MONTREAL - There's singing! There's dancing! There's smoked meat! But what else would you expect from "Schwartz's: The Musical."
If you haven't heard, Schwartz's is a world-renowned Montreal deli known for its edgy waiters and mouth-watering smoked meat. People from as far away as Australia and Japan have lined up for its sandwiches.
It's a favourite hangout for Montrealers regular and famous alike. It has seen its counter graced by such luminaries as comedian Joan Rivers, rocker Gene Simmons of Kiss fame, poet-singer Leonard Cohen and most of Canada's prime ministers since it opened in 1928.
Now the fabled restaurant, which has already been chronicled in documentaries and a book, is coming to the stage at Montreal's Centaur Theatre as a musical, starting Thursday.
"Like most actors, I've done a lot of waitering in my time," jokes Vito DeFilippo, who plays Ben the manager, one of the pivotal characters. "It's not that much of a reach."
He admits smoked meat wasn't the first food that came to mind when he heard about the idea of doing a musical based on the restaurant.
"I thought it was kind of nuts," the transplanted Torontonian said with a laugh as the cast went through their paces for the opening-night performance.
"But somehow Rick and George have managed to put this piece together. It actually works and it's a lot of great fun. I love this piece. I'm really happy with it."
He's talking about Rick Blue and George Bowser of the popular musical comedy duo Bowser and Blue.
They say the idea for the show came from a flippant comment by Montreal journalist Bill Brownstein when he asked them why they didn't make a musical out of his book on Schwartz's.
"I think we're on rewrite No. 12," Bowser said in an interview. "I wouldn't say (it's been) difficult but it requires a lot of nurturing."
The story is set in 1998, when Schwartz's owner at the time wanted to sell the business. In comes Amber from Toronto (Stephanie Martin) who sees a gold mine in the place and -- yikes! -- a franchise.
But Amber doesn't count on being swept up in Ben's passion for the place and together they generate more heat than a Schwartz's grill.
Blue said the challenge has been making sure the story comes through amid all the jokes, songs, and characters who hustle through the show with the hectic energy the restaurant's staff is famous for.
"We want to show Schwartz's authentically," Blue said. "People in Montreal are not going to want us to lie about Schwartz's. They know Schwartz's. We can't screw around with this."
The set certainly invokes the restaurant with the same kind of down-at-the-heels decor of the actual eatery, although it looks less cramped.
Brownstein marvelled at how his book, "Schwartz's Hebrew Delicatessen: The Story," has been translated to the stage.
"These guys have taken the backbone of this thing and brought it to a whole other level."
Brownstein said there's a lot of fodder in the restaurant, which has changed little -- if at all -- since it opened.
"By doing nothing, they've lasted," he said. "A thousand restaurants live and die every year and they've been around longer than anybody."
He said the restaurant has developed a cachet that makes it a top tourist attraction that has even seen them cater their food to celebrities such as the Rolling Stones.
"It's an icon," Brownstein said. "It's up there with Celine and the cross" on Mount Royal.
"It's also a very democratic place. You wait in line no matter who you are, you're thrust at a table with eight people, it could be bank robbers or bank presidents, it doesn't seem to matter."
But does the musical cut the mustard with the real crew at the restaurant?
"It's amazing seeing Schwartz's daily life come to life on stage," says Jennifer Wieskopf, who does marketing for the deli. "There's some fiction but there's a lot of fact in there as well."
Frank Silva, the general manager, thought the musical was a great idea and had high praise for the cast.
"They're pretty good," he said. "I can even get them a job part time if they like. They're excellent."
