“Bernadette the Musical” debuts in Chicago in February 2026 as the official show for the Year of Jubilee 2025, telling the story of Bernadette Soubirous, who reported 18 apparitions at Lourdes in 1858. Producer Kelsey Grammer brings the French production to American audiences with 16-year-old singer Eyma portraying the stubborn teenager. Director Serge Denoncourt combines archival interrogation records with theatrical spectacle, emphasizing Bernadette’s message that she was asked to tell, not to convince. The production explores why this historical narrative resonates across cultures and centuries.
A French peasant girl’s encounter with visions in 1858 has become the subject of a new musical that blends historical rigor with theatrical spectacle. “Bernadette the Musical” tells the story of Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old miller’s daughter from Lourdes, France, who reported 18 apparitions of a figure she described as “something white in the shape of a lady” at the Massabielle grotto.
Historical visions meet modern theater as Bernadette Soubirous’ 1858 apparitions transform into a spectacle blending rigorous fact with dramatic storytelling.
The production, which premiered in France in 2019 at Espace Robert Hossein, was named the official show for the Year of Jubilee 2025. It now arrives in North America for an English-language tour launching at Chicago’s Athenaeum Center from February 12 to March 15, 2026. Producer Kelsey Grammer brought the show to American audiences after its debut at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
The musical draws from archival interrogation records to maintain factual chronology. Bernadette, the eldest of nine children in Lourdes’ poorest family, faced skepticism from parents, townspeople, police, and church officials when she reported her visions during the winter of 1858. The apparition eventually identified itself in Occitan as “I am the Immaculate Conception,” a phrase the uneducated peasant girl repeated to her priest without understanding its theological significance. The opening scene depicts Bernadette being interrogated by the Commissioner after her first vision of the beautiful lady.
Director Serge Denoncourt, who previously helmed Cirque du Soleil’s Believe, describes the work as “a true work of art for powerful music and thrilling performances.” Musical arranger Scott Price, who has worked with Céline Dion since 2015, crafted what the Los Angeles Times called a heart-tugging and rousing score. Lead actress Eyma, a 16-year-old pop-rock singer, portrays Bernadette with what BroadwayWorld CEO Robert Diamond termed stellar performance.
The 1-hour-40-minute production emphasizes Bernadette’s central message: “I was asked to tell you, not to convince you.” The musical humanizes her as a stubborn teenager with humor and defiant grace rather than simply presenting a sanitized saint. The music features compositions by Grégoire, who received a Diamond Disk in 2009 for his album Toi + Moi. Bernadette later joined a convent around 1868, died in 1879 at age 35, and was canonized in 1933 by Pope Pius XI. The show also touches on themes of death and eternal life as understood in Christian teaching.
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