Meghan Pearson

The “Barbra Question” can often plague theatre companies when the idea of producing a Funny Girl musical is brought up. How can one produce the show in a way that even comes close to the iconic version that Streisand led in her breakout role? They face the additional obstacle of satisfying audience members who have the same question on their mind; audiences who are predestined to be resigned to the fact that the musical won't be as enjoyable as the first time around, that is, the version that included Barbra tripping and schmaltzing her way into their hearts.

Closing off the Segal Centre's 2014-2015 season, this classic story follows young Duddy Kravitz (Ken James Stewart), a kid who's grown up in the ethnic ghetto of the post-war St. Urbain Street in Montreal. Duddy is eager to escape his dead-end neighborhood and be somebody. After being told by his elderly, Jewish grandfather (Howard Jerome) that "a man without land is nobody," Duddy employs his boyish charms and underhanded nature as he sets his sights on acquiring the land around a lake in the Laurentians.

Sex T-Rex's Swordplay: A Play of Swords has all the fixings for a simply hilarious, one-hour show that will leave audiences giggling long after it's over.

Chicago is a prohibition-era, vaudevillian musical centering on the merry murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart as they lie and dance their way to an innocent trial verdict. The show recounts the events of early 1920s Chicago when the press became obsessed with homicidal females who were launched to fame as being celebrity criminals.

As part of Centaur's Theatres Brave New Looks series, Persephone Productions certainly does take a hard look at adolescent turmoil in their remount of Spring Awakening. They unmistakably prove that repression of youth is a timeless and borderless reality that is often exasperated by adults' indifference and intolerance towards young people.

Unlike your high school sex-ed classes, Chlamydia dell'Arte is a sex-ed class you can actually laugh through. This adorable two-person comedy, written and performed by Meghann Williams and Gigi Naglak is creating quite the buzz for itself at Montreal's Fringe Festival.

In their debut show, Chocolate Moose Theatre Company brings to life a piece that is deeply relatable to the human experience. At Home at the Zoo is a combination of Edward Albee's Homelife and Zoo Story, the first of which was written 49 years after the latter in an attempt to portray the relationship between the central character, Peter, and his wife, Ann. Though somewhat dated the show is as relevant to the modern day human condition, in all of its intricacies, as it was back in 1959.

For the first time in 20 years, Ain't Misbehavin': The Fats Waller Musical Show has swung into Montreal, and it does not fail to impress. This sassy and seductive jazz-age production opens the Segal Centre's 2013-2014 season with a bang, featuring a dynamic five-person cast that will get your toes tappin' throughout the entire show.

Susan Egan will be performing and teaching the first of a series of concerts and master classes entitled 'Broadway in Montreal' starting next month. Egan is best known for her work as the original Belle in Beauty and the Beast and as the voice of Meg in Hercules.

Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays brings to life the often forgotten, yet astoundingly important issue of equality and the effects it has on the lives of human beings living under its restrictions

Crossdressers and Criminals: 3 Ways to Lose Yourself, presented by Uncanny Theatre Company is currently running at the Fringe Festival. It is a melange of three separate pieces that complement and bring a deeper understanding to each other.

Created and written by the 5-person cast, crew, and director, Based on a True Story is exactly what it sounds like. Presented by McGill's Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre, the show critically examines the lives and choices of the people the rest of world forgot to care about.

It is hard to identify with a man as deluded as Shakespeare's famous character Macbeth is. Yet through his display of weakness the question that comes to mind can only be: what is our inner nature truly capable of? When you find your values already lost in the moral cesspool, how far will one go to gain power?

When West Side Story opened in 1957 it was nothing the world had ever seen before. This was partly because of the heavy themes it deals with, namely racial prejudice and gang violence, but mainly because it gracefully blends dance into the telling of the story.

The Exonerated tells the true stories of six innocent men and women who were sentenced to death. As the separate testimonies unfold a picture is painted of the American criminal justice system and all that is wrong with it.

GOOD PEOPLE has been described as a love letter written by the playwright to his hometown of South Boston or 'Southie', and a love letter it most certainly is. The production plays Montreal's Centaur Theatre November 6 thru December 9, 2012.