Snow Synopsis

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Snow - Whistler the Musical

It’s a typical fall in Whistler. Starry-eyed young folks are arriving in town for the season, celebrating the diversity of Whistler and the much-anticipated winter season ahead. Male lead, Jesse—an all-Canadian ski instructor from the Prairies—is back, as are his good friends Jacko, a dyed-in-the-wool, generally un-girly ski bum from Australia and PY, a French-Canadian all-seeing, all-knowing savant with a penchant for herbal self-medication, and son to a Kootenay transplanted couple.

Yuki, the female lead, is a young snowboard pro from Japan, sent to Whistler to train for the prestigious Core Games under the watchful eye of her older brother Hiro, an aspiring photographer and several-season Whistlerite. The youth-otiented Core Games being held in Whistler this year, are to be Yuki’s North American breakout opportunity, a warmup for the Olympics and a chance to enter the very lucrative world of international snowboard celebrity.

Unaware that Yuki is secretly engaged to a celebrity snowboard pro in Japan—a marketer’s dream come true—Jesse falls for Yuki and she for him. This budding, clandestine romance puts Jesse squarely at odds with Hiro who had been charged with protecting the family’s honour and ensuring that Yuki plays the roles that others have shaped for her.

The story progresses through the excitement of a snowy new season, the disappointment of the drought that follows, growing love, tragic accidents and nefarious corporate power brokers who see Whistler’s future in a very different way than those drawn to the siren song of ski bummery and the thrill of winter sports.

A crisis of conscience drive the young lovers apart and a crisis of confidence brings them back together again. Overarching it all is the subtext of the transformative and redemptive power of snow and the magic of the mountains. While not offering a storybook ending, SNOW offers a Whistler ending: we are here to dream and the dream goes on anew tomorrow for anyone who cares to reach for it.

Creatively mixing both traditional and digital background scenery and sets, SNOW offers a compelling glimpse into the winter life of a ski town, and the art of snow-bumming, a compelling human arc—struggle and survival in the pursuit of certain idealistic ends—that never grows old. A rich score of songs with strong pop sensibilities, engaging characters and loads of intrigue, make SNOW an ultimately entertaining theatrical work—a traditional love story told in a very untraditional setting.

Main Characters:
Jesse: Male lead, charming Canadian ski instructor
Yuki: Female lead, Japanese snowboard champ
Hiro: Yuki’s brother, protector and, possibly, betrayer
Jacko: Gung-ho, female, Aussie ski bum
PY: French-Canadian savant, the wise idiot
Reverend Mayor: Bartender, town sage, fixer, knower of all things
Aaron Lubyzc: Global director of branding and endorsements for Spike Snowboards, Yuki’s sponsor
George Stringfellow: Executive vice president of regional marketing initiatives, Snowcorp. Villain.
Charlotte: Ubiquitous clipboard girl, Stringfellow’s double-dealer and daughter, the Reverend Mayor’s reformed woman