Two generations of Jewish women collaborate for world premiere of “Madame Clicquot”

Lisette Glodowski’s writing partner, Richard Walter, came to her with three questions to pitch a new musical. Do you like the French Revolution? Yep. Do you like strong female leads? You bet. And, finally: Do you like champagne?

“At that point, I was like, let’s go,” she said.

The resulting musical is “Madame Clicquot,” premiering May 29 at the Byham Theater with the Pittsburgh CLO. The production is a family affair, with Glodowski’s mother, Laurie Glodowski, as the director/producer and her sister Jillienne Leigh Glodowski as associate choreographer and ensemble member.

Get The Jewish Chronicle Weekly Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

The Glodowskis have a long history with Pittsburgh’s performing arts — Laurie Glodowski’s grandparents Dorothy and L. Herbert Finkelhor established Point Park College as a secretarial school. Laurie Glodowski’s father, Arthur Blum, then solidified it as a four-year college and founded the Pittsburgh Playhouse. She eventually moved with her family to California, and Lisette Glodowski grew up in Napa Valley, furthering her connection to wine that would help her work on “Madame Clicquot.”

The story follows Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, the “grand dame of Champagne” who helped bring the Veuve Clicquot label to the prestige it has today.

But Clicquot’s business innovations all happened against the backdrop of tumultuous post-revolutionary France, and the musical follows the many hurdles and personal tragedies she faced in order to grow her Champagne house at a time when women had few societal opportunities.

Though “Madame Clicquot” is not explicitly a Jewish story, the Glodowskis’ Judaism informs the way they relate to theater and the lenses through which they look at their work. Lisette and Laurie Glodowski first worked together as a mother-daughter team on “Velvet Over Steel,” a musical set during the Holocaust inspired by their own family history.

Laurie Glodowski called it a “tremendous emotional experience” to work alongside Lisette on “Velvet Over Steel.” “Lisette managed to write a beautiful story. It reminded me of how at Passover, you start talking about the connective tissue of Jewish people across the ages. It felt like an enormous cultural hug that everyone in the audience felt, and it didn’t matter their religion. It was very eye opening and very beautiful, though difficult subject matter,” she said.

In “Madame Clicquot,” Barbe-Nicole and her husband are Catholics who can’t freely practice their faith, something the Glodowskis emotionally connected with because of their experiences with antisemitism. “Barbe-Nicole and François had to get married in a wine cellar so nobody could see,” Laurie Glodowski explained. “They couldn’t afford to be seen practicing and celebrating their religion, and I found it insightful when creating those scenes to dig up that feeling of ‘I can’t’ and needing to hide your identity.”

Jillienne Glodowski is an accessibility advocate in the theater who translates songs into American Sign Language, but for “Madame Clicquot,” she has the chance to be a part of the performance. As an interpreter, she doesn’t typically get to get into costume, and this time she’s excited to wear a tiara on stage. She’s also had her older sister beside her every step of the way. Laurie, Lisette, and Jillienne’s different combined strengths are a testament to their family bond and their professional acumen.

“Lisette and Richie have done such a beautiful job of watching what we’ve done. They continue to pull at the heartstrings more and more each time,” Jilliene Glodowski said of the rehearsal process. “People from all different walks of life find a piece of themselves in the story. It touches a lot on grief, which is such a universal experience. It doesn’t shy away from the harshness of grief, but also how people can grow from it and rise from the ashes of grief.”

“Madame Clicquot” has been seven years in the making, and the team is in talks to take it to London’s West End, and then Broadway after its world premiere in Pittsburgh.

“When the opportunity came to put the world premiere somewhere, it became like bringing it home. [Pittsburgh] is where it means something. You need to bring the show towards meaning and follow the story’s path,” Laurie Glodowski said. “One of the things that always strikes me about Pittsburgh audiences is how friendly and kind they are.”

The Pittsburgh audience will help later rewrites of the show, and Laurie Glodowski encouraged people to bring their whole emotional responses into the theater. “The audience is the keystone. We want people to show us how they feel. Laugh, cry, clap!” She said she thinks of musicals as multiple mediums telling the same story, the set, the music, the costume, the choreography all working together. “I think when musicals miss is when they stop telling the same story,” she said.

Lisette Glodowski and Walker try to make musicals that they would like to see themselves — so the process of working on it is a labor of love where, in many ways, the journey is the destination. “Whenever someone asks me and Richie what our favorite musical is, we always look at each other and think ‘Can we say our own?’” Lisette Glodowski said.

She found Barbe-Nicole’s story inspiring not just as the tale of a powerful woman, but as a universal story of struggle and perseverance. She noted that one of the things that most inspires her is the idea of a character being “against all odds” and stories of resilience: a very Jewish theme. “The stories I like to write, as dramatic as they may be or as funny as they may be, all come down to one thing: If you believe you can do it, you can. Don’t let yourself be invisible.”

“Madame Clicquot: A Revolutionary Musical” runs May 29, 2025 – Jun 8, 2025 at the Byham Theater. PJC

Emma Riva is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.