Alumna singing her way into Canada’s heart with superstar

And then there was a bit of a shutdown due to COVID and Johnny had to postpone his Ontario dates. I didn't really hear anything for a while and then, I got a call inviting me to come on the entire national tour and sing from the musical. And now here I am, opening for Johnny Reid!

Q. What’s the experience like?

D.B: It’s as if I’m doing a 15-minute musical. I sing three theatre songs of Maggie which I know very well.

“It's important to remember that whether you're hired or not, you're still an artist. It does not matter if you work part-time, get fully paid, or if people don’t validate you: You are still an artist.”

It’s very interesting to have this mesh of theatre and commercial music. Johnny is a pop star, a country singer, and has never been in the music theatre industry. For him to delve into the music theatre world with all these amazing collaborators like (producer) Michael Rubinoff and (music supervisor) Bob Foster, who are also part of Come From Away, (book writer) Matt Murray and (director) Mary Francis Moore – it’s like this big clash of these two different industries. It's a totally different ball game, nothing like this has ever been done before.

Every theatre artist would love to go on tour, but we only dream of going on tour with a show. But to go on tour doing theatre in a pop setting is exhilarating.

Q. Next year, you will play the lead in Maggie, which had its first staging at the Canadian Musical Theatre Project (CMTP) at Sheridan while you were a student. Tell us a little about that.

D.B: This whole thing actually started with the CMTP. In my fourth year at Sheridan, instead of doing a staged reading, we did a full-fledged production of Maggie. The show is based on the life of Johnny's grandmother and it’s as if I know her. I’ve been associated with the show right from the start, I know its creator, and I'm hearing all these stories of her life.

“It's just a dream come true. You grow up hoping that this is what your life will be like.”

What’s really cool is that Johnny is Scottish and I actually grew up in Scotland. When I started working with the group, they all wondered how I got to have such a good Scottish accent!

Q. Any advice for Sheridan’s music theatre students?

D.B: I think it's important to remember that whether you're hired or not, you're still an artist. It does not matter if you work part-time, get fully paid, or if people don’t validate you: You are still an artist.