Bruce Dow Uncovered

08 Nov 2020

The Uncovered series from The Musical Stage Company combines extraordinary voices from stellar performers with tailored and unique arrangements of songs by familiar pop music artists. Previous Uncovereds have transformed the musical oeuvres of Stevie Wonder and Prince and "Queen & Bowie." This year was supposed to belong to the dynamic duo of Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton, but the pandemic intervened. The sumptuous stage at Koerner Hall is not available for the necessary hip swiveling and bosom bouncing, and Uncovered had to move online. And adjust thematically.


The title is Uncovered: Notes From the Heart and it features "profound songs of change, hope, reflection and inspiration" by a grab bag of boomer friendly artists. The interpreters are an array of the best of Canadian musical theatre artists: Divine Brown (Obeah Opera), Sara Farb (Fun Home), Hailey Gillis (Ghost Quartet, Rose, Onegin), Raha Javenfar (Rose), Stewart Adam McKensy (Caroline, or Change), Andrew Penner (Ghost Quartet), Jackie Richardson (My Piece of the City), alongside the four recipients of The Musical Stage Company's Banks Prize for up-and-coming triple threats. And the incomparable Bruce Dow (Dr Silver, James and the Giant Peach, Sextet, Pig, Of a Monstrous Child: A Gaga Musical).

"I'm singing 'Everybody Hurts' by REM," says Dow. "They picked it for me but I was thrilled with it. It's a song I'd heard but not one I knew. It's always great to dig into something that you don't know. Reza Jacobs [Caroline, or Change, Fun Home, The Wizard of Oz, London Road, Falsettos, Assassins, Same Same but Different] is really amazing at that. He's kind of my musical spirit animal. He can really dig in and he gets me to focus. He came up with a beautiful arrangement and we worked through it together and talked about what it means. I don't know how to describe the process but there's something very spiritual about it, but there's also being very aware of the structure of the song, of the meaning of the lyrics. It's a unique process."

Dow says it is one of his favourite collaborations. "Too often we say 'this is a sad song' or 'this is a happy song,' 'oh there's so much emotion in this song,' and we overlook what the words are really saying. So it's great to be able to dig in and let the emotion come from somewhere concrete, not to just come running at it with blind emotion which is what I think singers often do." Dow cites Charlie Chaplin's song "Smile" as a reference. "It's so, so sad but it's really just telling you that there is joy to be had and not to wallow in the sadness." Very much like Michael Stipe's hopeful lament. "And that's when a song becomes really interesting."

A major part of the excitement of previous Uncovereds is the interaction with the audience. The sense of discovery and the exchange of energy. This year everything has been pre-recorded and pre-filmed. "The recording studio is a luxury because you get to do the song the way you think it sounds in your head," says Dow. "A live performance has a beauty, the glory of immediacy and presence but it also has all the imperfections. It's nice to get a second take to know you're heading exactly in the direction you want."

Dow isn't sure about the visuals, he says it was a matter of trust in director Victoria Barber's vision and what "The Musical Stage Company people came up with sitting around in their little room." He says it involved some lip-synching but also a lot of "walking around. We were outside down by the lakeshore on a bridge and it felt huge and cinematic and expansive. I'm not sure how it's going to fit together to tell what story, but they're really addressing the challenge of this incredibly well and innovatively. Theatre is theatre and we're not going to be back in theatres for a long time. Zoom and online experiences are like the stone age of cinema, we're finding out what theatre is online and it's different from film and television. Even though it's the same flat screen, it's a different experience."

If Dow's contribution is still a bit of a mystery to himself, so are all the other performances. And he's eager to see what they have done. "I'd crawl over broken glass for Jackie Richardson, she's my goddess of everything. Sara Farb is always brilliant. There are younger artists that I don't know but I'm really excited to see what they bring to the table. I can't wait to sit back and watch it fly. Every song will be surprise." Dow says that everyone involved has "tried to do something uniquely theatrical. It may pay homage to a music video but it isn't . . . We're in a really weird, awful, exciting time." 

This weird, awful, exciting time has affected one of Dow's other projects. Pre-covid he was on his way to Broadway to open in the controversial and much anticipated Diana: A New Musical. That show has also been reconfigured for pandemic times and will now stream before hitting the boards. "I'm limited in what I can talk about because Netflix is planning a huge release for it," warns Dow before dishing. "It was a miracle. They took us all, they put 180 people into quarantine. We recorded the cast album and we went into the theatre and we shot the show and what it will be I'm very excited to see. It is groundbreaking . . ." At that point Dow must have been about to violate his Netflix confidentiality agreement as the phone line went dead. And would not be revived. Technology may be giving theatre a lifeline, but it is still capricious. We all hope that The Musical Stage Company tames it.