CHANCE AT LOVE INFUSES THEATRE
Light in the Piazza reunites Gilmour with her Poppins director, writes Louis B. Hobson
In 2014, Calgary theatre critics awarded Susan Gilmour a Critter Award for her work in Theatre Calgary’s Mary Poppins.
It was in appreciation for the incredible range she illustrated playing both a mean-spirited nanny and the kindly bag lady who feeds the birds in the park.
Her duelling Mary Poppins roles were just a warm-up for the dramatic intensity and complex emotional journey of the woman Gilmour plays in Theatre Calgary’s production of Light in the Piazza, which runs in the Arts Commons’ Max Bell Theatre until May 22.
Gilmour plays Margaret Johnson, a rich American who is spending the summer in Italy with her daughter Clara (Anwyn Musico), whose mental and emotional development were stifled when she was kicked in the head by a pony at an early age.
It is Clara’s bubbly exuberance and childlike innocence that captures the heart of the young Italian nobleman Fabrizio Naccarelli (Louie Rossetti), but Margaret must decide whether to prevent or to allow the relationship to develop.
“Margaret has always hoped there would be a chance for Clara to have a normal life that included love,” says Gilmour.
“Since they arrived in Italy, Margaret has watched Clara blossom and she cautiously hopes this is that chance, but she is also aware of all the possible pitfalls that lie ahead. She wonders what will happen if she tells Fabrizio and his family about the accident and how it affected Clara.
“What makes Margaret so hopeful is that she begins to see Clara through the eyes of the Italian people who adore her innocence and not through the eyes of her husband (Christopher Hunt) back home in America who insists Clara is not capable of handling marriage.”
The Light in the Piazza reunites Gilmour with her Mary Poppins director Michael Shamata, who Gilmour says “has wanted to direct this musical for years.
“It is one of his favourites and it is easy to see why. Not only is it a beautiful, complex story with real characters but it is a truly flawless musical. There is not a single flaw in its storytelling, its lyrics or its music. It is such glorious music. Every note is so well thought out. The music is as romantic as the story.”
Gilmour says she understands what Margaret means when she says Clara is blessed to have this opportunity and must take it.
“I have been so very blessed in my career,” she says to having been cast as Fantine in the Toronto production of Les Miserables in 1989.
Later she played the role in the Canadian tour of Les Miserables that brought her to Calgary and, eventually, to Broadway, Los Angeles and for a year-long tour of Asia and Africa.
“It happened so early in my career and that role definitely kick-started what has been an incredibly rewarding career.”
Between engagements in Les Miserables, Gilmour headlined Theatre Calgary’s version of Evita in 1993 and she has starred in such musicals as Cats, The Drowsy Chaperone, Man of La Mancha, Three Penny Opera, Oliver!, My Fair Lady and as the narrator in Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a role that bears her stamp every bit as much as Fantine, who she has played more than 1,000 times.
“The happiness and fulfilment I have experienced in my career is what Margaret hopes for for Clara.”