How Noah Reid went from ‘Schitt’s Creek’ to a world tour, Broadway and beyond, Canada Reviews

Noah Reid has taken the stage countless times in his career so far — from the live shows he and his fellow cast members did during the height of the Schitt’s Creek obsession in 2019, to his Broadway debut in 2022, to his recent world tour as a singer that took him from Australia to Vancouver. But the experience still comes with a few nerves for the Toronto actor and musician.

“It’s always a little bit nerve-wracking to take it to that place where you’re going to share [the performance] with people,” Reid says, days before the opening night performance of A Case For the Existence of God in Toronto, in which he’ll be starring alongside Mazin Elsadig from Nov. 7-Dec. 1. 

But there’s a bit of comfort that comes with the stage he’ll be performing on — Coal Mine Theatre. Reid has been a frequent performer at the renowned theatre throughout his career, including an award-winning run as Jasper in Aliens in 2017 and as Adolph in Creditors in 2015. His long history with the theatre has made him feel at home, he says.

“Ted [Dykstra] and Diana [Bentley] have created one of the great theatre spaces in the city, and Ted [also the director of the play] has been a mentor of mine — he was a teacher of mine at the National Theatre School for a brief moment — so yes, there’s definitely that sense of comfort working here.”

He’s returning to that familiar stage after coming off of some distinctly more unfamiliar ones: those he toured while on his Everything’s Fine world tour in 2023 and 2024, in support of his 2022 album Adjustments. Of course, as a combined theatre performer, TV star, film actor and musician, he’s gotten used to the constant adjustments, pun intended, between roles.

“I really enjoy the shifting of gears,” he says. “Ideally it makes me sharper, and helps so that I don’t get stuck or get bored.”

A quick glance at his career so far paints a picture of a performer who must never be bored — even for someone who got his start acting back when he was eight years old, playing Chip in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Princess of Wales Theatre and playing the voice of Franklin in the cartoon series for eight years straight soon after that.

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to do this,” Reid says of acting. “I grew up going to Shakespeare in High Park and the Stratford Festival and singing in choirs and acting in community theatre. I just always wanted to do it — that element of storytelling and pretend was really exciting to me.”

But even starting so young didn’t prevent Reid from running into the uncertainty that comes with being an actor. “It’s a career that kind of tests you continually; it’s not an easy career path,” he says.

Humble as ever, he adds, “But, you know, most things aren’t. People just have to do what they need to do to stay alive, provide for their families, whatever way they can. Turns out for me, this is kind of my skill set. So I gotta go with that!”

Reid says he sees his career as a current, just going where it leads him — though he says he couldn’t have predicted where he was headed when he landed the role of Dan Levy’s character David’s love interest, Patrick, on Schitt’s Creek.  “As I go along, it has become increasingly clear how rare that kind of reception is when something really hits with audiences, and obviously the waterfall of awards that followed the show in the last couple of seasons. It was an incredible experience and an incredible ride — doing live shows with everyone, it was really such a special time that that I look back on now with a lot of love and bewilderment.”

Schitt’s Creek amassed 19 Emmy nominations and nine wins during its time on air, including a sweep of all seven of the comedy categories in 2020 and becoming the first comedy to win all four main acting awards in one year.

He partially credits the show opening up some opportunities for him, including the ability to pursue music and go on his world tour. “That came with its own challenges, where I was like, ‘Oh, people just want to hear the song,’” he says, referring, of course, to his iconic cover of Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best,” which his character Patrick serenades David with in Schitt’s Creek. “But that also gave me an opportunity to share another side of myself and my creative life.”

Even when he’s not singing onstage, music is still a part of Reid’s process: “With every character that I play, I like to think about what music they listen to.”

He does that even if they’re not a musical character, like his character Ryan in the upcoming Coal Mine Theatre performance.

And as a live art form, Reid says performances could change from night to night — especially when external factors, such as the recent U.S. election, are at play. A Case for the Existence of God is set in the middle of Idaho, following a mortgage broker and a plant worker who are both young, single fathers, realizing everything they have in common.

“I think that one of the beautiful things about this play is it’s so specific to the characters that are in the play and the challenges that they’re up against, and and so I think that there are lots of things that that might touch these characters politically. But a lot of that stuff is only present because it’s present in their personal situation,” Reid says. “And so I think that the audience is all going to bring their own personal situations to it as well. I guess we’ll find out!”

Also at play is the identities of the two actors Reid and Elsadig, themselves — Reid as a father to a two-year-old and Elsadig as someone who just became a father this week, days before opening night.

“It’s been emotional. A lot of the struggles that these these characters are going through are to do with being fathers of young kids and how that affects their worldview, and, I can see a lot of that reflected in my own life and my own journey as a father,” he says. “We’ve had a lot of amazing conversations as we’ve kind of peeled back the layers of this onion. Ted is also a father, as is our stage manager, Robert, so it’s been a real gift to be in this room full of dads.”

Recently becoming a father has also made his return to Coal Mine Theatre even sweeter. “Being able to go to work and then be able to come home to my family — it’s a pretty great time,” Reid says.

Many of his favourite spots in the city have stayed the same since coming back from his world tour and stint in New York City on Broadway: “I’m a sucker for the kind of stereotypical walk through Trinity Bellwoods, coffee at Sam James and maybe grab a slice at Badiali’s and take it easy,” he says. “As a father of a young child, my nightlife element has really dipped — I’m more of a playground guy now!”