She was Canada’s original songbird—before Anne Murray, Celine Dion and Shania Twain.

While The Beatles were dominating the world’s pop charts in 1964, Lucille Starr was also enjoying unexpected international acclaim with “The French Song,” (“Quand Le Soleil Dit Bonjour Aux Montagnes”) a hauntingly beautiful ballad of lost love sung in both French and English. Produced by Herb Alpert, the song was the first on the A&M label to sell over a million copies (and first by a Canadian female). It was particularly big in the Netherlands where sales reached six million.

Growing up in Coquitlam’s Francophone community of Maillardville, Starr (whose real name is Savoie) started her musical career as a teen with Les Hirondelles and later teamed with her future husband, singer/songwriter Bob Regan, as The Canadian Sweethearts.

It was the success of “The French Song,” a solo release, however that led to Starr touring the U.S. extensively and appearing on country music’s legendary Louisiana Hayride radio show.

But life offstage was not as sparkling as Starr’s stage name.

B.C. playwright Tracey Power explores the ups and downs of Starr’s career in Back to You: The Life and Music of Lucille Starr which is at Gateway Theatre through Saturday.

Veteran actor Beverley Elliott, an accomplished singer in her own right, portrays the mature Starr with Alison MacDonald as young Lucille and Jeff Gladstone as Regan.

“I knew she was a Canadian country star and icon because I used to sing country music (releasing a few songs to radio),” says Elliott. “But because I don’t speak French, learning the language so as to be authentic was a challenge because two of the songs I sing (on stage) are mostly French.”

Elliott performed the opening show in Coquitlam with Starr (now 71 and residing in Las Vegas) in the audience. Matching the legendary singer’s big heart and voice was a challenge Elliott was up to.

“We wanted to do her respect and make her feel like we’d done a good job of representing her life,” Elliott says. “(Starr) apparently cried through the whole show. She was nervous beforehand, wondering how she would look. It was an era when women stood by their man.”

The story begins in 1981 after Starr divorces herself from Regan’s tight clutches and launches an attempted comeback at home in Coquitlam. It evolves into a retrospective of her career.

“The way my role is played the audience is my scene partner,” says Elliott. “I do all my speaking directly to the audience while I’m acting as though I’m in concert on the beginning night of my comeback tour.”

Elliott has compiled an extensive resume in an acting career spanning three decades, mostly in film and TV. Her credits include Unforgiven with Clint Eastwood and the 13-part mini series Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. She also appears as a tourist on a cruise ship in the just-released disaster movie 2012. But taking on the role of Lucille Starr presented its own set of unique challenges.

“The thing about theatre and singing (20 songs along with 15 monologues) is that I have to be alive the entire time because I don’t leave the stage,” Elliott says. “It’s different than being on a film set for 12 or 14 hours, where you’re sitting in a trailer all day and then you’re up and you have to be alive for the scene which is done in maybe two or three takes.”

It has been a privilege to tell a Canadian hero’s story, Elliott says.

“(Starr) is a survivor. We’ve all watched the Ike and Tina story and Patsy Cline and other female icons who had to go down a long road and they didn’t have to. I know how much this meant to Lucille. Even though she still gets called to do lots of special events and loves to still sing, nobody knew what it was like for her.”