Mike Trites, creator of a  musical about Blue Rodeo, In the Key of Blue, presented The Regent with a cheque earlier this month.

The $10,000 donation comes after an extremely successful run of shows at the theatre, including back-to-back-to-back sell outs.

“Jim (Cuddy) suggested donating some of the money to a charity, so I said, why not to the Regent? Because it’s special to Jim, and it’s a special place for me,” Mr. Trites said. 

Jim Cuddy spent childhood summers visiting his grandparents’ farm in Cherry Valley. Picton is also where Cuddy and bandmate Greg Keelor played their first professional show.

The original plan was to release the show prior to Mr. Trites’s retirement. A teacher by trade, he meant to leave it for his students as his own personal “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”

But, a victim of the pandemic, the musical almost never made it to the stage. “It was mostly written before the pandemic shut us down. We just never got into a brick and mortar school fast enough,” Mr. Trites explained.

Then, when a County neighbour mentioned he was related to Cuddy, Trites revisited the project.

“My next door neighbour said to me ‘I’m Jim Cuddy’s first cousin’. So I asked him to show him the play. Then we met, here at the Regent, and he said, ‘yeah, let’s do this’.” 

The Blue Rodeo frontman on board, Trites began the licensing process. And in July, residents enjoyed the culmination of an inspired script and a chance encounter over three sold out shows.

The play follows a young couple who fall out of touch with their relationship but eventually find love again. Like many things in life, the relationship between the main characters is anything but perfect. Jared Scott is a musician struggling to find his footing, while his partner, Candice Darwell, works in a cafe. 

When the rocker Scott is discovered by MP Thomas Campbell, the relationship begins to deteriorate.

“He (Campbell) takes him under his wing, starts working with him, but then takes a shine to his wife. He’s slowly but surely seducing her, and uses drugs to solidify his hold.

“She becomes enamoured with this life, but finds out he’s interested for all of the wrong reasons. It’s too late and the relationship falls apart, but in the end they come together,” Mr. Trites explains. “He was no prize either, pushing her away, there’s a lot of jealousy. In many ways, it’s an imperfect relationship. Just like life, no relationship is perfect, but they love each other.”

After premiering in Picton, In the Key of Blue went on to perform in Kingston and Peterborough. After the success, Blue Rodeo gave Trites rights to take it out on a wider scale. There are talks to run a slate of 12 additional performances.

Like another musical that pays tribute to an iconic Canadian band, “It’s a good life if you don’t weaken,” Trites hopes the production helps to preserve Blue Rodeo’s history.

“There’s the Tragically Hip Musical, so I wanted to do this for Blue Rodeo. Their music is not necessarily big anymore, but everybody knows their old stuff and can be sentimental about it. I used a lot of their music in my classroom, that’s how I became enamoured with them.”