If the content you are seeing is presented as unstyled HTML your browser is an older version that cannot support cascading style sheets. If you wish to upgrade your browser you may download Mozilla or Internet Explorer for Windows.

Anne of Green Gables

CTE photo
Photo from the successful CBC-television non-musical adaptation of Anne of Green Gables (l-r) Colleen Dewhurst as Marilla, Megan Follows as Anne and Richard Farnsworth as Matthew

Several theatre versions of Lucy Maude Montgomery's book (published in 1908) exist, including Anne, by Paul Ledoux presented by Young People's Theatre in 1998, but the most famous Canadian one is the musical theatre adaptation Anne of Green Gables, with music by Norman Campbell, book by Donald Harron, with lyrics by Harron, Campbell, Mavor Moore, and Elaine Campbell, directed and choreographed by Alan Lund. The production premiered July 27, 1965 at the Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown, featuring Barbara Hamilton, Peter Mews and Dean Regan. It is a family-oriented tale of an orphan and her adoptive parents which has become the longest running musical in the history of Canada. As of 2019, it has been performed 2500 times, with nineteen different actors in the role of Anne.

Marilla and Matthew (brother and sister) adopt a red-haired girl (when they had been hoping for a boy) to find that she is a pack of trouble. They grow to love her eccentricity and passion while she grows to love the farm, her friends, her parents and Prince Edward Island, where the work is set.

Anne of Green Gables has toured Canada, and performed in Japan, London, and New York. It was the mainstay of the Charlottetown Festival each summer until 2023, when the Artistic Director Adam Brazier made the controversial decision to produce it every other year, and feature a new musical on alternate years, beginning in 2023.

Website: www.anneofgreengables.com

Last updated 2022-12-21