.
I had a very straightforward goal when I started this project... I wanted to start with a simple story, and a specific musical theme...and see where it would take me.
Well... it took me to Jimi Hendrix, also back to a bar that is NOW called Filthy McNasty’s in Oakville (when I went there back in the 80’s the name wasn’t so straight forward), it took me to the walk-in closet in my college apartment where I ate an entire Sara Lee caked and cried my heart out, to the Odeon Theatre in Hamilton with my best friend where I saw Purple Rain for the first time, to Paisley Park in Minnesota where Prince was playing a concert for 100 close friends (true story), to Joni Mitchell, to the Woolworth at the corner of Upper Sherman and Fennell in Hamilton...to the Rocky Horror Picture show.
Oh, as Suess said, the places you’ll go, people.
And I went to all of these places with a boundless joy that suprised even me.
Who knew?
Yesterday, with the awesome pianist/composer/musical director Steve Thomas added into the mix, we started to tackle the new stuff I added to the show.
And in 16 days we will preview it at the Global Cabaret.
I.
Am.
Very.
Excited.
I.
Am.
All.
Nervous.
So, all is as it should be.
I would like to thank that young person for asking those questions.
I hadn’t stopped and looked around in a while.
And if you read this far, GOD BLESS YOU!!
BUY a ticket! Oh, we will have such a fun time....

Here is a little VIDEO about the show...and the deets are:

Sharron Matthews: Prince and Me
at the Global Cabaret Festival
October 24th at 8:30pm
October 25th at 3:45pm
Get tickets at www.globalcabaret.ca






P.S. In 2015, I have tours taking me out east and out west (touring with Mary Walsh!), and I am taking my show to Mexico...YES, MEXICO in the winter....among other projects I am working on.
So, cabaret is keeping this gal happily busy as shit.
Thanks to the universe, again.
Check out my website for the touring dates with Mary in March and April!
www.sharronmatthews.com

"...But it won't ever be like this again."

About 10 years ago...egad...ten years ago... I was standing on the banks of the mighty pond that sits in the middle of Stratford (that pond is basically a goose poop soup, FYI) and I was saying goodbye to a dear friend.

Lindsay Burns and I had hung around for most of 2004, while our husbands worked together at the Stratford Festival. We walked almost every day and talked about our creative ideas. I had just begun work on the idea that would end up being Sharron's Party and she was talking about a show she was writing called, "Dough"...please forgive me if I am wrong on the title, Lindsay...we encouraged the shit out of each other...AND both of these ideas came to fruition within the next year...pretty awesome.

I was so lucky to have her there as a confidant, friend and a inspiring creative spirit...that year changed my life forever. It was after 2004 that I took a leap and dedicated myself to my cabaret work.

But as the 2004 season was coming to a close, she and her family were going back to their home in Calgary. 

One cold and rainy day in October, she and I met for a last walk around Goose Poop Soup Pond.

I remember it like it was yesterday...because Lindsay was about to say something that would change my life.

We had finished our walk and so I would not cry like a baby...as I am want to do at just such an occasion... I said, "We will see each other...we will skype...we will walk together again, my friend!!".

She smiled at me and said, "Yes, we will...but it won't ever be like this again."

I was a bit gutted. 

I hugged her goodbye and walked away...and that line ran through my head over and over.

It was truth.

A very strong and living truth.

My people, she could not have been more right.

We would totally see each other again, to be sure, but it would never be like it was. We would still be grand friends...but not in that situation.

Not for ill or good...just because it was so.

That time was a time to be cherished, enjoyed and not taken for granted.

AND, as the years have passed, I have held that statement to my chest during every interesting, heartbreaking, thrilling, joyous, and challenging experience.

Whenever I started to take something for granted, I would think of this statement...and I would be in it. 

I would be in the moment.

A moment on stage in Africa with my hands thrown up in the air, yelling and selling in a line up in Scotland, crying as I got a throat infection for the second time in two weeks at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe, all the time I spent on tour with my dear pal Christian, a day at the beach with my husband, a day in the hospital with my husband, laughing with my sister on her back porch, laughing with Joe, Louise and George in Greece.

It will never be like this again...this moment...this situation will never happen again.

After a while I realized that, as lordy as it sounds, every day is like this. Or could be.

And when I truly realized this I clutched that sentence even tighter.

I have seen Lindsay Burns only a handful of times since 2004, but every time I laugh my ass of...and I think I have not yet mentioned to her the weight of her statement.

So here it is...thanks to you, Lindsay, what a gift you gave me in your honesty.

THIS is Lindsay, her wonderful husband Grant and son, Jasper.

George and I stopped by Calgary on our way out to Kamloops...lord, we laughed!!!

So, as I lay in a bed in Kenora, I am running over the last 5 weeks.

What a magical time I have had.

Our drive out to Kamloops, visiting with so many wonderful friends, seeing so many wonderful views...and George and I...and our friends...laughing and laughing. 

I dig laughing, as you might have already discovered.

Spending the rehearsal weeks in Kamloops. Staying in a silly hotel with the grandest view. Shoving four weeks worth of work into two weeks and shoving THAT into my brain. Singing with my husband, singing with the cast, working with Steve, Daryl, Leon, Patricia, Mike and Valerie...and Skylar and Christine.

Performing that awesome show.

Going over my stupid/wonderful patter song every day, one million times.

And, oh sweet Jesus, I scatted onstage...not pooped but JAZZ scatted...like as in singing, people...in front of people. HOLY crapbags.

The show was wonderful.

And over all too soon.

I am so glad that we got to do it out there...and celebrate our 20th Wedding Annivesary, my 46th Birthday, see 4 bears on our Great Bear Hunt of 2014.

OH! Also, yesterday, we drove by a hill just outside of Canmore where two young, tanned people were bucked naked and doing IT...in the sun...beside the highway.

ALRIGHT!

LORD!! 

I laughed...I laughed so hard I think I gave George a heart attack...almost.

But, I gots to tell ya,  some of my most cherished time is the time that we got to spend with our dear pal, Patricia

George and I have not seen her for reals, in about four years...or more...well, George saw her while he worked in Edmonton...but me? Not at all.

And while were lived and worked in Kamloops for the last four weeks Patricia cooked us dinner, we drove her places, we napped at her place, she swam at ours, we saw a wonderful movie about Indian food and then HAD Indian Food. She made sure that we had a cake and gifts for our anniversary, she gave me a beautiful gift for my birthday. We sat and laughed our heads off in our dressing room, I instructed her about the joys of having a spanx suit to wear under dresses and she would show me her latest thrift store finds...and I finally met her son, Leo and husband Farren...and her dear parents as well.

We caught up and it was like I saw her yesterday.

It was a very special time.

And about two weeks into it we were talking about what a wonderful time we were having...and how lucky we were that we were doing the show again in 2015.

Then...I told her my Lindsay story.

We will do the show again. We will work together again.

BUT the next time would never be like the time we were experiencing right then.

For good or for ill.

AND then we continued having a great time...with the knowledge that we were enjoying every second.

I am so thankful for this trip, this journey, this show, this drive, this TIME!! 

NAMASTE, UNIVERSE!!

I gotta go to sleep, my melatonin is kicking in...and we gots many miles to drive tomorrow...I love a drive.

And a laugh.

Me and Patricia

Myself, Patricia, Steve and George

 

 

 

Christine, Skylar, Patricia, Myself, Leon, George and Steve