Producers of \u201cBernadette,\u201d a musical based on the story of St. Bernadette Soubirous, are hoping the story of a young, uneducated girl\u2019s innocence and determination will attract believers and non-believers alike.<\/p>\n
\u201cA good story is a good story,\u201d said director Serge Denoncourt, who was drawn to the story after visiting Lourdes and reading the handwritten records of St. Bernadette\u2019s interrogation by police.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
At a Dec. 3, 2025, press event to introduce the musical, Denoncourt, from Quebec, said that he found it \u201ceasy, very easy\u201d to adjust it for American audiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn France, they don\u2019t do musicals like we do,\u201d he said. \u201cThey want song, song, song. So in France, it was about two-thirds of what I wanted it to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
The production at the Athenaeum includes more material, including one completely new song, changes to some others and added spoken material, he said.<\/p>\n
The words of Bernadette come directly from the historical records, he explained. That\u2019s 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\u2019s clear that she was a normal teenager: she had a temper, she could be stubborn, she argued with her mother.<\/p>\n
The music, Denoncourt said, helps convey the emotion of the story.<\/p>\n
Eyma Scharen, who originated the role in France, will play Bernadette at the Athenaeum.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Haydu heard about the musical in Europe and contacted Grammer to see if he could help bring it to the United States, Grammer said.<\/p>\n
The first thing Grammer did was look up the story of St. Bernadette.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a Catholic, so I don\u2019t really know all the same stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cyoung lady,\u201d eventually told her to bathe in the spring in the grotto.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Some contemporaries never believed what St. Bernadette said, a fact that bothered her not at all. According to the archives, she said, \u201cI fear nothing because I have always told the truth,\u201d and \u201cI was asked to tell you, not to convince you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt comes down to \u2018I believe,\u2019\u201d Grammer said. \u201c\u2018I believe you. I believe what you told.\u2019 And as soon as they believe that this little girl has actually been visiting with Mary, the world changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He always believed, he said, in the relatability of the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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,\u201d Grammer said. \u201cIt starts small, and then it grows. And that\u2019s usually how things go with God and with faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also loved the performance of Eyma, who was about the age of Bernadette when she saw the apparitions when she originated the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, it\u2019s 170 years later, and it\u2019s as though this child Bernadette has come and visited with her, and she\u2019s showing us this girl,\u201d Grammer said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what\u2019s so winning about it. It\u2019s an extraordinary moment when you first see her, and you think, \u2018Wow, this is uncanny.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Grammer said that since becoming involved in the project, he finds himself talking about his faith more often.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sharing the Good News,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice thing to be able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Denoncourt, his work writing and directing the musical has not made him into a religious person.<\/p>\n
But, he said, \u201cI believe her. I believe Bernadette. She\u2019s not lying.\u201d<\/p>\n