A Whole New World: The Music of Alan Menken

Perfect for the whole family, revisit your childhood with the iconic music of Alan Menken, the master songwriter of Aladdin, Beauty And The Beast, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, and Little Shop Of Horrors. Discover how one man's music gave us a whole new world of animated characters, stories, and classic films. Hear all your favourite hits including Be Our Guest, Part Of Your World, Friend Like Me, Under The Sea, Colors of the Wind, Go The Distance, Suddenly Seymour, and of course, A Whole New World. 

Chris Tsujiuchi (he/him)- Musical Arranger, Musical Director, Performer

Chris Tsujiuchi is a graduate of Sheridan College's Musical Theatre program. Theatre credits include Box 4901, Recurring John, Paradises Lost (Summerworks Festival), Little Shop of Horrors (Lower Ossington Theatre), and The Rocky Horror Show (Hart House Theatre). Musical Direction credits include Alice in Wonderland (Bad Hats / MTYP), Into the Woods (Talk is Free Theatre / Winter Garden Theatre), Parade (Toronto Musical Concerts) The Last Five Years (YRG Productions), Onegin (Musical Stage Company/National Arts Centre/Arts Club Western Canada Tour), 35MM (Toronto Premiere), Any Dream Will Do (Angelwalk Theatre & Theatre Collingwood), A Misfortune (Next Stage Festival), Mickey & Judy (Toronto Fringe/Best of Fringe), and bare (Canadian Premiere/WatersEdge Productions). Chris has worked as an accompanist and teacher at Sheridan College, Ryerson University, Randolph Academy, and George Brown College. He has toured extensively with Sharron Matthews, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, and can also be seen performing in Asian Riffing Trio (aka ART) and his own "Chris-terical" series of Cabarets.

 

Dillan Chiblow (He/They) - Performer

Dillan is an Ojibwe storyteller from Garden River First Nation. He first trained at Sheridan's Musical Theatre program and holds a Masters degree in Musical Theatre Performance from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Dillan was the Syd & Shirley Banks prize recipient (2020) and is one of the recipients of the Musical Stage Company's Aubry Dan Fund for new musicals for The 7 Fires: A New Musical, where Dillan is the book writer. He was recently nominated for a Dora award for Outstanding performance by an Individual for his portrait of Hummingbird in the world premiere of Bentboy at YPT in Toronto. Dillan has a passion for telling his peoples/Indigenous stories from Turtle Island and Indigenizing the Musical Theatre industry. Select Credits. Film/TV: SkyMed(CBC); Run The Burbs(CBC); Murdoch Mysteries(CBC); Theatre: Starwalker - Eddie Starwalker (Urban Ink & Musical Stage Co); Bentboy - Hummingbird (Dora nomination) (YPT); Baapi Roho - Banks Prize Cabaret (Musical Stage Co); Only Drunks and Children Tell The Truth - Rodney (Magnus Theatre); Children of God (Citadel, Segal Center, Western Canada Theatre, Urban Ink).

 

Evangelia Kambites (she/her) - Performer

Evangelia Kambites is a singer/songwriter, actor, dancer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Stratford, ON. Notable stage credits include Hadestown (Citadel), Billy Elliot, Little Shop of Horrors, You Can't Stop the Beat Cabaret, Spamalot, A Wrinkle in Time, Northern Tracks (Stratford Festival), Porchside Songs (Musical Stage Co.), the META Award-winning production of The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God (NAC/Centaur/BTW), The Hockey Sweater (Segal Centre/NAC) I Think I'm Fallin' - The Songs of Joni Mitchell (Belfry Theatre), for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, The Secret Chord: A Leonard Cohen Experience, 27 Club (Soulpepper), the Jessie Award-winning production of Avenue Q (Arts Club), A Whole New World: The Magical Music of Alan Menken (Angelwalk Theatre), Buddy–The Buddy Holly Story (Theatre North West). For television: Minority Report (FOX), Heroes Reborn (NBC), Incorporated (SYFY/CBS), The Boys (Sony/Amazon), Y: The Last Man (FX). Debut album Feel The Fall available now on all platforms! For Ellis and Scott, always.

 

Taurian Teelucksingh - Performer

Taurian is a multi-disciplinary Trinidadian-Canadian artist, born and raised in Brampton, Ontario. Introduced to the arts at a young age, he was fortunate to frequent plays and musicals with his family, and ever since hearing the overture to Phantom, at the age of four, in his family's minivan, he’s been hooked! His creativity was fostered by his family, who enrolled him in piano, singing, acting, and dance lessons. He was further encouraged to pursue his passions throughout his schooling, attending Mayfield Secondary School as a vocal major, and Sheridan College where he earned an Honours Bachelor Degree in Music Theatre Performance. Since graduating in 2021, Taurian has helped develop three musicals through various workshops around the GTA , and is looking forward to his third season at the Shaw Festival: North America’s second largest repertory theatre company. His credits include: The Wolf in the Voice (workshop), Nightswimming Theatre; Prince Caspian, On the Razzle, The Shadow of a Doubt, Bright Lights, Damn Yankees, Chitra, Too True to Be Good, The Shaw Festival; Dion: A Rock Opera (2023/2021 workshops), Coal Mine Theatre; Elf: The Musical, The Grand Theatre; Treemonisha (workshop), Volcano Productions; 40^th DMMA Onstage Chorus, TAPA/Dora Mavor Moore Awards.

Upcoming: Third consecutive season at The Shaw Festival, starring as Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady

 

Gabi Epstein (she/her) – Performer

Hailed “Canada’s Queen of Cabaret” by CTV, Gabi is a DORA award winner and one of Canada's leading stage/cabaret performers best known for playing Audrey in "Little Shop of Horrors" at the Stratford Festival (which she performed for Alan Menken himself!) and Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" at the Segal Centre and in concert for the Harold Green Jewish Theatre.

Gabi recently performed the role of Countess Charlotte Malcolm opposite Cynthia Dale and “Will and Grace” star Eric McCormack in the acclaimed staged concert of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” at Koerner Hall in Toronto. Just before that, you could catch her rocking out in “More Entertainment”’s inaugural production of “Rock of Ages” at the Elgin Theatre.

Her professional career has spanned almost 20 years and has included leading and supporting roles in musicals such as Sweeney Todd (DORA Award Winner), Fiddler on the Roof, Candide, Billy Elliot, The Sound of Music, Blood Brothers, We Will Rock You, 9 to 5: the Musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Once (DORA Award Winner) with companies such as Mirvish, The Stratford Festival, Talk is Free Theatre, The Musical Stage Company, Stage West, Persephone Theatre, Drayton Entertainment, The Capitol Theatre, and the Harold Green Jewish Theatre. 

Her concerts/cabarets have been performed all over North America in such acclaimed venues as The Sony Centre, The Jane Mallett Theatre, Roy Thompson Hall, The Jazz Bistro, and Don’t Tell Mama in NYC where her show was named “Best Cabaret of the Year” by the Times Square Chronicles.

Her solo show and love letter to Barbra Streisand, “Gabs Sings Babs” has been performed at Globus Theatre, The Port Stanley Festival Theatre, Theatre Collingwood, and coming up at the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre in January as well as the Capitol Theatre Port Hope in July/August.

Gabi’s sophomore studio album, also titled “Gabs Sings Babs” was released in 2022. It is available for purchase at www.gabiepstein.com (where you can also join her mailing list), as well as Bandcamp and all streaming platforms.