I was thrilled when playwright/lyricist Andrew Faiz reached out and asked me to help promote his new musical play, KATHRYN: A LIFE ALMOSTING that runs March 17 to April 5 at Toronto’s Red Sandcastle Theatre, 922 Queen St East. It tells the real-life story of Canadian-born 50’s/60’s Broadway star Kathryn Albertson, from the bright lights of the great NYC theatres and jazz salons through her struggles with alcoholism and her fragile relationship with daughter Kathleen. It’s a story of reinvention and endurance told through an original score by brilliant young composer Zahra Faiz, Andrew’s own daughter. It’s a love letter to songs and the singer, as well as the enduring bond between a mother and daughter. Sadly there is little info or even photos of Kathryn on the web…she’s practically disappeared from showbiz history books – but this play should certainly re-establish her in her rightful spotlight.

I spoke with Andrew, Zahra, renowned chanteuse Tanya Wills who portrays Kathryn and Kylee Martinez who plays daughter Kathleen (and also accompanies Tanya/Kathryn on piano throughout the show) and celebrated director Joanne Latimer. Let’s start with Andrew’s (pictured below) thoughts on Kathryn….You have such a varied background in theatre, news media, hospitality…quite the entrepreneur. What attracts you to Toronto’s theatre scene?  It was once said that Toronto had the third largest theatre community behind New York and London. I don’t know if that is true, but today’s Toronto’s theatre scene is very very vibrant. There are so many stories being told by so many different people.

I recently saw a fantastic version of Tracy Lett’s Bug done by a collective of 20-something actors, in a walk-up theatre space across from a dentist’s office. Theatre makers in this city are telling unique, original, re-interpreted, dynamic stories in whatever space they can find.
The Red Sandcastle is in a retail storefront space. I did a play there more than a decade ago. It’s an intimate space for 50 people.I try to get out to as many shows as I can. I think there’s a real renaissance of collective storytelling happening in my hometown. It’s very exciting.

 What first inspired you to create the musical play on Kathryn Albertson? What were your first impressions when you first met her.  Two decades ago, when I did Kathryn As Herself, At Last, with Kathryn Albertson I had written a song to close the show. She refused to sing it. She had been sober about thirty years by then, but for her singing was associated with drinking. If she couldn’t do one, she couldn’t do the other.I talked to her about making a musical of the play, inserting tunes from the Great Songbook into her story. We discussed what actresses might be perfect. That was in 2005 or so. Kathryn died in 2010.  In 2023, when I finally sat down to write it, I couldn’t find the perfect songs to insert into the script. So, I started writing them. I asked Kathryn once what it was like to be in New York in the late-1950s. She replied, “Oh, Andrew, it was great. I was young, I was beautiful, I was on Broadway.” That was the first song I wrote.

What makes this show relevant to today’s audiences?  The play I did with Kathryn two decades ago was a telling of her life. This musical is about her relationship with her daughter.  I don’t want to give too much away, but Kathryn’s sickness, her alcoholism, nearly destroyed her daughter.  While this is a one-woman play, the daughter is present on the stage. She is the piano accompanist, and also a character interacting with Kathryn.  The play works on two levels: You see the perspective of an older woman telling her life story; at the same time, you see the perspective of a woman in her mid-20s looking at an older woman telling her life story.  It all comes together emotionally and spiritually in the second act. The catharsis is powerful.  It is a mother-daughter play. It provides a view forward for young people. And a view backwards for older people.  Just a look between Tanya Wills and Kylee Martinez is a powerful moment.

I then asked Tanya Wills about her portrayal of Kathryn…..

Did you do any research into Kathryn’s life and career in preparation?  Yes, I did. This has been a show in development for roughly a year, so we have had many discussions with stories shared about Kathryn, and details that have never been published. Andrew is a wonderful resource, of course, because of his friendship with her. Sadly, there is not that much information available about her private life.Tanya, I’m such a fan…you perform in clubs around Toronto and southern Ontario singing jazz, torch songs, the classic big band songs…what attracted you to this Broadway themed musical play?  Thank you, Glenda. I am theatre trained, having graduated from Sheridan College with a Music Theatre Diploma. I started with musicals, so this is a place where I am very at home and I love it. Andrew approached me with the script and I just knew that it was project I was excited to be a part of.

Zahra Faiz (below) composed the music for the play and is also the musical director…How many songs did you write for the show? And you collaborated with your father on the lyrics, yes?  There are 22 original songs in Kathryn. At the beginning of the process, my dad gave me all the lyrics completely written. As I composed the music, I definitely changed some of the lyrics.  We worked together to make changes to certain lyrics if they didn’t work with the beats of the songs. In some songs, we cut entire verses if they didn’t make sense with the music. Or, we’d rearrange the ordering of verses so that they’d make more sense with the musical flow of the song.  The songs tell so much of the story of Kathryn, and it was a joy to work with my dad on the creation of the project.

I gather you also love comedy; you founded a comedy troupe in Montreal while you were at McGill Uni. – what other comedy endeavours have you enjoyed?  Yes, apart from my music, I also did a lot of comedy stuff in university.  That really solidified my view that comedy is the vitality of storytelling. Even in darker material, I think that the lightness that comedy brings to a story is incredibly important. In our real lives, we tend to connect with people we can laugh with, and I think the same is true in storytelling. Compelling characters are ones who we can relate to through humour.  Creating laughter is important to me. The ability to look at a situation, particularly a bad one, and find humour in it, helps us find reprieve and community.

I’m now working on my own musical for which I’ve composed the song, as well as written the libretto, and it’s a comedy. I hope that when people see it, I can make them laugh. Even in serious work, finding humour is something I’m hopeful I’ll always be able to do.

Kylee Martinez (pictured below) plays a very important dual role as both pianist for the entire play but also portrays daughter Kathleen…whew, sounds exhausting.Is this your first stage musical performance?  This is not my first my first stage musical performance! While I grew up playing piano, I found my way to the musical theatre in middle school and was hooked. I went on to attend Toronto’s Randolph College for the Performing Arts to study musical theatre and have been in shows around Toronto since then.

This must be an exciting opportunity for you to play & perform – did you ever imagine such a role when you were a little girl practising your scales?  I never could have imagined this! It really is the perfect role for me. When I chose to study theatre instead of music I thought that would be the end of my piano career and it was a decision I really struggled with. Getting to utilize both of my passions in one role has been very exciting. I hope to do much more of this in the future.

And now to director Joanne Latimer who helms this musical play

What first spoke to you about the subject of this musical play?  Andrew and Zahra had been working on some of the songs for awhile with Tanya, and I was invited to a “reading” of an early part of the show. I loved the music I heard, and was drawn to this story of a talented woman who was getting all the breaks but kept sabotaging herself. I have known a number of artists- actors, dancers, musicians – with such talent who have been sidelined by addictions, anxiety, or other mental health issues. If it’s not alcohol, or even if it’s not an artist, it’s something that comes between a person and the life they’re aspiring to. Also, the idea of what a career looked like for a woman at that time in history was so intriguing. It felt like a universal story, as well as a glimpse behind the bright lights of a seemingly successful career.You’ve directed Shakespeare and contemporary works – how does this 1-woman musical differ with your directing approach or method?  Great question. For one thing, I haven’t done much musical theatre, so it’s been a learning curve in terms of structuring rehearsals, even. It’s been nice to have Zahra to collaborate with  there. I have both performed and directed solo work, so I have learned some things about how to deliver a show all alone, rather than as a member of a team. Also, music is a huge part of my life, and whenever I direct, music is a big part of the storytelling. I very carefully select the music that frames scenes or marks transitions. No matter the size of the show, I always focus on the story and the relationships within it. It’s a solo show but there are lots of other characters in it, so we’ve worked through Kathryn’s relationship with all of those people. Structurally, it seems that the internal story comes through the music, kind of like soliloquies in Shakespeare, and Kathryn shares the more external narrative details through the dialogue. It’s been fun finding where the tension between the two occurs. When we found Kylee, our accompanist, who represents Kathryn’s daughter, we were able to focus on that relationship and how that also shapes Kathryn’s arc.  In terms of performance, Tanya and I have worked on techniques to sustain the energy throughout the story, and on ways to pull the audience into the more intimate moments. That said, Zahra’s music beautifully supports it all, as it does a lot of the work for us, and we have been taking a lot of cues from the score, when it comes to pacing and where the key moments happen.

What a great team! Kathryn’s story is in the perfect hands…I hope you’ll come out and see/hear this new original musical play.

Dates, times & tickets available from https://kathrynthemusical.com/ 
Follow on IG or Fcbk: @kathrynthemusical