Londoner Roma Roth, creator of Netflix's Virgin River, seeks new hit on CTV
Two world premieres in two weeks and you wonder if life could get any better for Andrea Menard in London.
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Two world premieres in two weeks and you wonder if life could get any better for Andrea Menard in London.
First, the singer, actor, playwright, songwriter and speaker starred in the world premiere of her latest creation, Rubaboo, on at the Grand Theatre’s Spriet Stage until Saturday.
Then last Sunday, the new TV series she performs in, Sullivan’s Crossing – executive produced by London native Roma Roth – premiered on CTV. The next episode airs Sunday at 7 p.m.
“I feel like this is going to be a year of releases for me,” said Menard. “I feel it’s an incredibly blessed woman I’ve become and grown into, all because of where I’m at in my life. I think during the pandemic a lot changed, and . . . that’s showing in my work.”
This week, Menard gathered with Roth and other women appearing in Sullivan’s Crossing, including lead actor Morgan Kohan and supporting players Amalia Williamson and Toronto model Lindura to celebrate the premiere and enjoy a performance of Rubaboo.
Sullivan’s Crossing, based on U.S. author Robyn Carr’s bestselling books, follows Roth’s hit Netflix series, Virgin River, also based on Carr’s books, now planning its fifth season.
“I love that woman,” Menard said of Roth. “She’s a fiery woman with big dreams and big vision. She’s great at what she does. This show (Sullivan’s Crossing) exists because of her.”
Roth is a Banting secondary school graduate who studied at Western University and the University of Calgary, where she earned a master’s degree in primatology and made her start in TV on the set of The Return To Lonesome Dove series in 1994.
She is the daughter of the late René Romain Roth, a biology professor who spoke seven languages and taught at Western University for 26 years after moving to Canada from Romania.
Roth’s mother, Hanna, was head photo lab tech on the epic 1960 film, Exodus, and still lives in London. Her twin sister, Rosana, is a Montreal-based film director.
Sullivan’s Crossing is a 10-episode, hour-long drama that “follows the journey of neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan (Kohan), whose perfectly planned life is turned upside down after finding herself in unexpected legal troubles,” press materials say.
“Needing time to reflect, she temporarily leaves her life in Boston, taking refuge in her childhood home of Sullivan’s Crossing, a campground in picturesque Nova Scotia . . . run by her estranged father, Sully Sullivan (Scott Patterson),” they say.
“There, Maggie must deal with her complicated present while she also navigates her painful past. Further complicating matters is the irritating mysterious newcomer, Cal Jones (Chad Michael Murray), whose presence . . . ultimately will lead Maggie to question her carefully laid plans.”
Menard, as Edna Cranebear, and Canadian icon Tom Jackson as her husband, Frank, play a kindly, loving couple who help with the campground “like the auntie and uncle of the show . . . an example of a healthy relationship.”
Roma said she developed Sullivan’s Crossing hoping to tap the same magic that made Virgin River a success, adding a few changes to make it more contemporary, such as Menard and Jackson’s Indigenous couple and LGBT2Q characters, and setting it in Nova Scotia to win grants and tax benefits.
“I wanted to prove that Virgin River wasn’t a fluke, prove that I could get it done again,” said Roth, who founded her production company, Reel World Management, in 2004, with her husband, Chris, joining in 2011.
“I thought I could design these series in a way that would resonate with people. After all the doom and gloom we’ve seen in this world in recent years – the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the violence in the U.S. – we need to give people something . . . more hopeful that gives them an escape.
“The first episode last Sunday rated very well and I think we’re well on a journey to create another hit show,” she added.
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