Rebecca Perry Productions

About

Rebecca Perry is an actor, singer and playwright based in Toronto. She has worked with a variety of companies across North America in theatre, film, television and voiceover.

She played lead roles in the major motion pictures Best Friend From Heaven, alongside Kris Kristofferson and Forest Fairies, alongside Simon Callow (Amazon Prime). She is in season 5 of HBO's The Handmaid's Tale, and also has a recurring role on the Netflix show Ponysitters Club and its subsequent film, she appears in the Christmas films Baby in a Manger and Christmas with a Prince: The Royal Baby (Amazon Prime/Apple TV). She played lead characters in episodes of TV's Haunted Hospitals (T+E) and Killer Affair (Amazon Prime). Perry has provided voices for the multiple characters in the animated feature films Duck and Donk (upcoming) and Fast and Furriest (Amazon Prime). You will be able to see her in the upcoming movies K-9 Mystery and Blue Grass Christmas. She is a lead in the four-time Canadian Comedy Award-winning web-series A Gay Victorian Affair (YouTube), which gained an immediate following and achieved success in a multitude of festivals around the USA.

In the fall of 2017, Perry toured with Roseneath Theatre's Dora Award-winning, recently published play The Money Tree, which travelled to 15 states in the US, including a residency at The Smith Centre in Las Vegas, Nevada. Perry was also part of the 2016 winter tour around Ontario.

Perry’s multiple award-winning solo show Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl (★★★★★ The Nouse UK) toured to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2015, where it sold out its entire run at the prestigious Gilded Balloon Teviot, and even had a celebrity attendee: Anthony Rapp of Broadway's Rent! and Star Trek: Discovery. The success at Edinburgh led to a regional tour of England in 2016, and an even larger one in fall 2018. The Canadian premiere for the show was at the Rose Theatre in Brampton in 2015, and since then Confessions... has toured theatres around Ontario and the Maritimes, including performances at the Sudbury Theatre Centre, the Lighthouse Festival Theatre, the Burlington Performing Arts Centre, the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, the Chester Playhouse in Nova Scotia and the Jack Byrne Arena in Torbay, Newfoundland. Most recently, the show toured the prairies twice, with performances in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Awards include both Outstanding Performer & Outstanding Production from NOW Magazine, and Best Fringe Festival Production (Play) from BroadwayWorld. Receiving critical acclaim wherever it goes, the show has been profiled on Global TV, featured in podcast & radio interviews, and can be seen on TV across the country – Bell Fibe TV Canada taped the show live in front of a studio audience for their program On Stage On Demand.

The sequel, Adventures of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl (★★★★★ TWISI), was invited to return to the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, continuing Perry's intercontinental success, and even leading to a performance at the Belltable Theatre in Limerick, Ireland. Adventures… at The Rose Theatre, Classic Theatre Cobalt and the Lighthouse Festival Theatre, all being return trips after the success of Confessions... Awards include Best Fringe Festival Production (Play) and Fringe Festival Breakout Performance (Female), both from BroadwayWorld. Plans are pending for a performance at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts.

Perry's From Judy to Bette: The Stars of Old Hollywood (★★★★★ MusicalTalk), which premiered at the prestigious 2016 Next Stage Theatre Festival, sold out its entire run and garnered a feature from CBC Radio, which also aired songs from the show. Since then, and now a full-length show, it has been performed in sixteen regional theatres across six counties of England in 2018, and has toured three times in the East Coast.

Following the footsteps of Perry's first two shows, it played at the Rose Theatre, Brampton in July 2019 just before heading to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a critically acclaimed and highly successful run at the Gilded Balloon's newest venue, the Patter Hoose. This was received with great critical and audience acclaim. The show toured Toronto and the wider GTA with Smile Theatre from January 2020 until lockdown, continuing with digital performances after that.

From Judy to Bette featured in the Sudbury Theatre Centre’s 19/20 season, with thirteen performances there, for which a complete new scenography design was created. A longer and more comprehensive show, this production set the stage for the scale of performances to come. It earned From Judy to Bette six nonimations in the 2020 Toronto Broadway World Awards. The show was due to tour the UK for two months in April/May/June 2020, and discussions were underway for tours to Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand. These have all been postponed for the duration of the current crisis.

Most recently, Perry developed Bond, James Bond: The Songs of 007, a show that celebrates all 25 of the James Bond theme songs, and the people who sang them, as well as some of the songs that were rejected or used in other ways. The show began touring with Smile Theatre as a two-piece (piano and vocals only) before premiering at Base 31 in Picton, ON as a four-piece. The full, seven-piece show premiered on the mainstage at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts in November 2023 to great success, and already has dates planned around Ontario.

Also in 2023, Perry opened Christmas with a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl - the last of Coffeeshop trilogy, which takes place between Confessions and Adventures. The show debuted at the Capitol Centre in North Bay, ON in December and is now prepping for further shows.

During the initial lockdown, Perry and her team swiftly created a fireside live-stream production of From Judy to Bette which was broadcast just two weeks after theatres closed. It attracted a huge audience, and received the Broadway World Award for Best Streaming Production/Performance 2020. In the summer of 2020, the team filmed the show as a full-blown musical movie, which debuted in June 2022.

Also during lockdown, Perry created two brand new digital shows alongside long-time accompanist and collaborator, David Kingsmill. Maps of Home: A Folk Cabaret was initially broadcast as a live-stream in association with the Rose Theatre, Brampton, and has since been performaned live for Smile Theatre around the GTA, and had a fusion live-digital production created. Full of folk nostalgia and contemporary chart-toppers, this is a show to keep audiences tapping their toes, and even includes two songs written by David and Rebecca. Christmas in Hollywood is a celebration of the wonderful Christmas songs from the inimitable Hollywood movies of the '50s and '60s, and was toured with Smile Theatre and was broadcast live with their assistance for Christmas 2020. With each digital show, Perry's digital production values have increased, and she is as ready to perform digitally as she is live.

Perry also worked on and/or created several other performances throughout 2020. She and David Kingsmill wrote and performed the audio short COVID Meet-Cute in association with Convergence Theatre. Next she played the title role in Steven Elliott Jackson's full-length audio experience Sarah/Frank, which toured to the Toronto, Hamilton, Fundy and Halifax digital Fringes in 2020 to great success. In early 2021, she teamed up with Jackson again to perform the role of Ethel LeNeve in the filmed theatre production of The Kindness of Murder for the 2021 Next Stage Theatre Festival.

Perry was inducted into the House of Don McKellar at the 2016 Harold Awards, celebrating both her creative and entrepreneurial spirit and her understanding of the business side of acting that has helped her successfully create and perform her three respective solo shows that she tours across the globe.

Upcoming Engagements

Thursday, February 27th, 2025 @ Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre, Medicine Hat, AB - 7:30pm

Photo credits: Tanja Tiziana (promo) and Sam Gaetz (production)

Trailer

Show synopsis

Judy Garland. Lucille Ball. Bette Davis. Betty Hutton. Trailblazers refusing to be “just another ingénue” during Hollywood’s Golden Age. They each broke the mold by taking the Hollywood studio system to task, fighting for the roles that made them famous, and opening doors that had previously been firmly shut for women in the film industry. Weaving together scandalous headlines, iconic songs and comedy gold, journey through the groundbreaking careers of the screen legends of yesteryear. Having sold out over 20+ cities worldwide so far, this solo show is created and performed by triple BroadwayWorld award-winner Rebecca Perry (Stage/TV’s Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl). With this affecting show, Perry shows that she not only creates her own wonderful characters, but beautifully inhabits those – maybe even larger still than her own – that inspire her.

Press quotes

"An unadulterated five-star show ... A bonafide star giving a powerhouse performance."
★★★★★ - MusicalTalk

"One showstopper after another." "A mighty fine show, well worth going to see."
★★★★.5 - Bouquets and Brickbats

"Perry is amazing; I was stunned."
★★★★.5 - Edinburgh Culture Review

"Good-hearted, upbeat and lots of fun."
★★★★ - Broadway Baby

"An absolutely perfect homage to days gone by, repeatedly hitting just the right tone to evoke the Golden Era of Hollywood." "A voice to bring the house down, articulate and heart-warming storytelling, this was a spectacular hour of glorious, pure entertainment."
★★★★ - The Mumble

"Perry has the chutzpah of a 1940s starlet."
★★★★ - Culture Fix

“Expertly weaving stories, songs, and impressions, Perry once again shows off her knack for making everyone forget that they’re watching a one-woman show”
★★★★ - Torontoist

“[Perry] does not impersonate; she encapsulates” “A smart, sharp portrait of four women who changed Hollywood performed by a smart, sharp performer...who sets the standard for such shows”
- The Slotkin Letter

“Perry doesn't do impersonations … she channels the women”
- Mooney on Theatre

Selected Awards

Top Streaming Production/Performance – BroadwayWorld Toronto

Performer of the Decade Nominee (Rebecca Perry) – BroadwayWorld Toronto

Vocalist of the Decade Nominee (Rebecca Perry) – BroadwayWorld Toronto

Director of a Musical of the Decade Nominee (Michael Rubinstein) – BroadwayWorld Toronto

Set Design of the Decade Nominee (Claire Hill) – BroadwayWorld Toronto

Production of a Musical of the Decade Nominee – BroadwayWorld Toronto

Best Independent Production Nominee – BroadwayWorld Toronto

Creative and
Production Team

Created and Performed by Rebecca Perry

Directed by Michael Rubinstein

Musical Direction and Arrangements by David Kingsmill and Quinton Naughton

Scenography by Claire Hill

Dress Construction by Jamie Lujan

Original Lighting Design by Chin Palipane

Original Set Design by Edward George

Original Costume Design by Patricia Whalen

Production History

St. Francis Centre, Ajax, ON

Capitol Theatre, Port Hope, Ontario

Smile Theatre Tour, GTA, ON

Sudbury, ON

Highland Arts Theatre, Sydney, NS

Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scotland

Rose Theatre, Brampton, Ontario

New Glasgow, Nova Scotia

Summerside, Prince Edward Island

Windsor, Nova Scotia

Toronto, Ontario

Kelsall, Cheshire, UK

Frodsham, Cheshire, UK

Northwich, Cheshire, UK

Garstang, Lancashire, UK

Thursby, Cumbria, UK

Ullock, Cumbria, UK

Distington, Cumbria, UK

Millom, Cumbria, UK

Worlaby, North Lincolnshire, UK

Bishop Burton, Yorkshire, UK

Gunness, North Lincolnshire, UK

Winterton, North Lincolnshire, UK

Margaretsville, Nova Scotia - Evergreen Theatre

Clitheroe, England - Clitheroe Library Theatre

Roughlee, England - Roughlee Village Centre

Edgworth, England - The Barlow, Edgworth

Ansdell, England - Ansdell Library Theatre

Richmond Hill, ON – Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts

Sioux Lookout, ON

Fort Frances, ON

Toronto, ON – Next Stage Theatre Festival