THE SECRET CHORD to Return to Segal Centre's Sylvan Adams Theatre
Divine Brown, Michael Torontow and Beau Dixon join the cast under Frank Cox-O'Connell's direction.
The Segal Centre for Performing Arts will present the return of The Secret Chord: A Leonard Cohen Experience, on stage from October 5 to October 25, 2026 at the Sylvan Adams Theatre. Created by Frank Cox-O'Connell, Marni Jackson and Mike Ross, and directed by Frank Cox-O'Connell, the Soulpepper production comes back to the city that shaped Cohen's life and work after sold-out performances in Montreal and Toronto.
A docu-concert that moves between storytelling and performance, The Secret Chord traces Cohen's life through the songs that built the legend. The text is entirely new for this staging: the storytelling that carries the show between songs has been rewritten, so audiences who already saw it will find a different experience built around the same music. Five performers and a live band share the stage for ninety minutes, trading off the lead from song to song. Through Mike Ross' arrangements, Cohen's classics are reinterpreted with a fresh charge and pulled toward soul, blues and gospel. Familiar songs that audiences have known by heart for fifty years land as something new with an energy of its own.
Soulpepper first staged The Secret Chord in 2018, two years after Cohen's passing, and remounted the show several times since. Its first Montreal engagement played at the Segal in December 2024 and sold out. Nowhere else could this show mean quite what it means here, and it quickly became a crowd favourite. 'Montreal, you asked for it, and now it's back!' said Lisa Rubin, Artistic and Executive Director of the Segal Centre.
The production is carried by performers familiar to Segal audiences: Divine Brown, Emily Schultz and Andrew Penner return from the previous run of The Secret Chord, with Penner also coming off Detroit: Music of the Motor City. They are joined by Michael Torontow (Titanique) and by Beau Dixon in his first Segal appearance. On stage with them, Jacob Gorzhaltsan returns on reeds after Detroit: Music of the Motor City and the previous run of The Secret Chord, alongside Tom Moffett on trumpet, Jamie Drake on drums and Bret Higgins on bass. Performed without intermission, the show moves through Ross' arrangements of 'Hallelujah,' 'Suzanne,' 'Bird on the Wire,' 'Everybody Knows' and 'So Long, Marianne.'
'Whether you missed it the first time or simply couldn't imagine seeing it only once, this return brings new artists, new energy, and another chance to experience something truly special,' highlights Lisa Rubin. This show is for audiences who want to encounter Cohen's work in a truly meaningful form, and discover (or rediscover) the production that earned its return.
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