Timely refugee tale at heart of Garth Drabinsky comeback vehicle ‘Sousatzka’

TORONTO – Issues of race and refugees are explored in the globetrotting musical “Sousatzka,” the long-anticipated comeback vehicle for Garth Drabinsky which makes its official debut this week.

Drabinsky’s return to the theatre world comes nearly a decade after he was found guilty of two counts of fraud and sentenced to a five-year prison term for his role in manipulating expenses and a kickback scheme that cost Livent Inc. investors an estimated $500 million.

Before his fall from grace, the theatre mogul had produced hits including “Ragtime,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

“Sousatzka,” which is some five years in the making, makes its world premiere in Toronto on Thursday ahead of a planned Broadway run later this year.

With recent stories of asylum-seekers in Canada and abroad looming prominently in the headlines, the fictionalized tale seems particularly timely.

The musical is set in 1982 London, but flashes back to Warsaw before the Second World War and during the Nazi occupation, and to Soweto, a township in Johannesburg, South Africa, where deadly riots over education broke out in 1976.

“All the characters and their stories resulted in a circumstance where refugees and exile became the predominant history of each of them,” Drabinsky said in an interview.

Based on the Bernice Rubens novel “Madame Sousatzka,” the production explores the story of musical prodigy Themba (newcomer Jordan Barrow) and his relationship with his brilliant, eccentric piano teacher Sousatzka (Tony winner Victoria Clark). Sousatzka finds herself at odds with Themba’s mother, Xholiswa, a political refugee from South Africa (Tony Award nominee Montego Glover).

Despite their differences, the women must work toward crossing both cultural and racial divides to find common ground, for Themba’s sake.

“They’ve both experienced very unsettling, disheartening, fracturing, damaging things in their lives (which) makes them the same, even though on the outside they’re very much different,” said Glover of the two lead female characters.

“What Jordan’s character, Themba, brings with him in his mother — myself, Xholiswa — makes for a wonderful sort of intricacy that lives through him into his relationship with his teacher.”

Clark said she sees “Sousatzka” as a story about humanity, and one that encompasses many universal themes including love, acceptance and forgiveness.

“I think it’s the perfect show for our world right now. It’s about understanding the other, whoever that other is … and being compassionate towards someone who is not like you.”

Just as its characters criss-cross continents and time, so, too, does its score, from Oscar- and Grammy-winning American composer David Shire, with lyrics from Tony winner Richard Maltby Jr. The two-act show features close to 30 pieces of music, fusing seemingly disparate styles including Eastern European sounds, South African rhythms, classical, jazz and punk.

Beyond the cast of 47 Canadian and American performers, Drabinsky worked in tandem with an international team behind the scenes. The production is helmed by director Adrian Noble, former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the U.K.

American playwright and three-time Tony nominee Craig Lucas created the book for “Sousatzka,” which features choreography by Argentinian-born Tony nominee Graciela Daniele.

“Sousatzka” officially premieres at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto and is slated to run through April 9.

— Follow @lauren_larose on Twitter.

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