Anne and Gilbert musical fills Anne of Green Gables Gap on P.E .I.

The long running Anne of Green Gables musical isn’t playing in Charlottetown this year, but Anne Shirley fans don’t need to worry, they can get their fix of the island’s favorite redhead with Anne and Gilbert.

A crowd was out Tuesday for the Anne and Gilbert matinee in Charlottetown.

It's the first year Wade Lynch has directed the show, but he’s no stranger to Anne. He previously acted in and directed the Anne of Green Gables musical.

This show has often been considered second fiddle to the adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s first book, but Lynch says that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s not a sequel, but a continuation, he says.

“If Anne of Green Gables was the world’s introduction, then the subsequent two novels, and Anne and Gilbert, take Islanders into the world,” Lynch says.

The play tells the story of the blossoming romance between Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe.

Anne and Gilbert has been given a chance to shine this year now that it is the only Anne show planned for this season.

“I like to say, ‘it’s like I own a Burger King and the McDonalds shut down. There’s still an appetite for burgers, but there’s only one place selling them,’” says Campbell Webster, producer of Anne and Gilbert.

Webster says the redhead is a major driver of new tourists to P.E.I. and that Anne is an international icon of the Island.

Webster says “90 per cent of the people in this audience will be from the US, Australia, Japan, across Canada.”

“Only about ten per cent will be from P.E.I. or even the Maritimes, so that’s why it’s important. People come here because their heart is beating fast for Anne.”

Webster says ticket sales are already strong and it looks like they’ll sell them all.