BWW Interviews: Louise Pitre talks La Vie En Rouge

Louise Pitre's La Vie En Rouge promises to be a very special evening, in which Canada's award-winning chansonniere will heat up Toronto with an evening of songs in both French and English that will be recorded live for her next album. The song list includes "La Vie En Rose," "The Man That Got Away" and a special version of "I Dreamed a Dream" which she performs in both languages. Louise took a few minutes to speak to BWW about what people can expect from her concert, as well as why she chose now to perform in Toronto and what she hopes to do next:

Your "La Vie En Rouge" concert is being recorded live. How did that come to fruition?

Well, I've been doing a lot of concerts over the last few years throughout the United States and Canada. When I do this concert which has some English but is mostly in French I was noticing that people seemed very interested in having a French recording. People often ask me if I have a Piaf recording as well - so I decided it was time to make something to give to those people who want more of the French side of things.

This venture is two-fold as we have already gone into the studio and recorded all the French songs, and I hope to have that album available by the time we do this show. Then the concert will be recorded on audio and video. That way the video will have both the French and English songs, but also the dialogue in between the numbers. It'll be a true "live" recording.

Is the plan to then release the recording on CD and DVD?

I'm not exactly sure about the video to be honest. What I would really love would be if we could air it somewhere - similar to the concerts that you see on Bravo and CBC or something like that.

So you will obviously be performing songs from Piaf at the concert, what else is on the program?

A few English songs because I don't think I can sing in French non-stop when there are Anglophones in the audience - they will need a break! We will have the Piaf songs, a Brel song, but also I'm doing "Some People" from Gypsy and "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables which I will do in both languages. There is going to be a song from Wonderful Town and a few old Judy Garland songs as well. It really is a mish-mash and I make sure that I talk a lot in between songs and explain what the French songs are all about so that people have an idea what I'm singing about when I take off in French.

You also sang a song from Gypsy at the Theatre 20 concert "The Story Begins" in May - is that a role you hope to play someday?

Oh my god yes! Of course! It's the best. It just doesn't get any better than that as far as I'm concerned. That show IS musical theatre to me, it's as good as it gets.

Are there any other roles you really hope to tackle?

I would love to do a production of Mame, that show never gets done which I think is really sad. I like the old stuff obviously. But I would also love the chance to be in a new Leslie Arden musical. She's the best Canadian composer out there right now, she's wonderful and her lyrics are as good as her music which is rare.

You recently did a workshop of the Canadian version of Les Belles Soeurs , how did that go?

Well, we did the workshop and a reading and now the creative team has taken it away and are working on it. They need a new translation so it'll be awhile before we can tackle it again. I'm sure it will be great and I look forward to doing it. That is a very hard thing to translate because the French Canadian "joie" doesn't have an exact English translation. It is something that truly needs to be re-worked but I think that is exciting and it could be really great.

What comes next for you after La Vie En Rouge?

I have some concerts coming up in the New Year in the States, the Maritimes and BC. But I'm hoping to have some time to myself this summer as well. We just moved back to our farmhouse and I can't tell you how good it is for my soul to be here. Gardening, cooking, maybe even have friends over again? *laughs* But I'm also working on putting together another concert - one that focuses on the British women of the 60s. It'll be totally different and more pop than anything I've done, but they are wonderful songs. I think it'll be a great show.

For La Vie En Rouge, what would you say to encourage the younger crowd who might not be as familiar with you or this material to come and see you perform?

Kelly Cameron's love affair with the theatre began when she was just five years old, on an outing to see the Original Canadian Cast of Les Miserables at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. She instantly fell in love, and since then has been lucky enough to be involved in various theatre activities and productions, including a regional production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and a local production of Where the Sidewalk Ends. She has also received training from various teachers throughout Southwestern Ontario in both piano and voice, and competed in vocal competitions for which she received a few awards. Her writing career started almost by accident, when she had the opportunity to become a ghostwriter for up and coming businesses. She continues to do this, writing the content for all sorts of companies who are starting websites and looking to find their voice. Her passion and love for theatre led to her becoming involved with BroadwayWorld where she is thrilled to be writing for the Toronto contingent of the rapidly growing website. When she isn't at the theatre, you can generally find her firmly planted in front of her trusty Blackberry - tweeting, Facebooking or partaking in other such social media activities to ensure that those who want to know are kept apprised of everything that Toronto theatre has to offer. Other interests include movies, art, music, shopping, fashion and martial arts with the occasional foray into the world of finance. Follow Kelly on Twitter at @broadwaybabyto Creep her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Kelly-Cameron/500187141

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