Theatre 2025: Bittergirl Musical @ Regent Theatre in Picton

We have been wanting to visit Prince Edward County for a while now, so when we spotted the advertisement for Bittergirl: The Musical playing at the Regent Theatre in Picton, Ontario, it gave us the extra incentive to go. The musical first premiered in 2015 at the Charlottetown Festival and has since toured across Canada. It is based on a similarly titled play from 2000 that follows the lives of three women dealing with romantic heartbreak. Personal experiences of the three actresses turned playwrights were used to create the play, hilariously exploring their failed relationships and journeys to self-empowerment as they navigate and come to terms with their breakups. The show augments fast-paced, hilarious dialogue with classic 60’s and 70’s doo-wop songs and power ballads including probably the most iconic breakup song of the era, “I Will Survive”.

Three female characters, generically named A, B and C to represent “any woman”, are in different stages of relationships when they are each dumped by their respective partners. One is married and facing a divorce, another is left by a long-term live-in boyfriend and the third is dealing with yet another failed short-term romance. A single actor plays the parts of all three men and is given the name “D” in the program (representing "every man"). Each male character is portrayed as self-centred, insensitive and slightly misogynistic. It is clear that this is a feminist musical where the men are in the wrong and the poor women need to learn to move on. To highlight the universality of their situations, there are scenes where the women each speak part of the same sentence or question that the male character replies to, answering all of them generically.

At the start of the show, the women sing a medley of songs declaring their love and devotion to their mates including “Be My Baby, “And Then He Kissed Me” and “I Hear a Symphony”. As their relationships fall apart and the men leave, the women sing sad songs lamenting their breakups including “Where Did Our Love Go”, “When Will I see You Again”, and “Mama Said” (there’d be days like this). After a period of mourning that includes sobbing, anger, denial, compulsive cleaning, binge eating and stalking, the women think that maybe they can win their men back by improving themselves through exercise, new wardrobe, etc. They sing songs like “I’m Going to Make You Love Me”, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (to keep me from getting to you), “Always Something There to Remind me” and “Hot Stuff”. Their partners (still portrayed by the one actor) seem temporarily receptive singing “Be My Baby” before letting them down once again, condescendingly singing the song “Love Hurts” in a “sorry, not sorry” manner.

After more turmoil including a misguided, drunken attempt at revenge gone wrong (let’s key his car), the women finally come to accept their situations. This leads to cathartic declarations of independence with songs like “Set Me Free” (why don’t you babe) and the iconic I Will Survive. I envisioned these power anthems to be the climactic eleven o’clock numbers but they were weak versions that came at what felt like nine o’clock to continue the theatrical metaphor. More songs followed that diluted the ending in my mind before the final song “Too Many Fish in the Sea”.

For me, this musical started strong in the first act, broke for an overly long 20-minute intermission and then fizzled in the end. There was also a series of numbers performed in the dark in the second act and it wasn’t clear if this was a creative choice (if so, a poor one since we couldn’t see their faces) or a technical issue. It was still a fun night with well-known, peppy songs sung by talented performers.  But I think the intermission was unnecessary and a one act musical with the ending tightened would have worked much better.