For his last hurrah in Red Deer, Curtis Labelle wants to Let the Sunshine In and entertain his hometown with a musical revue.
Labelle is winding down his local piano and voice school to take a teaching post at a performing arts college in St. Albert this fall.
When he leaves it will be Red Deer’s loss, as Labelle has performed, composed and played music director for a wide variety of stage productions.
Most notably, he co-created an original Ignition Theatre musical Year After Year, which premiered last May, and staged an exuberant production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in 2009.
Labelle started planning the Let the Sunshine In musical revue — which runs Aug. 12, 13 and 14 at The Matchbox — before getting the job offer.
His idea was to pull together a lineup of favourite songs from various musicals and present them in a different way than people are used to seeing them.
For instance, imagine the song Mister Cellophane from the musical Chicago performed as a western, said Labelle, with a chuckle. “There will be a little bit of cowboy in there.”
Some other examples of musical numbers that will be belted out by four local singers — Daniel Machuk, Elly Jacobson, Mjaa Danielson and Lena Dabrusin — are the revue’s title song from the musical Hair, Macavity: The Mystery Cat from Cats and You’ve Got a Friend in Me from the movie Toy Story.
“We looked for something that was dramatic and something that was comedy — eclectic songs,” said Labelle, who wanted to create an entertaining hour for an audience that loves song and dance.
“This is a heavy dance show,” he added, noting one number will be performed to the tune Shadow Land from The Lion King.
While his new teaching position at Visionary College, Western Canada’s largest private music institution, will present some welcome new challenges, Labelle said he will miss things about Red Deer — especially his students, and working with local groups such as Ignition Theatre and Tree House Youth Theatre.
“I’ll probably come back to do something (here) again someday — but not in my first year,” said Labelle, who expects an intense learning curve.
The revue runs at 7:30 p.m. nightly, with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday, Aug. 14.
Tickets are $18 ($15 students/seniors) from The Matchbox.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com