Canadian musical ‘Life After’ announces star casting for off-Mirvish run ahead of possible Broadway bow

“Life After,” the stirring Canadian musical that premiered at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2016 and has since played across North America to critical acclaim, will return to Toronto next spring with a cast of local and Broadway stars. 
Britta Johnson’s musical, which follows a teenage girl who searches for answers after the sudden death of her self-help author father, is set to play Mirvish’s CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre for a limited engagement, from April 16 to May 4, 2025. The new production marks the first time that Johnson’s show has played in the city since 2017, when the musical was mounted at Canadian Stage. 
The upcoming run, part of the off-Mirvish season, will feature a 12-member company, including Broadway alumni and Canadian theatre stars Chilina Kennedy and Jake Epstein, a former “Degrassi” actor. 
Epstein, who originated the role of Gerry Goffin in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” and recently starred in his autobiographical solo show “Boy Falls From the Sky” at Mirvish, is to play Frank, the father of the musical’s young protagonist, Alice. 
Kennedy, who also performed in “Beautiful” on Broadway as its title character and is perhaps best known to Canadian audiences for her turn as Mary Magdalene in the Stratford Festival’s “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which transferred to Broadway, will play Alice’s teacher, Ms. Hopkins. 
Mariand Torres, an American actor who played Elphaba in the Broadway production of “Wicked,” is cast as Alice’s mother, Beth. 
The trio join Columbian-American actor Isabella Esler, who was previously announced in the role of Alice. “Life After” marks Esler’s Toronto debut and comes after she spent two years starring in the touring production of “Beetlejuice.” 
Also set to appear in the production are Valeria Ceballos, who will play Alice’s older sister, and Julia Pulo (from Mirvish’s production of “Six”), cast as Alice’s best friend, Hannah. 
Rounding out the onstage ensemble are Canadian actors Kaylee Harwood, Arinea Hermans and Zoë O’Connor, who will play the Furies, a trio of characters who inhabit Alice’s mind and function like a Greek chorus. Eva Petris, Isidora Kecman and Jay Davis will be part of the production’s offstage company as swings and standbys.
The upcoming off-Mirvish bow marks the latest chapter in “Life After’s” winding developmental journey. Following the musical’s production at Canadian Stage in 2017, which garnered six Dora Awards including for outstanding new musical, Johnson’s show was then mounted at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre. 
During the pandemic, Johnson further developed the musical before it opened in 2022 at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. Most of the creative team from that production, led by director Annie Tippe, will reunite for the off-Mirvish run.
Though producers have been mum on future plans after the show’s Toronto stay, the musical is said to be eyeing a Broadway transfer in the 2025-26 season. It would be the first major homegrown Canadian musical on Broadway since “Come From Away” opened in New York City in 2017.
Johnson, who hails from Stratford, Ont., is one of Canada’s most successful musical theatre composers, part of a cohort of writers who emerged following the success of “Come From Away,” which shone a spotlight on the country’s burgeoning musical theatre industry. 
“Life After” is one of Johnson’s first works. She began writing the show when she was 18 and a participant in the Paprika Festival, an incubator program for emerging writers. Since then, she’s also written shows such as “Kelly v. Kelly” and “Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life.”