“We Need A Little Christmas”: Local stars present musical event for Alzheimer society

Philip Kerr and Janet Martin will perform in “We Need A Little Christmas: A Seasonal Music Celebration” at St. Marys Town Hall Theatre Dec. 6 and 7.

By Dan Welcher

What better way could there be to bring together two singing actors who didn’t know each other than by having them star opposite each other while dressed as feral cats?

Don’t laugh; that is almost what happened with Janet Martin and Philip Douglas Kerr. While they have not appeared together at the same time in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s feline frolic, they did play opposing roles in different productions.

They actually met in a production of Les Miserables, and both have been featured in various productions of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. Away from the Broadway lights, they have teamed up many times over the years to present concerts and to create new shows. Their long-term friendship inspires their work and leads to great chemistry onstage.

On Dec. 6 and 7 at the Town Hall Theatre in downtown St. Marys, Martin and Kerr will team up again to present “We Need A Little Christmas,” a full program of song and story to lift our spirits, just before the holiday season. A benefit concert for the Alzheimer Society of Canada, this will be a staged event featuring songs of the season – but also songs unrelated to Christmas, and even some sideways Christmas spoof songs.

Adding to the roster will be soprano Barbara Dunn-Prosser, baritone Scott Beaudin and pianist and musical director Danny McErlain. A vocal quartet with a pianist – the possibilities are almost endless.

Martin and Kerr sat down with me at Snapping Turtle Coffee Roasters to discuss the upcoming show.

“Both of us have close friends and relatives who have been affected by Alzheimer’s disease,” Martin said. “And since we’ve been blessed in our careers to have been able to support ourselves as professional performers, we want to give back in a way that will help some people who really need help.”

All the proceeds from the concert, which Martin and Kerr are doing without pay, will go to the Canadian Alzheimer Society.

Martin has been active in the professional theatre world for 40 years. Among her favourite roles are the aforementioned Grizabella in Cats, Christine in Phantom of the Opera and Cosette in Les Miserables. But she’s also trod the boards at the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival and other venues in such roles as Maria in Twelfth Night, Countess Rousillion in All’s Well That Ends Well and Mistress Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Recently, she produced and acted in Menopause The Musical, which is still touring across Canada. Together with her partner, Mark Zimmerman, she is the founder and producer of Shaggypup Productions.

Kerr is a native of Whitby. Trained as an architect and construction project manager, his life took a 180-degree turn when he first saw Les Miserables. Coming out of the theatre in tears, he announced, “I’m going to be in that show.”

Without much in the way of acting credits other than roles in community theatre, he was able to accomplish that, joining the original Toronto cast of Les Miserables and eventually performing the piece over 1,500 times during two runs in Toronto, two Canadian tours and a six-month engagement in London’s West End. Several hundred of those performances were in role of Jean Valjean, the lead character.

A veteran of the stage, he has appeared as Gus/Growltiger in Cats, Marcel in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love and Bruce in the two-person play, Mama’s Country Record Collection, in theatres across Ontario and Quebec. He has also appeared on camera in Mayday, Flashpoint and the ABC/Disney version of The Music Man.

Accompanying these artists, in addition to the singers Dunn-Prosser and Beaudin, is McErlain. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music, McErlain is one of the busiest musicians in Toronto. He conducts two choirs there and is a frequent choice when a pianist is needed, in settings from intimate house parties to the stage at Carnegie Hall.

Founded in 1978, the Alzheimer Society has grown and expanded to serve Canadians from coast to coast. It has three principal goals: family support, education and research. It has allocated more than $47 million in grants and awards to Canadian researchers over the years and continues to enlighten people on the problem of dementia, as well as its major contributions in research.

“We Need A Little Christmas: A Seasonal Music Celebration” will be presented twice: on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 175 Queen St. E. Tickets can be bought online at alittlechristmas.eventbrite.ca or by visiting Troyer’s Spices, 110 Queen St. E.