Theatre Aurora opens season on cusp of musical “revolution”

September 3, 2026 · 0 Comments

A musical “revolution” is set to break out on Henderson Drive this month as Theatre Aurora opens the season with a celebration of the greatest hits the 1960s and 70s have to offer.

Yesterday Once More, a musical revue conceived in-house by Theatre Aurora veterans Judi Cragg and Neill Kernohan, opens their 2026-2027 Season on September 28.

“Close your eyes and you’re back – the summer that song was everywhere, the record you wore out, the concert you’ll never forget,” says Theatre Aurora. “From Motown to folk, pop to rock, the show is pure joyful nostalgia – crafted with love for audiences who lived it, and those who wish they had.”

This is the second consecutive season Theatre Aurora has opened with a musical revue, the last celebrating the works of Rodgers & Hammerstein. This time around, and surveying their recent audiences, Theatre Aurora executives decided to take matters into their own hands and craft a show tailor-made to their audience – and theatre-goers throughout the Region.

Cragg and Kernohan were excited to give it a try, based on last year’s show.

Musical revues haven’t been Theatre Aurora’s traditional fare over the last 60-plus years, but bringing this style of show into the season allows them to flex new creative muscles, bring in new musicians, and get the season started in the final days of summer rather than in the middle of the autumn.

Once they conceived their idea, the tricky part was knowing where to start curating the music bringing Yesterday Once More to Life.

“It took a while to narrow things down. We had a lot of meetings to put the songs together in an order that makes some sense, and work the narration around them,” says Kernohan, adding with a laugh, “I mistakenly thought it would be a great idea for me to arrange all 45 songs.”

He didn’t ultimately arrange all 45 songs, but one arrangement he’s particularly proud of is one for Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence, which has been reinterpreted into a 12-part choir piece.

“Judi said the other day we’ve put so much of ourselves into it, but that also means we have a lot of ownership over it, which is also hard,” he says. “We put a lot of hours in – I was estimating an hour or two per song, then Judi has taken on the load of the direction and musical direction.”

It is a natural fit for Cragg, a Theatre Aurora veteran with a background as a musical theatre performer. That said, however, it has been a decidedly new experience.

“I wanted to take it on and it’s been a huge challenge, but I’ve really enjoyed it – it’s been fabulous and we have a fabulous cast,” she says. “My big thing that I’ve said all along is that I didn’t want this to be a spoof or a joke about 60s and 70s music because sometimes that happens. We want to respect it and show how important it was. The 60s and 70s were a huge revolution in popular music, and that’s what we are trying to show.”

It’s also about rekindling memories sparking new ones, she adds.

“They’re all songs everybody knows and it doesn’t matter what generation you’re part of, you know them. Some of them know it through their parents because they liked to listen to it, some of them know it just because that music is so iconic and you hear it in so many places. Music in general ties you to specific times or specific events or instances in your life and that’s really important.”

For more information on Yesterday Once More, including tickets and showtimes, visit theatreaurora.com or call the Box Office at 905-727-3669.

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter