From cancer diagnosis to a world tour
What a difference a year can make for drummer headed for adventure with West Side Story
KITCHENER — One year ago this month Kitchener drummer Donnie McDougall was dreading the news from his doctor.
Following a vacation in Quebec where there was a sudden gush of blood in his urine, the busy musician learned he had a cancerous tumour in his bladder but it was stage one and removed intact, no chemotherapy or radiation necessary. The doctor’s prognosis was a great relief but not enough to fully quell McDougall’s fears, at least not until the final postsurgery results came in. Either he was cancer free or there were further complications.
Days ticked by, then weeks and finally during an appointment at his doctor’s office McDougall was springing around the waiting room doing a happy dance. The cancer was gone.
“It was pretty daunting: you have this cloud hanging over your head,” he said. “I was pretty happy.” McDougall also realized that despite believing he had been dealing well with a possible secondary cancer diagnoses, in fact he was not.
“When I got the news that everything was OK, I realized how uptight I’d been about it,” he said.
The cancer scare had also impacted his playing. Drummers tend to pour every ounce of their body mass into swinging their sticks and thumping foot pedals, but following surgery McDougall admits to holding back a bit, “playing it safe, not going too crazy.” Though his doctor also told him he was idiot after learning the drummer had continued jamming and playing gigs only a week following surgery. And no, he didn’t stop, he just eased up a bit.
Skip ahead a year and once again McDougall was doing a happy dance, this time in the living room where his wife Cathy watched this show of exuberance with amusement.
McDougall had received that unbelievable sort of phone call most musicians can only dream of; being asked to join a 22-piece orchestra for the New York City-based world tour of “West Side Story.” Rehearsals start next week in Vienna, Austria.
The call was from Tim Mulligan, a Kitchener born drummer/percussionist
and former student of McDougall. The two have continued to maintain a close relationship, despite Mulligan’s busy touring schedule.
“He said ‘I’m looking for someone to take over my (drummer’s) chair for “West Side Story” how would you like to do it?’” McDougall recalled.
Mulligan had signed a new contract with the touring show of “Wicked” — considered the pinnacle of career moves for musical theatre musicians — but he had to find a replacement for “West Side Story.” He thought of his old teacher.
Problem was McDougall would have to leave in three weeks, hardly enough time for all the preparations necessary when one is packing up to travel the world for 12 to 15 months, leaving everything and everyone behind. He was particularly upset about being away from his three year old grandson, Henry.
McDougall is the drummer with the popular jazz quartet Top Pocket and the bluesy Tom Caine Band as well as assistant director for the Waterloo Regional Police Services band. He also has a full roster of private students at Long & McQuade.
He asked Mulligan to give him time to think about it. Next day the producer of the show called, welcoming McDougall aboard. And apparently, though Mulligan was supposed to put three names forward, he had only give McDougall’s.
“I had flip-flopped for 24 hours then I got an email from the music director, he’s a big deal,” said McDougall. “He said he was very impressed (with his audio recording). He said ‘looking forward to seeing you in Austria.’”
Everyone was sure the Kitchener drummer would accept the gig, everyone except McDougall.
“My reaction to that email, I got to do some more dancing,” he said. And like the dance in the doctor’s waiting room, he knew that spontaneous reaction meant he wanted to go.
McDougall’s wife encouraged him not to waste this once in a lifetime opportunity and agreed to join him in Europe and New Zealand. He will have just one, threeweek break to fly home.
As for Top Pocket, Sean Habermehl will take over drumming duties and his replacement for the Gary Cain Band is still undecided. Students have also been taken care of.
On Sunday, Oct. 23, he flies to Vienna for the threeweek rehearsal before the musical hits the road for a Europe/Asia tour, stopping in Dubai, Turkey, Oman, Japan, New Zealand, China and several European destinations, a total of 29 cities in 19 countries.
The drummer is one of only four Canadians in the orchestra which includes percussionist Mark Segger of Edmonton, associate conductor John Yun of Sault Ste. Marie and actor Jeff Sullivan of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
The original musical opened on Broadway in 1957 and the film version won 10 Oscars. That is a pretty heady pedigree, one not lost on McDougall.
“I’m 53 now, why couldn’t this happen when I was in my 20s?” he joked.
Though he has performed for musical theatre, most of his career has been spent playing in bands.
“It’s different performing in a musical,” he said. “There are lots of factors to be taken into account such as paying attention to a conductor and there are vocal cues, lyric cues, cues for the conductor, dialogue cues and in this show, dance cues.”
The timing has to be perfect and seamless and he’s performing music written by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein.
“Two of the greatest writers in history,” he said. “It’s very hard to do.”