Theatre Under The Stars gets the McQueen touch
Robert McQueen is an multiple award-winning theatre director whose work has taken him from Broadway to Phnom Penh, New York to Tokyo. This summer, he is directing 42nd Street at Theatre Under The Stars. To say this is a major score for the popular family musical stage series is an understatement.
McQueen has a history here, beginning with his training as an actor at Studio 58.
“I sort of fell into directing accidentally as I was getting ready to head off to university to pursue something completely outside the theatre with a degree in Art History and Religious Studies,” said McQueen. “I’d been to theatre school, been to New York to study more and acted and decided I wanted to head off in a different direction. Then Kathryn Shaw, who is still the artistic director at Studio 58, offered me a directing job on a musical.”
The nameless musical was seen by someone on the board of Theatre Under The Stars who liked it enough to offer McQueen a show in their season. He eventually did two seasons back to back.
“So somewhere around 25 years ago, my second and third directing jobs were at TUTS,” he said. “In more ways than one, this is kind of like a homecoming after being away for a very long time. It’s been a really wonderful opportunity that worked out perfectly with family demands.”
McQueen sees TUTS as one of the most important theatre organizations in the city. Not only is it an incubator for future talents to get some real onstage experiences, it also embraces the musical. And McQueen sees the form as one of the highest expressions of theatrical art.
His career path has stayed true to his tastes. McQueen’s resume bursts with musicals of all shapes and sizes.
Working in Toronto with Acting Up Stage Company, he has pursued new works for smaller ensembles with more avant-garde leanings and was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore award for The Light in the Piazza with the company. He also directed, dramaturged and adapted the libretto for Vancouver Opera’s take on
Mozart’s The Magic Flute, a collaboration with a 15-member creative team of Canadian Aboriginal and non-Native visual artists and theatre creators. On Broadway, he was the associate director for the Abba jukebox show Mamma Mia! and directed the U.S. National, Las Vegas, Mexico City, São Paulo and Buenos Aires productions of the hit.
“Musically, pieces such as Fun Home or Caroline or Change may not be the most buoyant but they do deal with really complex subjects and emotions,” he said.
“When a musical is constructed the right way, a character expresses the inner life of that character in a way that language alone can’t do. It makes for one of the most entertaining and profound experiences you can have in the theatre.”
One only need think of such monumental songs and scenes as The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music (Sound of Music), Tomorrow (Annie) or the Impossible Dream (Man of La Mancha) to find that kind of emotional hit in the musical genre’s big shows. McQueen sees 42nd Street in that same light.
Adapted in 1980 from author Bradford Ropes 1932 novel and its 1933 Hollywood film, the show is a contemporary classic. The big ensemble affair boasts songs as You’re Getting to Be A Habit With Me, We’re in the Money (The Gold Digger’s song) and Lullaby of Broadway.
Any way you slice it, it comes down to the talent. With so many of the TUTS cast being newcomers, part of the role of both director and other theatre professionals involved in the production becomes one of mentoring. When he was discussing taking on the job, McQueen saw the opportunity for education.
“One of the things I expressed to the board was that I could do some teaching while I’m here open to cast from either show to work on songs, scenes, movement and so on,” he said. “Musicals are really complicated, with a lot of things going on at once — score, scenes, choreography — and taking each part and breaking it down is a really good way to teach a young actor how to rehearse. An integral part of this is to bridging that gap between school and when you are breaking into the job and what the process is.”
Having McQueen in the director’s seat is a big plus. 42nd Street runs in tandem with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s romantic Cinderella.