Toronto actor and singer Paula Wolfson is premièring her cabaret show When It All Comes True, a retrospective of her 30-year career in theatre, this month.

Wolfson has performed in numerous musical productions, including Les Misérables, Beauty and the Beast, White Christmas and A New Brain. She received a Dora Award for her performance in Shaking the Foundations.

“Audiences will see where it all began, with my time as a music instructor at Bayview Glen Day Camp,” says Wolfson of her one-night show at the Toronto Centre for the Arts’ Studio Theatre on April 12.  

“When I realized I couldn’t haul the piano out under the trees to teach music, somebody handed me a guitar and someone else handed me a Joni Mitchell album and that was the end of that. So, I learned to play guitar and started to do folk nights,” she said.

Wolfson started auditioning for paid gigs and found that playing an instrument increased her opportunities. “I’ve got my Grade 8 piano, and I learned guitar on my own. I have an autoharp, a washboard and a ukulele. I’m a one-woman band!” she said.

Dora Award-winning pianist and musical arranger, conductor and composer David Warrack will be accompanying Wolfson at the première of When It All Comes True. It’s the first time the two Toronto theatre veterans will share the same stage.

The show is an evening filled with eclectic songs, including the music of Canadian composers – Mitchell to Carol Pope and Lisa Lambert – as well as stories about the magic of show business. The songs Wolfson will perform relate to the stories she tells.

The show encourages audience interaction with a sing-along and pop quizzes with prizes. Also included are Broadway classics and a medley of tunes by Burt Bacharach, who is near and dear to Wolfson’s heart.

“I was hosting karaoke at a wedding fair in Vancouver. While singing I declared to the audience that Burt Bacharach was my personal saviour. A woman came back after the show and asked if Jesus was my personal saviour, I didn’t know what to do… so I said yes because I didn’t want to tell her that I was a Jewish girl with a penchant for singing killer ballads from the ’70s.”  

Wolfson has written another cabaret show, Between Engagements, which is geared to the corporate world, and she plans to increase her cabaret repertoire to include another couple of offerings.

She also tours with Smile Theatre, a theatre company catering to elderly audiences. Wolfson was touched when the company performed at Baycrest and Rabbi Asher Turin told the performers that they were performing a mitzvah for people who couldn’t get out, and that it was bringing a little smile into their lives.

Wolfson has an artist educator certificate from the Royal Conservatory of Music, which allows her to go to schools and use music to teach curriculum.

She also finds time to run a business. Wolfson, who has a horticultural certificate from Guelph University, operates My Garden’s Keeper, a company that tends urban gardens.

Wolfson describes herself as an extroverted introvert who enjoys spending time on her own. She is a member of Shir Libeynu, a Reconstructionist Jewish organization.

Tickets for When It All Comes True ($25) can be purchased online at ticketmaster.ca; by calling Ticketmaster at 416-872-1111; from the website, studio5040 cabarets.com; or in person at the theatre box office.

For more information about Paula Wolfson, visit www.paulawolfson.com.