Stage Imperial Theatre manager hand-picks professional entertainers that will swing into Saint John this year

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Selecting a meticulously balanced roster of 18 explosive theatre acts from across the globe is an onerous task - one that, every year, falls on the shoulders of Peter Smith.

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"It's one of the more pleasant parts of the job," said Smith, general manager of the Imperial Theatre.

The Imperial's Professional Entertainment Series, now in its 15th season, represents an opportunity for the theatre to bring in world class acts that might not have swung by Saint John in their travels.

This year's roster is subdivided into six varied categories, and veers from a one-woman show by Canadian broadcast reporter Dini Petty to flamenco dancers and illusionists.

"We don't want to do a season that's all blues and contemporary dance, for instance," Smith said. "We try to have a bit of everything."

Smith expects crowds for this year's two musicals: Nunsense, starring All In The Family actress Sally Struthers, and Oliver!, a beloved adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist.

He predicts theatre-goers will be wowed by Spencer's Theatre of Illusion. "I've been trying since 1995 or 1996 to bring them here - it's a really, really, really good magic show."

A few of the acts coming to the theatre, Smith said, are favourites of his: He's looking forward to Sour Brides Theatre's production of So Many Doors, a Canadian drama that Smith said "absolutely blew him away" when he saw it at a staged reading in Whitehorse.

"It's certainly one of the finest pieces of Canadian theatre I've seen in 10 years," he said. "(I would have) booked that as it was, as a staged reading with them walking around the stage with scripts in their hands. It's that powerful."

Slide guitar virtuoso Ellen McIllwain, who's performed with Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen and Jimi Hendrix, will be performing as part of the Guitar Greats series. "I saw her in 1975 in a smoky bar in old Montreal, and I was just wowed then."

Work has already begun on the roster of shows for the 2009-10 season, and Smith said he has a few things tentatively lined up for the following year, as well. Other than his hopes to bring a circus to the theatre, however, he's keeping mum on future plans for the series.

"The reason for that is not secrecy, it's disappointment. We have a show coming, and then it doesn't happen, and people go on and on 'Why didn't you do that?' " he said.

"I'm going to hear for years about Leonard Cohen not coming."