Interview: George Krissa of LOVE NOTES at Chelsea Table + Stage

George Krissa is a heartthrob. A Canadian heartthrob.

Ask anyone who saw his performance in last season's Hallmark Channel Movie The Holiday Sitter, in which he charmed and delighted audiences with his performance, alongside his co-star, Jonathan Bennett. What was remarkable about this Hallmark Holiday film is the fact that Krissa and Bennett were the first LGBTQ+ couple to be featured in one of the channel's movies. That alone is historic. 

Now, Krissa is headed south from the great white north to make his American cabaret debut on September 23rd at 7pm at Chelsea Table + Stage. 

I had a chance to have a delightful phone interview with Krissa to discuss his show and what audiences have to look forward to.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

So, tell me a little bit about your debut show.

Well, it's about an hour and 15 minutes of musical delights. It's a little bit of classical, musical theater, a little bit of contemporary, some pop, some country, a little bit of rock and then some other stuff. It's called Love Notes because the theme would be stories of love.

I think when people see a one-man show, they're like, "Oh God, it's a cabaret. We're gonna hear someone's life story." Here, though, there's no through-line, there's no story that I'm telling. It's some beautiful music that I would like to share with people. 

What brought you to New York City for your cabaret debut? This is an interesting, and somewhat unusual, path to take - especially coming from Toronto into New York.

Well, as you know, I just starred in a Hallmark movie called The Holiday Sitter, last Christmas, and I kind of reached a whole new audience with that. I know that there's some people living in New York, and in that surrounding area, that were kind of interested in me and what I do. I post a lot of music and some singing on my Instagram, and I got some really great responses with that, so I decided to bring a show there. I was in New York last May for the GLAAD Awards (because our movie was nominated for the GLAAD Award), and I sang a couple of songs with Steven Brinberg, who was at Chelsea Table + Stage at the time, and I noticed the beautiful venue. I thought, well, why don't I just bring a little show down here?

You worked at the Stratford Festival, and The Shaw Festival. Have you done your cabaret there for them?

I've done concert stuff here before and they're very fun and people seem to really enjoy them and I thought I just wanted to bring it down to the US. I've always wanted to perform in New York and I thought, what better time than now?  

This is kind of an interesting through-line here. You seem to be accomplishing a lot of firsts: Your first New York Cabaret and you were 1/2 of Hallmark's first LGBTQ couple in The Holiday Sitter. So what's it like to be an ambassador of sorts for the community?

It's something that I have to say I'm very surprised by... like, you know, this time last year I didn't expect to make history with the Hallmark Channel. It just came up so quickly, and the response has been really overwhelmingly positive. So, all of a sudden, being a visual representation for something that so many people really needed to see is really an honor. I feel incredibly lucky to have been a part of that and a part of such a moment for such a wonderful network. It really is a wonderful network and people really love those movies and so to bring that to a whole new community has been just absolutely incredible. 

I saw the movie. I thought it was very cute. I hate using that word cute, but it was. 

What is the Hallmark movie without being cute? It's supposed to be. They're meant to have humor and heart and to make you feel good and I think that's what was accomplished. What I really love about the movie was it was just a beautiful story about two people falling in love. There was no fighting. There is nothing other than just a beautiful love story that people got to enjoy.

Tell me a little bit about your theater career. You've done the Stratford and Shaw festivals.  I did see the Instagram pictures of you as Rocky in Rocky Horror. I saw that blonde wig and the leopard briefs, I was like, well, that's definitely the way to play Rocky.

(Laughs) Yeah, right. That was my Stratford debut and we also made history with that. We were the most successful and longest running show in Stratford Festival history.  They kept extending and extending until we couldn't, anymore. I primarily did theater and musical theater before I made the jump to TV when COVID happened. I have a new audience with this movie who didn't know that music and musical theater and singing is my other bread and butter and passion.  It's very interesting.

People don't see how versatile you can be.

For some reason, when someone loves musicals and and loves music and loves singing, all of a sudden, that's all they do. I love all of it. I just love telling stories. I love doing movies. I love doing theater. I love singing. I love connecting with people. And I went to school for music. I was a voice major. So it really is like my thing.

You did Tommy in Brigadoon

It's a beautiful show. It really is.

Are you going to sing There But For You Go I in your cabaret?

Yeah. Of all the songs, that was my favorite to sing every night. So I thought I would add that in.

It's such a great song and, actually, it's one of the one of the prettier songs in that score.

You know that show doesn't get done very often. So there's so many songs  people don't get to hear. I think one of the most beautiful songs in in the musical theater canon is Come To Me, Bend To Me. They're not written like that anymore.

Are you bringing your musical director from Canada with you as well?

No. I'm working with a man named Christopher Denny. I'm gonna have a couple of special guests, which I'm really excited about. One being Danielle Wade. We worked together at the Stratford Festival, we were both in The Music Man. She was in Mean Girls on Broadway. She's a friend of mine and I can't wait to sing with her. And, also, my cousin Tyley Ross. He's been on Broadway. He's actually the one who encouraged me to move to Toronto and get into the business because when I was, I don't know how old, like, 20 or so, I was trying to decide if I wanted to go back to school for theater or move to Toronto and and give it a try. He said, "Why don't you just move to Toronto?" I said, "OK, that's probably a good idea."  So he's really the the one that kind of changed the course of my life.  I'm so excited because we never got to sing together. We never sing together, so we're gonna do a song or two.

Did you  begin doing musical theater from a young age, or was it something that you just sprang into when you moved to Toronto? 

I'm from a small town in Canada called Lashburn, a town of about 700 people. My graduating class had 12 kids in it. The opportunities were scarce, but I did some community theater and some community musical theater. I decided, because I loved singing, that I would go to school for music. After I did that, I did corporate and did special events and functions and I really missed acting and telling stories. Here I was, 21 years old, I packed my stuff up, hopped in the car, and arrived in Toronto with no agent, no connection, no anything. I kind of had to figure it out.... I'm still figuring that I'm still getting there.

Is your partner Brian in the business as well?

No, he used to be but, thank goodness, not anymore. Only one of us is allowed to be crazy and that's me.

What does he do?

He works for a company called Shopify. He's a marketing director for them. 

Is there anything else that you want people to know about your show? 

I want people to know that it's gonna be a really fun evening. It's not super heavy. It's there to make you feel good. It's humor. It's heart. It's beautiful music with some wonderful special guests and I I really hope that people come and enjoy it because that's what I like to do.  

I would like your audience to know how to find you on Instagram.

Absolutely. My Instagram is @GeorgeKrissa. Yeah, give me a follow on there. There's information about the show. I'm going to be posting some sneak peeks of the songs that I'm gonna be performing, over the next few weeks, so there'll be a little teasers there.

Alright, and this is just One performance.

Only one. One night. One night only. One shot. For fans of of Hallmark and of beautiful love stories and beautiful feel-good music, this show will be right up their alley.

Thank you George for taking the time to talk to me, and best of luck on your show!

George Krissa's LOVE NOTES will premiere at Chelsea Table + Stage on September 23 at 7PM. There will also be a livestream available. For tickets visit the CT+S website HERE.

Photos provided by George Krissa.

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