'Bernadette of Lourdes' French musical coming to America with 'universal' message

(OSV News) -- Eyma Scharen, at 23, has been performing as St. Bernadette of Lourdes in French since she turned 15.

Next year, she'll have the opportunity to sing the part in English when the two-act musical "Bernadette of Lourdes," with lyrics by Lionel Florence and Patrice Guirao and music by the French composer Gregoire, begins an American tour. From 2019 to 2022, it was performed at the Robert Houssein Hall in Lourdes and was a feature of many pilgrimages.

On Sept. 28 and 29, to mark the 100th anniversary of St. Bernadette's beatification (She was canonized in 1933) a video presentation of the show, in French with subtitles, will be shown in American movie theaters, sponsored by Fathom Entertainment and Pathe Live.

American audiences are likely most familiar with Bernadette's story from the 1943 film "The Song of Bernadette," the adaptation of Franz Werfel's novel starring Jennifer Jones, which gets regular play on classic movie channels and which, despite several historical inaccuracies, treats both faith and skepticism with equal weight. But Eyma has never seen it, she tells OSV News.
An opening text card to the movie reads, "To those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary. To those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible."

The stage version gets that down to Bernadette saying to her interlocutor, "I'm telling you. You don't have to believe me."

Bernadette Soubirous reported 18 visions of the Blessed Virgin in Lourdes from February to July 1858. She entered the Sisters of Charity of Nevers in 1866 and died in 1879 at age 35. The Shrine of Lourdes attracts millions each year.

The movie shows a literal glowing Blessed Virgin played by Linda Darnell. The stage musical uses a series of lights for the visions.

Bernadette acknowledges only that she's seen an apparition who instructs her to tell others "that between high and low, another world is there." And most significantly, "She never taught me to make fun of ignorant people."

"It's a big challenge," Scharen said in an interview. "I loved this girl. She fights for her ideas."
Of the lights representing the apparition, she said, "You can imagine what you want, you know?"

Scharen is a veteran of a 2016 French TV competition, "The Voice Kids." She didn't win, but the exposure led to Saint Bernadette.

Her ambition is to master English well enough to perform on Broadway. "When you're a French singer, your goal is to sing in America," she said. Two years ago, she visited New York and took in a show a day. "It was cool."

Thierry Fontaine, the chairman of Pathe Live and a Catholic, grew up just 15 minutes from Lourdes. His grandfather used to take him there once a month to get the blessed water to drink.

"I fell in love with the musical," he tells OSV News. He's never seen "The Song of Bernadette," either.

At a performance of the musical in Paris, "everyone was standing, singing, clapping, and I thought, 'That's amazing.'"

"For me, it's universal. I hope to reach a larger audience than only Catholic audiences."

Bernadette's first-act solo speaks of her love for her vision, which she refers to as Aquero: "When we know that love has no name, because it is all around us and knows us all by name. When the gentle wind arrives so that hearts may breathe, and a sneaking desire arises to smile."

"So let the drums beat to awaken men on Earth. Let them say forever and at last: She will light our path."