Émily Bégin and her son, Théodore Lemay-Thivierge, are withdrawing from the musical adaptation of Cat. The tandem would have made this decision due to “scheduling conflicts”, specifies a press release from the producers of the project, sent to the media on Tuesday.
The news of the return of Cat in musical theater was announced with great fanfare last fall. Théodore Lemay-Thivierge was to play Monsieur Émile, the role that his father, Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, had defended in Jean Beaudin’s film in 1985. As for Émily Bégin, she was to play Loretta, Monsieur Émile’s mother.
The announcement of the duo’s departure comes less than a month after the outbreak of a scandal involving actor Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, who published a video on Instagram in which he hugged a tree, on which was engraved the “word that starts with N” in English. This controversy with racist connotations cost the actor dearly: in the following days, he notably lost his position as host of Masked singers.
Family balance
According to the press release from Entourage, the production company behind the musical The Tomcat, Émily Bégin and Théodore Lemay-Thivierge informed the team “several weeks ago that scheduling conflicts unfortunately prevented them from taking part in the project”. “Émily and Théodore were saddened to have to abandon their role, but they made this carefully considered decision in the interest of family balance,” we can read.
They will be replaced by Éliot Dupras (5e Rank), Diego Flint Djebari (Symphonic Harmonium, Nutcracker) and Marilou Morin (Alerts, Indefensible).
Directed by Joël Legendre, the musical The Tomcat will be presented from August. It will be offered in Sherbrooke, Gatineau, Montreal and Quebec. A provincial tour is also planned for 2025.