‘Showtune’: London’s senior theatre group set for 10-day run at Grand Theatre

The Silver Spotlight Theatre, which features actors 55 years and older, is getting ready for its debut of 'Showtune.' Brent Lale has the story.

From seasoned actors to those taking the stage for their first ever musical, London, Ont.’s Silver Spotlight Theatre (SST) is back for its fourth musical production.

Beginning Dec. 4, SST will perform eight shows over 10 days of the Jerry Herman musical revue Showtune on the Auburn Stage at the Grand Theatre.

“People go, ‘What’s Showtune? Jerry Herman, who’s Jerry Herman?’” said Jeff Holbrough, the production’s musical director.

“Then you think about the songs ‘La Cage aux Folles,’ ‘Mame,’ ‘Hello, Dolly!’ and you go, ‘Oh, I didn’t know Jerry Herman wrote all those songs.’ He wrote songs about love, he wrote songs about friendship, he wrote songs about enjoying life and making things better, which we need more of that anyways,” he explained.

SST, which was created in 2022, is dedicated to producing musicals with those 55 years and older.

“This is my first musical period,” said Steve Hobbs, who will be signing 14 songs during the 90-minute show.

“I knew I was in the demographic, but I thought this would be a great opportunity to explore musical theater. I’ve sung in Broadway choirs and done some workshops in musical theatre. But I thought, ‘Well, this is my chance to make my debut.’ We have some seasoned theatre performers and others, it’s their first time or it’s been a long time since they’ve done it since university or high school. We’re such a team and we’re loving it,” explained Hobbs.

Fellow senior Karen Hamilton MacDonald is ready to take the stage for her third SST production. She performed in Babes in Arms and Grease, only missing Into the Woods in 2024.

“I’m obviously a senior and to have the chance to play younger roles that I may not have done in my younger years is a real bonus,” said Hamilton MacDonald. “It’s a lot of fun and the cast members have become a little community, and we really support each other.”

Over the past four years, SST has become a place for these seniors to connect.

“They go for lunch, they go to theatre together and the friendships that we’ve created is just it’s way more than I ever thought it was going to be,” said Jeff Holbrough, Showtune’s musical director.

When SST was formed, it was a branch of Musical Theatre Productions (MTP) which was founded in 1988. After four years, SST is now separating.

“We were able to acquire our own charitable status through CRA [Canada Revenue Agency] and we have established our own brand within the community,” said Mike Jewison, co-producer of Showtune and president of the board of MTP. “It’s given us an autonomy that we’ve long looked for.”

Jewison says they will now be responsible for their own expenses, sets and props, but it gives them more freedom.

‘With Musical Theater Productions, the big part of that is musical,” said Jewison. “Now that Silver Spotlight has branched off, we’re not necessarily tied to doing musicals all the time. We could do small plays, we could do cabarets, we could do serious pieces, so it really opens up a lot of opportunities for us.”

The cast has been practicing multiple days per week for months and they are ready to move into the Grand Theatre for the show.

“People are going to just come out and you are going to know some of the songs, some of the songs you won’t know, but that’s okay,” said Holbrough. “It’s just it’s going to be a fabulous show and come out 90 minutes long and come out and enjoy yourself at the at the Auburn.”