TORONTO - "She's the most amazing person. She just has this aura, this great sense of humour, and she's just really strong and a really lovely person," is how Jill Snell of Toronto's Universal Music Canada-distributed The Orange Record Label describes Louise Pitre, the former Broadway star of ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, whom the label signed despite the formidable task of tackling the adult music market.

"Shattered," Pitre's third independent album and first for Orange, will largely be driven by her considerable fanbase from her theatre profile, and will rely more on her live performances than traditional marketing avenues, such as radio. Pitre, who was born in Smooth Rock Falls, ON but is based in New York "for now," left Mamma Mia! in October of 2003, and plans to devote herself to this project.

"We've always expected that her live shows will sell a lot of product -- and they have," says Snell. "She goes out and sings and then walks out into the lobby and signs (autographs) and she sells between 100 and 200 CDs a night. We've always seen this project as long-term. We hoped to sell 5000 (copies) through by early spring and eventually, over the years, we'd love to be in the 15, 20 thousand range."

Pitre previously released two albums, 1999's "Songs My Mother Taught Me," followed by 2001's "All Of My Life Has Led To This." Neither had major distribution and Pitre was never allowed to sell them at the merchandize kiosks at Mamma Mia. " I sold them mostly at my concerts or on my web site," she says.

Pitre signed on with Canada's Paquin Entertainment Group for bookings and management almost two years ago, while she was still in New York performing in Mamma Mia!. It was the company's CEO Gilles Paquin who brought her in to meet and showcase for the co-founders of Orange, Snell, Steven Ehrlick, and Aubrey Winfield, in their in-house live room on Queen Street West about a year ago. "We met, loved each other, and that's it," recounts Pitre succinctly.

Snell is far more expressive when it comes to recalling her first meeting with Pitre.

"I'd heard of her, but I didn't really know much about her at the time," admits Snell, who is also director of marketing and publicity for the label. "They said, 'She's a Broadway star and had the lead role in Mamma Mia and she wants to make a torch record.' At this point (at the label), it was pretty early on and we had singer-songwriters mostly and (the band) Jakalope was in development, and I was thinking, 'Why would we want to do this? I'm not sure what the market is and it might be really difficult because adult audiences are really difficult to reach without spending a lot of money.'

"Then she came in and, for me, it was an unbelievable transformation that happened to me that morning...

"We (Orange execs) sat down on the floor and we had some candles lit and she sang four or five songs with her pianist, Diane Leah. You know when you're listening to music and everything else just blacks out around you? I was locked on her because she's a performer, she's an artist, and every ounce of her body goes into her performance. It wasn't so much that it was theatrical. She just breathed every note of the music. Even when she was singing in French, you understood the whole song and it was just amazing. And then I got excited about the idea of an adult torch record."

The 13-track album, which includes one French song, was produced and recorded in Toronto by Fred Mollin. Three songs are composed by American legend Jimmy Webb, ("MacArthur Park"), who also played piano on the sessions. There are also two originals, "I Miss Manhattan," which Pitre co-wrote with Mollin and Gordie Sampson, and "Beg," written by Sampson's friend Andy Gullahorn. Other songs include Janis Ian's "Jesse," and Ira Gershwin/Harold Arlen's "The Man That Got Away."

"Depending on how well this one does., I think I probably wouldn't come back with an all original (album), but I'd like to have some (originals)," says Pitre. "My previous CD has two original songs, and I've been writing a lot since then. I don't know about all originals. It is a thought though and I have it on my list of things to come."

Pitre is a classically trained pianist, who graduated from the University Of Western Ontario with a music degree. She moved to Toronto in 1980 and a decade later landed the role of Fantine in Les Miserables in Toronto, Montreal and Paris. In 1992, she was cast as French singer Edith Piaf in three productions of Piaf, and went on to perform in Jacques Brel is Alive And Well And Living in Paris, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, Blood Brothers, among others.

Her career got a boost in 1999 when she was cast as Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia! in Toronto and in various touring productions such as Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. She was then asked by the show producers and ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus to take the lead role to Broadway at New York's Winter Garden Theatre, for which she earned a prestigious Tony Award nomination in 2002.

It was important to everybody at Orange, says Snell, that Pitre was committed to promoting and touring behind the album, as opposed to jumping into another theatre production. Julien Paquin, Pitre's responsible booking agent, came to the label with a slew of tour dates booked well in advance that included dates in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

For Pitre's part, she was simply concerned about whether or not the label had something in mind for the album or whether she would have the freedom to record the tracks she wished. "My God, they were so open and willing to let me do whatever that I just couldn't believe it. And to be honest with you, I'm not 20 years old here. I'm amazed that somebody would sign me on at this point," laughs Pitre, who turned 48 on new year's day.

Snell says she and Pitre immediately gelled and "locked brains" on how to sell the album.

The label soft serviced a single, "Beg," to CBC, as well as light jazz and adult-contemporary stations, but didn't have huge expectations with that promotional avenue, says Snell. "It's hard enough to get our mainstream artists on radio. It was more the media angle at radio so she could get her on CBC morning show, which we have yet to do but that's certainly a target. I think the CBC will always be good to her; they love her and they have the full allotment (of music) for all the CBC stations."

As well as the AC audience, Orange is also marketing Pitre to the gay male audience, familiar with her music theatre productions. The label took out an ad in the Xmas gift program of gay magazine Xtra, and she often packs rooms in Toronto's gay community. As well, Pitre speaks and sings in French, so there is a francophone connection that the label would like to capitalize on with a press day in Montreal in the next month or two.

In the rest of Canada, the press has been supportive with a full page in the Toronto Star, two full pages in the Toronto Sun, a half page in the National Post, as well as a TV spot on Bravo's Arts & Minds.

Snell says Orange is also trying to reach the "more sophisticated music audience" by advertising in Whole Note magazine, which covers classics and jazz, and hiring Echo Advertising to put together a special event in Stratford, ON. for Pitre. "The president of Echo (Barry Avrich) is a very good friend of mine and he knows and likes Louise a lot," says Snell. "They did the graphic arts for us. And he's going to work with us on an evening at the consulate in New York City, where she has a very strong following from her years of doing Mamma Mia."

Pitre would like to get U.S. distribution in the U.S.

The singer also enjoyed what she calls "a neat exercise" just prior to Christmas when she spent an afternoon in a Toronto recording studio laying down a French vocal, "Emporte-nous," for instrumental guitarist Robert Michaels, who is signed to Warner Music Canada. "It's a pop song with French lyrics that they would like to release as a single in Quebec," says Pitre.

That album is due out in the spring.

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