A true showbiz diva might have stormed offstage in disgust.

The microphone was on the fritz, audience members were strolling in late and the lighting cues were off -- more than enough reasons for a prima donna songstress to throw a hissy fit.

Sharron Matthews is a diva, yes, but not that kind of diva.

When her mic went haywire during her sultry opening number Monday night she just sang an impromptu lyric -- "Something's wrong with my (bleepity-bleeping) microphone" -- and grabbed a backup mic without missing a beat.

As latecomers tiptoed to their seats in the Waterloo Entertainment Centre, Matthews again improvised, mocking them with exaggerated eye rolls and sarcastic glances at her watch (or the spot on her wrist where a watch would be).

Call her a pseudiva -- a starlet who's got all the talent but none of the 'tude. Anything, it seemed, was fair fodder for a gag. Her performance Monday, dubbed Sharron's Halloween Party, was the first of four gigs at the Waterloo Entertainment Centre over the next two months, culminating in a New Year's Eve gala.

Her comic cabaret-style shows have become cult favourites at clubs around Toronto, partly because they gently mock cabaret-style shows.

Matthews has a world-class singing voice -- honed in such lavish Toronto productions as Les Miserables and Beauty and the Beast -- but she has no qualms about using it to perform Devo's Whip It or Let's Get Physical by Olivia Newton-John.

The result is a show that is equal parts standup comedy, vocal concert, talk show and controlled chaos.

Using a medley of reinterpreted '80s pop ballads, Matthews regaled the audience with true tales of adolescent traumas like high school dances and her first kiss. Fittingly, she calls such medleys "songologues."

Accompanied by pianist Steve Thomas, who deftly kept up with the singer's improvised tangents, Matthews showcased a vocal range that shifts from opera to pop in nothing flat.

Matthews' showbiz resume boasts an impressive list of stage and screen performances, including movie roles alongside Russell Crowe (Cinderella Man) and Antonio Banderas (Take The Lead), but she clearly hasn't let it go to her head.

That was obvious even before the opening curtain. For starters, there wasn't really an opening curtain at all -- instead, Matthews mingled the crowd before showtime, doling out hugs and learning everyone's names before taking the stage.

In an impressive display of recall, she often addressed audience members by name during the show, picking out "volunteers" for interactive moments.

Matthews also acted as a kind of MC for the night, introducing and interviewing a pair of guest performers -- Broadway actor Julie Martell and Stratford favourite Bruce Dow.

Both added touches of seriousness to the evening, demonstrating vocal versatility that their roles in larger ensemble productions don't often allow them to showcase.

Matthews lightened the mood again with her glowing, if a little too honest, assessment of Dow's performance:

"When he hit that high note all my hair stood up and I peed a little bit."

When it was time for a show-closing audience singalong (to Kenny Loggins' Footloose, of all things), Sharron's Halloween Party felt like just that -- a party. And a killer party at that.

chunter@therecord.com

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Xtra article
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Xtra
article written by David Bateman
Toronto / Thursday, December 04, 2008

'Make me fabulous!'
Cabaret / Sharron the love of musical theatre

After attending a few of the musical parties Sharron Matthews has thrown over the years it is difficult to know how to respond when she looks at you during an interview and says, "Make me sound fabulous and not like an asshole." It's this kind of comic humility and mild self-effacement, with a dash of exaggerated emotion, that makes her the kind of performer who can only sound but fabulous.Trained at Sheridan College in the musical theatre program and currently completing a semester as pop music instructor, Matthews began her cabaret, Sharron's Party, at the Gladstone Hotel two years ago. Last June she moved to Buddies in Bad Times where she held her first Sharron's Big Gay Party. On Fri, Dec 12 and 13 her Tallulah's Christmas show promises to titillate and thrill with a string of naughty carols and fabulous guests that include Sarah Strange, Teresa Pavlineck, Ian Simpson and opera luminary Jean Stilwell.Last June's Big Gay Party really didn't look much different from any of the other shows that are consistently "festive, fabulous and naughty." Matthews has cultivated a powerful fondness for the gays over the span of her 20-year career. She considers her strongest relationships ("after my husband" of course) to be with gay men and has deep feelings about the community that just seems "to get the humour, the music" that she loves to showcase.Expect amazing singing. A fall show at Tallulah's had Brent Carver singing "Ten Cents a Dance" and an astoundingly beautiful theatrical rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Take This Waltz." Matthews interviews her guests onstage and manages to get juicy tidbits from one and all. While interviewing Carver she recalled her stint as Dora MC last year and described how he leapt from his seat and began to dance along as she entertained and MCed. Nominated for her performance as the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz she came onstage after losing out to another performer and quipped, "Anyone interested in buying a used witch's costume?"She handpicks her cabaret guests: Some are unknown burgeoning singers ripe from an audience participation event; some are the greats of Canadian theatre. Jeigh Madjus, a promising newcomer to the musical theatre scene, with a history of cruise ship entertainment, did a wonderful impromptu rendition of "Do Re Mi" one night and became a featured performer a few weeks later when he wowed guests with complex pop and theatrical numbers.On more than one occasion shows have included some of the contestants from the reality show How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria? Matthews speaks candidly of her love/hate relationship with the reality program as well as the recent The Sound of Music production itself. "Captain von Trapp and Maria reminded me of someone and I couldn't figure it out," she says. "And then it hit me! Céline Dion and René Angélil... Dirty." She also did her own campy version of "Do Re Mi."Matthews feels she celebrates her "disgruntledness" with the Broadway megahit. "We all think we could do better." The Maria contest winner and current star, Elicia MacKenzie, won Matthews over with her reality show rendition of "You Needed Me" for its honesty of expression — something that lends itself well to the role of the ingenuous alpine nun.Matthews is unafraid to critique superstars far and wide with a brash, loving intensity that is never cruel but always comically scathing. Meryl Streep's bubbly yet bewildering performance in Mamma Mia was treated hilariously in a recent show. "She can come to my show and tell me I stink," says Matthews. "At least I can say Meryl Streep came to my show."During one performance her signature "song-alogue" featured autobiographical memories of a childhood attachment to Michael Jackson. Her medley of Jackson favourites from "Thriller" to "Billie Jean" showcased her ability to mix witty self-written monologues with interpretations of popular songs, turning them into layered anthem-like tributes to some of the most memorable moments in 20th-century music history. With the support of pianist Wayne Gwillam (recently at the Shaw Festival and about to join The Sound of Music in 2009) and gorgeous gowns from Fashion Crimes, she is a delicious diva to be reckoned with.Don't miss her upcoming Christmas party. If you're feeling weary and in need of a little sweetness and bitchiness mixed into one fabulous Yuletide spectacle then this is the seasonal show for you.

Sharron's Christmas Party.
$20. 8pm. Fri, Dec 12 & 13.
Tallulah's Cabaret.
12 Alexander St.
(416) 975-8555.

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Toronto Star article
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Toronto Star
Aug 19, 2006
article wrttien by Rita Zekas

Let size zeroes eat cake

Hubba, hubba.

When we attended Sharron's Party, Sharron Matthews' cabaret show at the Gladstone Hotel several months ago, we remarked on how sexy she looked in her dominatrix meets Donatella ensemble: a black pencil skirt topped by a black pin-striped corset.

"It's the waist cincher," she demurred.

The outfit came from Fashion Crimes at 322 1/2 Queen West, which we'd always associated with clothes for stick figures. We'd shopped for accessories there — like the faux fur floor pillow the size of King Kong we hauled home in a body bag.

Matthews is not gargantuan but she is curvy. Fashion Crimes designer/owner Pam Chorley had always cut for her own body, which is like a swizzle stick. Not anymore. Chorley's designs now accommodate up to size 16.

In addition, her sales staff comes in assorted body types, so you aren't intimidated by someone in size zero telling you disdainfully to try Chubbettes R Us on the next block.

Fashion Crimes is like a fun ride at an amusement park crossed with a bordello. The Star photographer is afraid to come in; Store Gazing is heady with marabou.

"Every time I come into this shop, it takes me half an hour to take everything in," Matthews says. "I'm over stimulated."

She is shopping for something to wear to her Aug. 28th cabaret show, whose drop-in guests include Thom Allison and Bitter Girls Alison Lawrence and Mary Francis Moore.

Fashion Crimes has been a fixture on Queen West for almost 25 years. It relocated to its present space just over two years ago after a fire gutted the old location across the street.

"This location was established as a kid's store (Misdemeanours)," explains Chorley. "I design and manufacture everything. We do pattern making and can make anybody look their best. It's not all on the rack; we can custom make in a day or two. If you need it tonight, it can be hemmed or a neckline dropped. We also have a prom registry so we don't sell the same dress to the same prom. We can fit (everyone) from newborn to when you no longer have a pulse."

Matthews emerges from behind the curtain of the dressing room in a white patterned dress with black crinoline underneath that makes her look like a funky shepherdess. "I love the dress — then they give you the gloves, the crinoline," she says.

She looks amazing in a drapey, '30s bias cut dress that Jean Harlow would have plotzed over had she worn black.

"I've never been to a store that has so many choices," Matthews swears. "Every dress I take in, I'm terrified won't fit me and 9 times out of 10, it does."

She describes her look as "bohemian chic, especially since I started shopping at Fashion Crimes. These girls dress to celebrate every day."

We spot Teresa Pavlinek, star of The Jane Show on CBC, poking through the racks. She's also a Fashion Criminal.

"When I was searching for wardrobe (for past shows), I had Fairview Mall," she jokes.

Matthews does two costume changes during her cabaret act.

"I feel like I'm the super hero of dressing. Everything I put on in Fashion Crimes makes me feel like a woman — so sexy. The audience can tell; it changes your attitude. My husband (actor George Masswohl, whose credits include lead role in Sweeney Todd at CanStage) says that when I put on my cabaret clothes, I become fearless. I don't feel I need to be skinny."

Matthews has been doing the cabaret circuit and open mike nights from Vancouver to the U.S. She attended Sheridan College for theatre and is the quintessential Canadian hyphenate: singer-dancer-actor.

"I started tap dancing at age 5," she recalls. "I was too intimidated by ballet because all the girls were so teeny. I always wanted to perform — I never felt like it was a choice."

Her first show was 22 years ago at age 15 in Hamilton.

"I started cabaret when I did Show Boat at the Ford Centre 12 years ago. I played Lottie, one of the girls who took Captain Andy (Robert Morse) to Palmerston House on New Year's Eve. My costume was cut to the navel, with six underskirts and a 12 foot ostrich feather boa."

She recalls whining to Elaine Stritch, who played Captain Andy's wife, about how hard it was trying to get cabaret mounted in Toronto.

"She said, `Boo, hoo, hoo. You'll just have to keep trying.'"

Matthews played Madame Thenardier in Les Miserables in Toronto and in the North American tour; Babette in Beauty & the Beast; and The Narrator in two runs of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Her film works includes the role of Joan, the secretary in Mean Girls, which starred Lindsay Lohan.

"I've always been a character actor rather than the ingénue," she says. She appeared in Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe; Kojak with Ving Rhames; Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas; and recently had scenes in Camille with its star Sienna Miller.

"I'm a paramedic," she explains. "I spent five hours in an elevator with Sienna Miller, who is no bigger than a peanut."

Miller might have had a tryst with her co-star James Franco after all. Heard (not from Matthews) that Franco was licking her leg at the film's wrap party. Then again, could be Miller had spilled ice cream on it.

Matthews has eight days of singing and dancing on Hairspray, starring John Travolta. "There are 150 of us, all character people. I have a scene with John Travolta and the Tracy Turnblad girl. I play Mr. Pinky's cashier."

Which means she'll need more dancing shoes. Matthews confesses that she loves to shop. And her weakness is shoes.

"Shopping is the only thing that makes me feel better when I'm blue — especially when it's a bargain," she explains. "You can get big or small, but your feet never change size. If I feel fat, I buy shoes. I lost 65 pounds over the last four years. I'd quit smoking and was touring with Les Miz and I packed on the pounds. Buying these cabaret clothes gives me an excuse to buy shoes for every show.

"I have 12 pairs of evening shoes. I love four-inch heels. For years, I didn't think I could wear high shoes but Thom Allison said, `You know you mean business when you put on five inch heels.' I dress for him."

And for Paul Burwell, her accompanist. And he for her.

"My leopard skin outfit brought water to Paul's eyes. He gets T-shirts made with things like 'Sharron's bitch.' "

Matthews shops Winners and Le Chateau. "I've never been in a fancy store. I am not a label whore. This is my favourite shirt: I got it at GAP for $8. If I had a lot of money I would buy all my shoes at B2."

Working in Canada means doing cabaret one day and the next day, being on set on Cinderella Man with Ron Howard.

"I was a Church Lady," she recalls. "I did five days and ended up on the cutting room floor. You can hear my Brooklyn accent float by in one scene."

Meanwhile, it's come to the cabaret, old chum.

"My dream for a cabaret show is to look like Carrie in Sex and the City but my version. Sarah Jessica Parker (who plays Carrie) also has curly hair. I did The Music Man with Matthew Broderick (Parker's husband). She was seven month's pregnant in a red teeny top with overalls and six-inch high heel shoes."

Store Gazing succumbed to a pair of pointy-toed leopard ankle boots at Fashion Crimes. Since it was in the line of duty, we plan to try to expense them.

—Rita Zekas, The Toronto Star


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Toronto Star article
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Toronto Star
Dec. 1, 2005
article wrttien by Richard Ouzounian, Theatre Critic

Cabaret is a `labour of love'

There's going to be a lot of parties happening this month, but it's a safe bet that none will be quite like the one Sharron Matthews is planning to throw.

The star of many of Toronto's best-known musicals (Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast, Show Boat) is switching to cabaret mode and offering a pair of distinctive experiences Dec. 4 and 18 at Tallulah's Cabaret at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre with Sharron's Holiday Party.

"I tried to figure out what would be different than just coming to see someone in a club" said Matthews on a recent break from rehearsals. "So I decided to make it like The Dinah Shore Show. There's some interviews, prizes, a sing-along and maybe even a few more novelties. David Rogers and David Warrack are going to come by one night and they plan to play Stump The Musical Singer, which should be a hoot."

Matthews has also lined up such local notables as Blythe Wilson, Bruce Dow and Avery Saltzman, so there's bound to be plenty of talent around.

Matthews will rightfully be the main attraction. Known for her versatility in drama as well as comedy, she says that she approaches each song in a cabaret,"as if I were playing a different character each time around. That means it's like I was doing 30 different plays in a night."

It was the lack of variety that caused Matthews to become a bit disenchanted with the theatre after her series of long runs, but once she started appearing in shows with limited engagements, she confesses that "I've grown to love musical theatre again."

But while Matthews admits "there's something about cabaret that makes me feel this what I really should be doing," the economic realities of it "mean that it's a real labour of love."

She was encouraged in her belief by a pep talk from one of the giants in the field — Elaine Stritch.

Matthews had worked with her on Show Boat, but hadn't seen her in nearly a decade. Earlier this year, she went to N.Y. to audition for a show and found herself watching Stritch at the Carlyle Hotel.

Afterwards, Matthews went backstage. "I was trying hard not to feel typically Canadian. I didn't want to get in the way. But I told her how awesome she was, trying all the while not to gush."

Stritch's assistant knew Matthews and prodded her to tell Stritch about her own experience doing cabaret.

"I told her about my experiments doing it here, but how there aren't really any rooms in Toronto for people who specialize in cabaret and that I'd tried it and I hadn't been exactly triumphant."

"She went silent. Then she looked at me and said `Well, with all you've done, I guess you've got to just f---ing keep trying.' She has a way with words, Elaine."

"But afterwards, I couldn't sleep. Excited, daunted, scared, but I knew I had to try it."

This series of evenings is the result of Stritch's intervention and Matthews' determination.

"I know there's an audience out there. When we did Jason Robert Brown's Songs For A New World, the college kids absolutely came out of the woodwork as well as the more traditional musical theatre audiences.

"People will come to cabaret. They just have to get used to the idea that something is happening on stage that's unique, live, unpredictable. Something they couldn't experience by sitting home and playing a CD."

The distinctive Matthews laugh rings out. "Hey, I'm even going to help to seat them when they get to the theatre. I want them to know there's something special happening here."

—Richard Ouzounian, The Toronto Star


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Hamilton Spectator articles:
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Hamilton Spectator
March 8, 2005
article written by Gary Smith

Singers give polish to forgotten gems

Want to pretend you’re in New York?
Maybe in the fabled Oak Room of the classy old Algonquin Hotel, watching some sophisticated caberet show?
You don’t need to spend next month’s mortgage. As little as 20 bucks will get you in. Two 10s will buy a ringside seat in the Studio at Theatre Aquarius. That’s where Sharron Matthews and George Masswohl are singing their hearts this week.
What You Don’t Know, a terrific little cabaret show that had its genesis at Tallulah’s Cabaret in Toronto, is delirious entertainment. Masswohl and Matthews, Hamilton-born entertainers who’ve played Stratford and New York, have come home with a mavellous love song to musical theatre.
In the course of 90 minutes or so, this captivating duo sings the socks off songs from mostly failed Broadway shows. and believe me, the songs are quite brilliant, even if the shows they punctuated failed to make the grade.


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Hamilton Spectator
June 25, 2003
article written by Gary Smith

George and Sharron take T.O.

This Hamilton-born couple gave Toronto terrific theatre music last week. So why do we have to go down the QEW to catch these stars?

I hate to write to write a column telling you what you missed, but in this case it’s necessary.
Hamilton-born performers George Masswohl and Sharron Matthews played a two-night gig in Toronto last week in Tallulah’s Cafe at Buddies in Bad Times. And frankly, it was terrific.
If you didn’t take my advice and catch one of their sold-out shows, you missed out on one of Toronto’s more interesting evenings of musical theatre.
Matthews, a graduate of Bill Cooke’s Hillpark Theatre program, is a stunning performer who has played locally in the Theatre Aquarius production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Her hubby, Masswohl, who did lots of Hamilton area theatre in his youth, had a big success in the Aquarius drama Of Mice and Men before moving on to leading roles at Stratford and a recent star turn in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.
Singly these performers are exciting. Together they are dynamite.
Their Toronto gig, What You Don’t Know Shows That You Haven’t Played T.O., is quite simply a blockbuster. It’s filled with magnificent moments from failed Broadway musicals, such as the exotic New York stunner Sideshow and that eccentric failure A Class Act.
From brilliantly conceived songs such as Come Look At The Freaks and The Next Best Thing To Love, created for such ambitious but troubled shows, Matthews and Masswohl fashion a medley of musical theatre genius.
By liberating such songs from their emotional and physical context, they allow them to float free in the imagination. And quite frankly, it’s wonderful to sit back in a cabaret theatre and feel reasonably assured you’re not going to hear anything that sounds remotely like Annie or Oliver.
There are so many interesting musicals beyond the stale and familiar that never see the light of day in Toronto or Hamilton that you despair for the commercial greed that keeps recycling the same few.
To hear even some of the songs from William Finn’s brilliant A New Brain, or Michael John LaChiusa’s Hello, Again is to understand that there is a new musical theatre that exists beyond the trite and ordinary.
Masswohl and Matthews feign a delightfully easy stage presence that reflects their personal chemistry.Neither needed the intrusive microphones that at times interfered with the generous subtleties of their vocal histrionics. Each of these performers has power to spare. and there were moments when the show required a tightening of pace, a less folksy, here we are guys, plan of attack. But these are niggling criticisms for what was a daring and risk-taking evening of theatre.
Masswohl and Matthews even managed to make duds like Alone In The Universe from the ick-making Seussical and the title tune from The Wild Party, a frenetic musical moment at best, still zing with imagination.
Now the deal is What You Don’t Know would fit so neatly into the Studio Space at Theatre Aquarius and provide local musical theatre fans with a terrific program of showstoppers from shows that often stopped before they really got started.
I don’t know who we have to encourage to bring this beguiling evening to Hamilton, but I don’t see why Toronto should be the only place to benefit from Masswohl and Matthews. don’t we have the right to hear these local theatre star sing the socks off some terrific theatre music without having to leave town?
Maybe we need to lobby Theatre Aquarius to bring this act home? What do you think, gang?


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Hamilton Spectator
October 2000
article written by Gary Smith

Outrageous in leather

Sharron revels in a romp on the seedy side with disco dollies and drag queens

Sharron Matthews is getting out her black leather. The Hamilton-born singer with the big voice, is currently on stage in the musical version of the Craig Russell cult film Outrageous.
Playing a leather dyke in a grungy gay bar, Matthews is having the time of her life.
After roles in Hal Prince’s version of Showboat, not to mention the musicalized Les Miserables, she’s happily set loose in a raunchy, rambunctious romp. It’s a musical that takes her to the heart of Toronto’s seedier side.
Disco dollies, drage queens and leather dykes inhabit this culture of passion and pain. Yet Outrageous, for all its raunch, is basically a love story, non-sexual in nature.
Growing up on Hamilton Mountain, Matthews admits she was sexually naive.
“I had no idea about drag queens and stuff. I went with my mom to the hairdresser’s every week, somewhere on the Mountain. And I met all these great guys. Some of them quite gorgeous. I wondered why they didn’t have girlfriends. It took me long time to catch on.”
Like a number of young performers Matthews began her theatre experience in high school, Hill Park to be exact. With drama teacher Bill Cook to guide her, she fell in love with the Broadway musical.
“He did a big one every year. And believe me he was very good. He used to beg, borrow or steal, trying to get the money to put a show on. He loved theatre so much, he made me love it too. And in a high school world, where the arts didn’t count for too much, he made me feel I belonged. I guess you just have to find your own niche. Theatre was that for me. Thank goodness there are a few teachers who understand that. Bill always said, ‘Embrace who you are. Just be yourself.’ You can’t know what that meant to an awkward, young teen.”
From Hill Park, Matthews found her way to Sheridan College where she perfected her art. Amazingly, she went straight from the Oakville school to her first professional job, a stint in Hello, Dolly! at The Limelight Dinner Theatre in Toronto.
“Believe me it was tough. The Limelight was hardly the apex of bigtime theatre. People used to light up during the show and blow smoke in your face. But I learned a lot there. It was baptism by fire.”
Matthews, married to fellow Hamilton actor George Masswohl, says she has no idea why so much talent comes from Steel City.
“Maybe it’s becaue people are so supportive of young performers there.”
Her own journey, from the Limelight to major roles in Les Miserables, Showboat and Beauty And The Beast, was pretty swift.
“I’ve been lucky to work with people who’ve been generous with their wisdom. And I think I have hope for the future. But like most performers I live from day to day. It’s right now that’s important to me, not something down the road.”
Right now for Matthews, is the Toronto production of Brad Fraser’s Outrageous.
“I think it’s going to be a very big musical. Well, that’s what I hope. The book captures the feel of the film, and the music, techno-disco in style, frames the piece. As you might expect, given it’s dramatic proportions, it’sa musical of emotional highs and lows.”
Matthews sees it as a return to musicals about personalities, not scenery.
“Don’t get me wrong, I loved doing all those big Broadway shows, but in a way they’re like clockwork. There’s little room for deviation. If you saw Les Miz here, you saw the same show you’d see in Tokyo. Everything moves to a very ordered plan. These shows are about ensemble, rather than individuals. Outrageous goes beyond that, back to a Broadway that allowed its performers to take centre stage.”
For Matthews, Outrageous remains remarkably faithful to Richard Benner’s 1977 film, as well as Margaret Gibson’s stories in The Butterfly Ward, which inspired the whole thing.
“It’s raucous, but it’s also very sweet. the story of a troubled schizophrenic girl and drag queen hairdresser is amazingly moving. It’s a story about changing, about knowing who you are. I’ve worked with drag stars like Bitch Diva, and in some ways, what they do is a particular form of art. It’s isn’t just about a man wanting to be a woman. It’s a very specific form of performance. Women, after all, don’t dress the way someone like Craig Russell did on stage. It’s a heightened form of reality.”
Matthews thinks it’s a mistake to connect Russell too closely with the musical Outrageous.
“He was an actor playing that role, it wasn’t about his life after all. Certain parallels do however apply. Russell wasn’t treated as a performer. He was treated as a freak. He couldn’t break away from that image, and it’s probably what destroyed him in the end. A lot of these boys go through such hardships. It they’re gay they feel rejected. And sometimes they feel they’re not manly enough, whatever that means.
“It’s not just about being gay. there’s a definite order here and drag queens are often treated like dirt. I’m not a gay man, so I can’t make any real judgements. Although sometimes I feel like one. We won’t tell George that will we. He need never know.”
A big laugh erupts from Matthews’ throat.
“Oh, by the way,” she adds, “I’m coming back to Hamilton for Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat at Aquarius in December. Now, there’s a stretch. From the leatherbar to the Old Testament.”


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Hamilton Spectator
article written by Stewart Brown

Happy among Les Miserables

When Sharron Matthews was five years old, her mother took her to Hamlton Place to see song-and-dance man Lionel Blair in one of the English pantomines he headed every Christmas.
”I went up on stage with other kids and Lionel centered me out. He sat me on his knee and talked to me in front of the audience.” Matthews recalls.
”I remember looking into the wings and seeing all these dancers with their painted faces and thinking: ‘This is the coolest thing I could ever want’”.

Sharron Matthews — whi is Madame Thénardier, the innkeeper’s wife in Les Misérables these days — would return to the stage at Hamilton Place, mostly in summer musicals as a performing teenager.
But it’s on the stages of Toronto and North America where she’s made her professional mark, in musicals large and small.
Large —such as two versions of Les Misérables, including the current Toronto run with Colm Wilkinson; two years in the Harold Prince revival of Show Boat at North York’s Ford Centre, and Beauty And The Best at the Princess of Wales Theatre where she played the vivacious duster, Babette.
And small — such as a much applauded Toronto production of Falsettos at the Tarragon Theatre in which Matthews portrayed a lesbian gourmet cook, and The House of Martin Guerre by the Canadian Stage Company, in which she played the confidante of a woman whose “husband” returns from the wars drastically changed.
The result is that Matthews, 30 next month, is one of those live-theatre rarities — a professional actress who — knock wood, as is her habit — keeps busy most of the year.
This week the Hamilton native talked about her career in a reception room off the lobby of the Princess of Wales Theatre, where the only North American touring company of Les Misérables — with Wilkons repeating hi London and Boradway role of Jean Valjean and a handful of Canadians, including Matthews, in featured roles — continues to Nov. 29.
As the innkeeping team, Matthews and American J.P. Dougherty as her husband dominate the musical’s comedy spotlight, regaling the audience with the boisterous and bawdy novelty song, Master of the House.
A few hours before an evening performance, Matthews was dressed informally in blue jeans, short white top, revealing a bare midriff, and long-sleeved orange/rust shirt. She sat barefoot, cross-legged, sipping from a bottle of water, beneath a framed colour photograph of Diana, the late princess for whom the theatre is named.
Matthews reckons her penchat for comedy and character acting has a lot to do with her frequent employment.
“Everybody wants to be the ingenue in the beginning, the pretty girl singing the pretty song. But comedy is what I do best and I’ve been very lucky.”
It’s been that way since early on. Growing up in the “Birdland” area of Hamilton Mountain, where the streets are called Tanager and Bobolink and Titmouse, she cut her acting teeth in musicals at Hill Park secondary school — Guys And Dolls, The Wiz, Grease and Annie — staged by drama teacher Bill Cook.
“The stage had ruts and the backstage was covered in graffiti and I remember, like, eggs being stuck to the ceiling! But Bill Cook managed to a musical on there every single year. He made theatre so exciting.”
There’d been dance lessons (“Ballet was hateful, but I really like tap.”) And more musicals downtown at Hamilton Place, where another teacher, David Dayler, assembled promising area teens for what would turn into hi New Faces program.
It was there, in 1984, that Matthews first worked with a chunky actor named George Masswohl; 10 years later, the two would be married.
Matthews still keeps close Hamilton ties. One of her two sisters, Gwen Filice, is a secretary at Westdale secondary school. Her mother, Margaret Humphrey, works just up Longwood Road at Canco. A second sister, Kim Vitanze, is a housemom.
For Matthews, musical theatre studies at Sheridan College beckoned for three years, followed by dues-paying jobs in smaller Toronto venues. Hello Dolly, at the Limelight Dinner Theatre, got Matthews her Actor’s Equity card.
The first mega-muscial break came when she joined Les Miz as a swing performer, backing up all ensemble roles, in 1991.
“That was still my best experience on stage, in terms of pure youth and exuberance. The entire exeprience of riding the subway to the Royal Alex Theatre, of coming out and singing that music, seeing all those people ???? I did was exciting, from going into the dressing room, to them giving me a robe!”
Matthews says all bifg musicals were different.
“It’s like going to a different high school every few years. The place, the layout, the management, the director, the interactions are all different. I count them all as life experiences.”
In Show Boat, Matthews played a good-time Chicago girl named Lottie, who with her girlfriend, Dottie, squired Robert Morse’s Cap’n Andy on New Year’s Eve.”
“Robert Morse has more fun on stage than any person I know. He’s a vaudeville performer. His timing is amazing. and sometimes he can find it in himself to get the dramatic stuff come across too. But mostly what he’s worried about is whether he’s going to get the laugh or not.
“Elaine Stritch, who played his wife, took cast members out in groups of eight to her favourite restaurants. She’d hire a limo, plus her own, which she got every night. she’s talk about Cole Porter and Cy Coleman and Julie Stein, but she was never pretentious about it.”
After two years in Show Boat, Matthews wanted a rest, and she planned to holiday in California while hubby Masswohl, who’d joined the show late in its North York run, continued with it in Los Angeles.
But Beauty And The Beast, which was recasting in Toronto, wanted Matthews to the man broom called Babette.
“I turned them down three times before they gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. All I could think of was putting on my resumé: Sharron Matthews. Fork. Or Spatula.” And I didn’t know how I felt about that.”
It turns out she enjoyed the run.
“It’s by far the most glamorous role I’ve ever had, mostly for the costume.
“I even hit high-C every night. I have no idea how. I should be a soprano but I’m more like mezzo-alto with some high notes. In Les Miz, though, I’m just basically screaming!”
Matthews planned to spend this summer relaxing on Prince Edward Island, writing material for her own one-woman show while Masswohl — who was at Theatre Aquarius in Rock And Rol last season — worked in Johnny and Melinda and Anne of Green Gables at the Charlottetown Festival.
But Les Miz came calling. She joined the company seven weeks before the show opened in Toronto, playing Mobile, Tampa, and Oklahoma City before St. Paul, where Wilkinson was worked into the muscal.
“Colm raises the stakes in the show tenfold,” Matthews says. “He’s not a man who backs off. His energy is so unbelievable. He’s so committed to the piece, so committed to what he is doing.”

She’s not sure what will happen beyond the Toronto run. She can continue with the North American tour, doing 13 one-week stands but doesn’t have to make up her mind until a few weeks before the Royal Alexander closing.
For the truth is, mega-musical fame and employment are a two-sided proposition.
“It’s amazing,” Matthews notes, “especially with both George and I doing it.
“You can’t get this money anywhere else, especially with what I’m doing now; an American tour in my hometown, so that I’m getting a per-diem allowance.
“I mean, we have a car, a Honda Accord. At one point, we had two cars, but then I thought ‘Who are we? We don’t need two cars!” So we got rid of the Jeep.
“We’re planning to buy a house. We have some beautiful antiques that I know some of my friends can’t afford. I dob’t want to wear it like a badge, but I do like looking around the place.
“But there are drawbacks. I’m married, but don’t get to see my husband as much as I like.”
Matthews and Masswohl, in fact, hadn’t worked together om teenage shows at Hamilton Place until they shared three weeks in Show Boat and, the 1997 Toronto run of The _____ of Martin Guerre.
“But,” says Matthews, “I’d rather be with George and be apart for a little bit of time than be totally without him.”
Boredom also colours the long-run scene.
“After a year in a show, you really have to check your soul. You have to say; “’OK, am I doing this show because I am enjoying myself? Or am I disliking my job and only doing it for the money? I don’t think enough people ask themselves that.”
Matthews has her own personal trick to maintain interest in a show eight times a week.
“I really try to make something new for myself to work on every night. For example, I want the audience to see the difference between who Madame Thénardier is the little child, who she is with patrons at the ____, and who she is with Thénaedier.
“Or I make sure I hit all my consonants but don’t tell anybody else. I just want to put the stakes up.
“And the thing is, if I go out and don’t have a great show, I try not to beat myself up about it.”


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March 10, 2005
article written by Kerry Corrigan

What You Don’t Know is that this is a pretty nice night out at the theatre

Apparently there are a whole bunch of musicals produced every year that we never hear of — shows that close early, making little splash, or no splash at all. some may have deserved to end their runs as soon as they did; others probably could have found an audience eventually, and may yet some day.
Sharron Matthews and George Masswohl felt that there was enough good music in these lesser known musicals to craft a grab-bag of songs for an evening’s entertainment, and they were right.
What You Don’t Know, in a short, week-long run in the Stage Write series at Aquarius, is an infectious collection of unreleased songs, each painting a visual picture.
“Exploring the nether regions of musical theatre,” the duo, accompanied onstage on a baby grand by Music Director John Hughes, posses the strong voices absolutely essential to deliver the ballads and comedic tunes.
From the opening number “Freaks,” from the play of the same name, the duet were confident and polished, melding their voices beautifully. The next song, “Two of a Kind,” described them perfectly.
Masswohl and Mattthews are a married couple who met in 1985 working on the first season of Hamilton’s New Faces, which was a local endeavour that introduced young kids to the demands of professional theatre.
They’re both familiar to Aquarius audiences. She was the Narrator of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; he was Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music, as well as Lennie in Of Mice and Men.
They bridge the songs with playful repartee that borders on a mutual appreciation society, often sounding more scripted than off-the-cuff. Still, burns and Allen weren’t built in a day, and odds are that if these two keep it up, the banter will become more easy-going and less ingratiating.
Matthews’ signature is her breezy, sparkling approach, which works well in this setting. Masswohl, meanwhile, has matured into a formidable, leading man type and, with that rich voice, his limits are boundless. they each add the pizazz needed to present these mostly unknown works.
The one exception to the “little-known” criteria is a selection from Wicked, the prequel to The Wizard of Oz which is making so much noise in T.O. right now. (The only number from the whole evening that I recognized was the wonderful “Alone in the Universe,” having been lucky enough to catch a smashing production of Suessical at Waterdown High School last weekend.)
Other than those, plays like The Wild Party and She Loves Me might only be recognizable to Broadway aficionados. But songs like “I hate Musicals”—“if I wanted helicopters, I’d go to an airport”—and “Ilona”,” while not familiar, still stuck in the mind.
Having only snippets of shows can get a little frustrating; one of Matthews’s best songs, from a show called Is There Life After Highschool?, made one want to know more about the character.
They don’t aim their mark too high, just at a congenial night cabaret-style entertainment that suits the venue. And maybe it will prod one of the local musical theatre groups to take a chance on a new work, rather than re-treading the tried and true ad infinitum.