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30 + WATERLOO CHRONICLE + Wednesday, October 24. 2007 Audience favourite brings her comedic stylings to Waterloo Sharron‘s Halloween party head Matthews, a longtime stage and theater performer in Toronto and across the continent, is taking the talk show format to the stage and touring the results all over the province. And while you can still expect jokes about Britney and OJ. in the opening monologue, you can also expect a whole lot of music. tiok 4 evuas RSMeRos "t call it a songalogue. 1 could be talking about daytime T.V. or how I hate Tyra Banks and just break into song," Matthews said. "It spices it up a little." Cohds I The songs she sings during the monologue can range from curâ€" tent hits like Avril Lavigne‘s "Girlâ€" friend" to classic Broadway balâ€" lads. There is literally something for everyone, Matthews said, "Once when ] was doing a show in Toronto, there were all these Bay St. business guys sitting at a table kicking back drinks. After the show, one came up to me â€" he had his tie wrapped around his head â€" and said ‘I knew all the songs! You sang ‘Runaway Train‘ by Journey.‘ He seemed surprised," Matthews said. All the other familiar elements from lateâ€"night shows â€" guests, sketches and raunchy humour â€" are present in "Sharron‘s Party," which hits the Waterloo Entertainâ€" ment Centre on Oct. 29, the first of four shows over the next two months. There‘s even some audience participation, Matthews said, but she didn‘t want to give too much away. Or scare anyone, for that matter. For the first show in Waterlo0, titled "Sharron‘s Halloween Party," Matthews is encouraging the audiâ€" ence to dress up in 1960s cocktail dresses and other clothes from that era. ‘:li;c\;icall_\v whatever they feel dressy in. | guess that might be scary," Matthews joked. ook out Leno, because Sharâ€" ron Matthews is about to turn e lateâ€"night talk show on its By Grec MacDonaLo Chronicle Staff Ee Sharron Matthews brings her oneâ€"woman show, Sharron‘s Halloween Party, to the Waterloo Entertainment Centre Oct audience to dress up and get into the spirit of the season as she riffs on modern day pop culture. Matthews is an accomplished singer and actor who has starred in plays such as "Beauty and the Beast" and "Les Miserables." While she enjoys being in these large productions â€" and she‘s been doing them for more than two decades â€" she started to tire of them about eight years ago. "I wanted to do my own thing, be a little more free. I wanted to do something different, and I came up with this idea to do a lateâ€"night talk show on stage," she said. "Then everyone told me I was crazy so I didn‘t do it." instead, she joined the touring cast of "Les Miserables." As the play trudged through the Southern United States , Matthews began to get fed up. ARTS FOCUS "It really was an eyeopening experience. Every night we pulled up stakes and moved to a different town. By the end 1 wasn‘t even unpacking my suitcase," she said. It wasn‘t so much the pace that bothered her, but the unfamiliar surroundings. "It was really detaching being so far from home. I wasn‘t in touch with the people, especially since a lot of places down there were a litâ€" tle ‘Deliverance,‘" Matthews said. The trip made her realize that she wanted to have more control over both her surroundings and her show. So Matthews revisited her idea to bring a talk show to stage. "It made sense to me. There‘s a lot of variety in the talk show, and EWIH it‘s fairly structured but there‘s a lot of room to move within it," Matthews said. For example, if the audience responds well to one kind of song , Matthews can easily tell her pianist to play another one like it. it‘s this fluidity that makes the show spontaneous, she said. "I like working in a structure that 1 can play with," Matthews said. â€" After returning from the.deep south, Matthews set to work on her show. She booked a venue in Toronto and started performing what would eventually become "Sharron‘s Party." The otiginél.show was a little different than the current incarnaâ€" tion: there were no guests and it was a little shorter. But the vibe was the same, Matthews said. And despite her experiences in the States, Matthews hopes to expand her show and tour it nationally and eventually take it to Europe and Australia. While she might have to change some of the references for international audiâ€" ences, Matthews is sure the show would translate well. "It‘s a party. It‘s fun, it‘s racy. You‘ll laugh, you‘ll dance, you‘ll pee your pants." she said. msntodt. Matthews will return to the Waterloo Entertainment Centre on Nov., have a Christmas party on Dec. 17 and ring in the new year on New Year‘s Eve. Tickets are available at the box office. GREG MACDONALO PhOTO