Published on: March 16, 2017
There’s good reason Sharron Matthews is so happy these days.
It’s not just that she’s been knighted Canada’s red-headed goddess of cabaret and has wowed audiences around the world with her sparkling wit and powerhouse lungs.
After a lifetime of struggling with image issues, Matthews has finally realized she is her own best friend and a spectacular friend at that.
From March 20 through April 8, Matthews will share her journey to self worth in her new cabaret show Girl Crush, created especially for Lunchbox Theatre.
“If you don’t like yourself the way you are, you’re wasting your life. Being self conscious and idolizing the impossibly wrong people was a huge determent to my life,” says Matthews recalling as a young girl she was “in awe of Farrah Fawcett and those posters of her.
“She was everything I could never have hoped to be. She was a skinny, blond, Hollywood beauty who wore bikinis. My people were born to be farmers. I can comfortably carry two quarts of milk on each side.”
Things got worse for Matthews as she started having crushes on high school boys.
“The guy I wanted in high school had one of those perfect girlfriends. It hurt so much to see him with her,” she recalls.
“I was bullied mercilessly in school. Instead of obsessing over how I was being treated, I should have taken an example from one of my classmates named Joannie. At 13 she knew she was gay and she was comfortable in her own skin because she took ownership of her skin and I didn’t.
“I’ve finally learned what Joannie knew. Your first choice should always be yourself.”
Another reason Matthews is so happy is that Girl Crush is opening in Calgary.
She has wanted to bring one of her cabaret shows to Calgary for a long time, and owes the reality of it finally happening to Mark Bellamy, Lunchbox Theatre’s outgoing artistic director.
“Back in 1991, Mark and I were in a production of Hello Dolly at the Limelight Dinner Theatre in Toronto. We were both just kids who became instant friends. Mark eventually moved back to Calgary and made such an incredible name for himself.
“I was on my way to Vancouver with my husband (George Masswohl) to do a show and I made him stop off in Calgary so I could look Mark up. He was working for Calgary Opera after having resigned from Vertigo Theatre.
“I told him how much I wanted to create a show for Calgary and he said if he ever got another theatre he’d try to make it happen.”
True to his word, Bellamy contacted Matthews last year and invited her to create a new show and workshop it at Lunchbox Theatre’s 2016 Suncor Stage One Festival of New Plays. He even offered to be her creative consultant.
The germ for Girl Crush came from a blog Matthews wrote entitled How to Fall In Love With Myself in a Bathing Suit.
“I got 15,000 hits on that blog and received so many letters and not just from women,” she says. “Men wrote to me and told me they’ve gone through the same processes and the same angst, so I am convinced Girl Crush will appeal to men as well.”
The show is a mash up of songs and stories and Matthews promises she is going to turn Lunchbox Theatre into a cabaret for this event.