When Georgia Bennett steps onstage to belt out the song 'Defying Gravity' as part of the A Whole New World concert tour, it’s not just another show tune; it’s a personal anthem.
The Wicked ballad has always been a favourite of Bennett’s. It even helped her get into theatre school at 17. Now, on the cusp of 30, she’s performing it again, not as a wide-eyed teen chasing possibility, but as a seasoned performer reconnecting with something she thought she’d lost.
“That song means so much to me,” Bennett said. “I sang it at festivals, at provincials. I actually sang it to get into Sheridan College, and they accepted me on the spot. It’s kind of a beautiful, full-circle thing to be singing it again now, right before I turn 30. It’s been a massive part of the last 15 years.”
She’s currently performing the song in A Whole New World, a concert tour of Disney and Broadway favourites playing to sold-out crowds across Vancouver Island and the mainland. The tour runs until June 30, with Bennett part of the cast until June 6 when the busy actor leaves for another gig.
Residents of Chemainus have long been following Bennett’s career, often via articles in this very paper. Her stage credits include standout performances in Mamma Mia!, Little Women and 9 to 5 at Chemainus Theatre Festival, as well as Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at Vancouver's Arts Club and part of the dance ensemble in Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia.
Bennett grew up immersed in performance, raised by a family with deep roots in the Chemainus community and the arts.
Her grandfather, Dr. Mark Heydon, was a longtime local physician. Her grandmother, Sandra Heydon, was one of Chemainus’s most beloved arts leaders, directing Seniors Centre and Chemainus Health Care Auxiliary shows for decades and serving as president of both organizations.
Bennett said Heydon was her biggest supporter. She made sure she saw every show her granddaughter was in, had every newspaper clipping of everything she'd ever done.
“She was just joy personified", Bennett said. "Both my grandparents were incredible people. They had a massive impact on Chemainus, in totally different ways. We always joke that if someone recognizes me in Chemainus, it’s either because my grandpa delivered them or they were in one of my grandma’s shows.”
There was always music in the house; her grandfather rigged up outdoor speakers to listen to jazz, there was a piano in the living room, and her grandmother was always singing.
“We grew up surrounded by music,” Bennett said. “I was brought up on it.”
Still, it wasn’t until she was a teenager that Bennett realized performing was her true calling.
“I knew that I'd always liked musical theatre. I knew that I'd always loved music. I was always trying to put little dances together with my friends, that was always a part of my life. But when I first really experienced performing, it felt like an entirely new world was opening up for me. It seemed like there was never-ending opportunity, like anything was possible.”
After graduating from Chemainus Secondary, Bennett left the Island to attend Sheridan College in Ontario, earning a Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance. It was a formative experience, but one that came with a lot of pressure.
“You’re working 12-hour days, constantly being critiqued,” she said. “There’s this expectation to be perfect all the time, to fit into a cookie-cutter mould. And I didn’t feel like I fit.”
Those feelings intensified after graduation.
“It turned into this whole thing of, ‘You aren’t good unless you’re constantly booking work,’” she said. “Everyone else was succeeding and I felt stuck.”
Then COVID-19 hit.
Bennett was living in Toronto but returned to Chemainus for the summer of 2020 and later, regretfully gave up her Ontario apartment entirely.
But around that time, Chemainus Theatre Festival artistic director Mark DuMez offered her a slot for a cabaret show. She teamed up with accompanist Heather Burns to create Songs of the Screen.
“I thought about what kind of songs I wanted to sing and realized it was just sort of a lot of songs that were also in movies,” she said. “Movies are so special to people and movies and music go together so well.”
She also kept thinking about something her mother, Liz Bennett, always said: if people aren’t giving you the work, make it yourself.
“So I did,” Bennett said. “I started putting together cabarets, pushing myself to reach out to people. I realized I have the tools. If someone doesn’t give me the opportunity, I can make one.”
Ironically, the opportunities started coming non-stop.
“There’s this outdated idea that once women hit 30, the work disappears. But I’ve been finding the opposite. As I get closer to 30, things are starting to come in bundles. The roles I wasn’t right for in my early 20s — maybe they just weren’t meant for me yet. I’m more confident now, both in myself and in my work.”
Since that first solo cabaret, Bennett has found her footing again, along with something deeper.
“I feel like I’ve recovered that joy,” she said. “It’s not the euphoric, wide-eyed childhood joy of ‘I can do anything!’ It’s a more stable joy.”
Her return to the song 'Defying Gravity' mirrors that evolution.
“At 17, it was this big, dramatic anthem,” she said. “Now it just feels grounded. I get to put my own twist on it.”
After the A Whole New World tour wraps in June, Bennett will head to Ontario to join the cast of Beehive, a musical celebration of 1960s girl groups, at Drayton Entertainment, one of Canada’s largest professional theatre companies.
“It’s pretty new for me,” she said. “I’ve never done a show like this before and never an all-female cast either. I think it’ll be a really fun, girl-power kind of summer.”
What comes next? Bennett's not sure.
She’s auditioning, sending out self-tapes, and waiting to hear back. But she’s not worried.
“If nothing comes up, I’ll make something for myself,” she said.
Now based in Chemainus between contracts, Bennett still feels her grandmother’s presence, even if she’s no longer in the audience.
“It’s a little strange to not have her there, but I know she’s always there in spirit,” she said.
Like her grandmother, Bennett is creating work that brings people together. She’s not just defying gravity anymore, she’s grounded, growing, and ready to rise in her own time.
For the hometown crowd that has watched her journey from a teenager with a big voice to a woman forging her own path, Bennett’s success feels both familiar and hard-won, something entirely her own, built on a foundation of community, creativity, legacy and love.
