Performance students, symphony celebrate Bright Lights of Broadway

The Victoria Symphony celebrates the bright lights and popular musicals of Broadway with students of the Oak Bay-based Canadian College of Performing Arts.

Broadway Lights marks the seventh time CCPA students have joined the orchestra for a celebration of the enduring popularity of the Broadway musical. The concerts are a favourite of symphony audiences and sell out quickly.

“We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with CCPA,” said Kathryn Laurin, Victoria Symphony executive director. “Working with arts organizations like Pacific Opera Victoria, the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra, Dance Victoria, and the Canadian College of Performing Arts provides opportunities for us to showcase all our talents and strengthen the arts in our community.”

CCPA is one of Canada’s notable training centres for a career in the performing arts. Students, selected during national auditions, embark on an intensive two-year conservatory-style diploma program to hone their talent and skills as actors, singers and dancers. Over the past twenty years graduates of CCPA have followed their passions with careers on stage, television, in film, in recording studios, in arts administration and arts education.

Conducted by Pops Conductor Emeritus, Brian Jackson, with stage direction and choreography by CCPA co- founder and Managing Director Jacques Lemay, Broadway Lights features music and extravagant production numbers from both classic and contemporary musicals. Highlights include: 42nd Street by Harry Warren, Show Boat by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammersetin II, Crazy for You by George and Ira Gershwin, The Producers by Mel Brooks, Les Miserables by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil, and Ragtime by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens.

Broadway Lights runs March 9 and 10 at 8 p.m., with a matinee March 10 at 2 p.m. in the Royal Theatre, 805 Broughton St. Tickets start at $32, available from the Royal and McPherson box office at 250-386-6121 or rmts.bc.ca.