Rainbow Stage producing three shows next summer

To follow up the most financially successful season in its seven-decade history, next summer Rainbow Stage is headed to Jerusalem, Harvard and to a shtetl called Anatevka.

The company’s 72nd season will open in June with a run of Jesus Christ Superstar, the first time Andrew Lloyd Webber’s gospel rock opera has visited Kildonan Park.

Next, Elle Woods defies stereotypical expectations by nailing her LSATs to earn entry to a top Ivy League law school in Legally Blonde: The Musical, the smash adaptation of the 2001 comedy starring Reese Witherspoon. What, like it’s hard?

And in September, the country’s longest-running outdoor theatre company will join forces with Winnipeg Jewish Theatre to co-produce Fiddler on the Roof. That four-show run of Fiddler will mark the first time a Rainbow Stage show is produced under the dome in September, giving audiences a chance to see Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s classic musical run its course under a proper Prairie sunset.

While Fiddler has been staged by Rainbow four times (1971, 1977, 1984 and 1993), neither Jesus Christ Superstar nor Legally Blonde has ever been performed at the venue, but artistic director Carson Nattrass says both shows were consistently amongst the top requested shows by both audiences and the performing community alike.

“I looked at my notes from when I first got this job, and I made a list of shows I’d like to do here, and there Legally Blonde was at the top of the list. So it took us since 2017 to get here,” Nattrass says.

WJT artistic director Dan Petrenko initiated conversations about a Fiddler duet last year, and cheekily programmed the musical into his company’s current season — which continues in April with a production of bike circumnavigation musical Ride — as a Rosh Hashana surprise.

Now the secret is out: from Sept. 9 to 13, Petrenko will direct the run of the musical, which, like Jesus Christ Superstar, became an Oscar winner through the vision of the late Canadian director Norman Jewison (who, despite his last name, was of Protestant descent).

Speaking with the Free Press Monday, Petrenko said the show will feature a full, onstage orchestra, and that while he was excited to begin casting discussions, he couldn’t offer any hints at his top picks for Tevye, Golde, Tzeitel or Lazar Wolf.

For Legally Blonde (Aug. 13-30), Nattrass will bring back director Alexandra Herzog and choreographer Josh Assor for the third consecutive season as a tandem. In 2024, the duo worked in the same roles in Mary Poppins, and last summer collaborated on Rock of Ages. Renate Tabas (née Rossol) will serve as musical director.

Jesus Christ Superstar (June 25-July 12) will be directed by Sharon Bajer, who last directed at Rainbow Stage in 2019, when she helmed a revival of Danny Schur and Rick Chafe’s Strike! The Musical, which premièred at Rainbow in 2005.

While Tuesday’s announcements signal a busy summer ahead for Rainbow Stage, which rode several sellouts of Frozen throughout the 2025 season, the company’s Kildonan Park home is set for an active winter. Extensive renovations funded by civic, provincial and federal governments, along with the Winnipeg Foundation, are underway as part of Rainbow’s first phase of construction.

Nattrass says that by the time productions of Jesus Christ Superstar begin, refurbished external walkways leading to the venue will be complete, while the box office and bathrooms will each be redone to suit accessibility standards.

New doorways are being installed, and exterior walls are being raised, which Nattrass says will have the downside of diminishing the theatre’s exterior mural, painted in 2009, beyond repair. In its stead, Nattrass says there are plans to add more colour to the concrete theatre, designed by architects Smith, Carter, Katelnikoff in 1953.

benwaldman/winnipegfreepress.com