Note from editor: On our latest Canadian Originals segment on CTV National News, Seamus O'Regan focuses the spotlight on the Stratford Festival's production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" -- and the Canadian cast about to take a bite out of the Big apple.

If you know a Canadian Original we should be featuring, email us your ideas at originals@bellmedia.ca.

Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival is about more than being a showcase for the Bard's classics.

Sure, the likes of Alec Guinness, Julie Harris, and Paul Scofield have graced the festival's stages over the past 6 decades, in roles ranging from Prospero to Juliet to Coriolanus. (Did you know that Christopher Walken played the love-struck Romeo at Stratford in 1968? Or that illness forced Christopher Plummer to abdicate the title role of Henry V to his understudy William Shatner, vaulting the future Captain Kirk to stardom? Or that Justin Bieber used to busk outside the Festival's Avon Theatre?!)

Okay, I digress…

• Check out the famous names who've appeared at Stratford here
  

For those unfamiliar with the festival, based in Stratford, Ont., the company's mandate includes contemporary theatre -- and increasingly so. Take a look at its 2012 season lineup:

Alongside Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" and "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Henry V" – you'll find ‘You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," "42nd Street" and "MacHomer" (the latter featuring brilliant Canadian chameleon performer, Rick Miller, who tells the story of Macbeth through Simpsons characters). That's just to name a few.

But none of the contemporary productions have reached the megastar status of 2011's Stratford crown jewel: Andrew Lloyd Weber's 1970s rock opera, "Jesus Christ Superstar." Weber's show has been credited with helping redefine musical theatre since the early Cole Porter and Rogers & Hammerstein days.

Stratford's production, directed by Des McAnuff, is Broadway-bound -- and begins previews at New York's Neil Simon Theatre on March 1, with an opening night set for March 22.

While the New York incarnation won't feature brilliant stage star Brent Carver as Pontius Pilate, most of the Canadian cast remains intact: including Paul Nolan, Josh Young and Chilina Kennedy (as Jesus, Judas and Mary Magdalene, respectively).

I spoke with Nolan and Kennedy for my piece which airs Wednesday on CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme. Their stage chemistry is obvious. They established it two years ago during a run of West Side Story, in which Nolan played Tony and Kennedy was Maria.

Their chemistry off-stage was decidedly more platonic. They finished each other's thoughts effortlessly. Both gentle souls, but both demonstrating glimmers of the passion they convey each and every night on the stage.

Their performances speak for themselves, but it doesn't hurt when composer Lloyd-Weber opines that this Stratford production is the best version of his musical that he's ever seen. Do a quick Google search and you'll see theatre critic upon theatre critic raving about it, too.

If you missed the Stratford show perhaps it's a good excuse to book a ticket to New York -- to see this worthy Canadian Original take a bite out of the Big Apple.