Producers of “Bernadette,” a musical based on the story of St. Bernadette Soubirous, are hoping the story of a young, uneducated girl’s innocence and determination will attract believers and non-believers alike.
“A good story is a good story,” said director Serge Denoncourt, who was drawn to the story after visiting Lourdes and reading the handwritten records of St. Bernadette’s interrogation by police.
The Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture will host the North American debut of the show, reworked from the version that premiered in Lourdes, France, in 2019. The musical is set to run Feb. 12 through March 15.
At a Dec. 3, 2025, press event to introduce the musical, Denoncourt, from Quebec, said that he found it “easy, very easy” to adjust it for American audiences.
“In France, they don’t do musicals like we do,” he said. “They want song, song, song. So in France, it was about two-thirds of what I wanted it to be.”
The production at the Athenaeum includes more material, including one completely new song, changes to some others and added spoken material, he said.
The words of Bernadette come directly from the historical records, he explained. That’s one reason for the play being a musical: Bernadette did not speak more than she had to, most of the time. However, from what she did say, and how people reacted to her, it’s clear that she was a normal teenager: she had a temper, she could be stubborn, she argued with her mother.
The music, Denoncourt said, helps convey the emotion of the story.
Eyma Scharen, who originated the role in France, will play Bernadette at the Athenaeum.
Well-known actor and producer Kelsey Grammer signed on as executive producer of the U.S. production after hearing about the musical from Legionaries of Christ Father Mark Haydu, who gave Grammer a tour of the Vatican some years ago.
Haydu heard about the musical in Europe and contacted Grammer to see if he could help bring it to the United States, Grammer said.
The first thing Grammer did was look up the story of St. Bernadette.
“I’m not a Catholic, so I don’t really know all the same stuff,” he said.
The story is that Bernadette, a sickly child growing up in a very poor family in Lourdes, saw an apparition 18 times between February and July 1858 in a grotto outside her village in the Pyrenees. The apparition, which she later described as a “young lady,” eventually told her to bathe in the spring in the grotto.
The townspeople and her family doubted her, and some believed her to be insane. They pressed her for the identity of the apparition, and eventually, when she continued asking, the apparition said that she was the Immaculate Conception.
That answer persuaded the local priest that she was telling the truth, because Bernadette, who had cholera at age 2 and suffered from asthma for the rest of her life, only attended school intermittently and would not have known those words.
The apparition also asked for a chapel to be built on the site. Now Lourdes is one of the most visited Marian shrines in the world, and the Catholic Church has recognized 70 miraculous healings there.
Some contemporaries never believed what St. Bernadette said, a fact that bothered her not at all. According to the archives, she said, “I fear nothing because I have always told the truth,” and “I was asked to tell you, not to convince you.”
“It comes down to ‘I believe,’” Grammer said. “‘I believe you. I believe what you told.’ And as soon as they believe that this little girl has actually been visiting with Mary, the world changes.”
After learning the story, he asked producer Pierre Ferragu to send a videorecording of a performance in France, and then offered suggestions about what might make it more appealing to an American audience.
He always believed, he said, in the relatability of the story.
“It is a universal story about the simplicity of faith and the beauty of innocence, and that out of the mouth of a child comes this redemptive moment for mankind,” Grammer said. “It starts small, and then it grows. And that’s usually how things go with God and with faith.”
He also loved the performance of Eyma, who was about the age of Bernadette when she saw the apparitions when she originated the role.
“Honestly, it’s 170 years later, and it’s as though this child Bernadette has come and visited with her, and she’s showing us this girl,” Grammer said. “And that’s what’s so winning about it. It’s an extraordinary moment when you first see her, and you think, ‘Wow, this is uncanny.’”
Grammer said that since becoming involved in the project, he finds himself talking about his faith more often.
“I’m sharing the Good News,” he said. “It’s a nice thing to be able to do.”
As for Denoncourt, his work writing and directing the musical has not made him into a religious person.
But, he said, “I believe her. I believe Bernadette. She’s not lying.”
For more information or for tickets, visit athenaeumcenter.org/events/2026/bernadette-the-musical.