Nova Scotian singer and actor Frank MacKay passed away last night, March 6, 2009, following surgery. He has left the music and theatre communities of this province and beyond in mourning.
Frank MacKay was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, spent his childhood in Stellarton and then at eleven moved to Truro. It was in Truro that MacKay became a part of the legendary dance band The Lincolns. The group toured Atlantic Canada throughout the 1960s and MacKay, the lead vocalist, became known for his powerhouse vocals in singing soul, rock n’ roll and r&b. MacKay then joined the band Soma, which had three top ten records and earned international recognition and acclaim. Throughout the 1970s Soma shared stages with Chicago, Rod Stewart, Santana, and Sly and The Family Stone, among others.
In the 1980s MacKay made his foray into the theatre when he was cast in a Neptune Theatre production of Equus. His former Lincolns bandmate John Gray had gone on to study theatre at the University of British Columbia and spent the 1970s working and creating shows both in BC and in Toronto, including contributing songs to Theatre Passe Muraille’s iconic collective creation 1837: The Farmer’s Revolt and collaborating with Eric Peterson on the iconic Canadian musical Billy Bishop Goes to War. MacKay went on to star in Gray’s Rock and Roll, based on their time searching for musical fame on Nova Scotia’s backroads, which premiered at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. He also played Charlie Chamberlain in Gray’s Don Messer’s Jubilee, which opened at Neptune Theatre on January 4, 1985 and then toured across the country.
This led to an incredible career as an actor for MacKay. He played Jean Valjean in Les Miserables at Neptune Theatre in 1994, played Sancho Panza in Man of La Mancha at both Neptune and the NAC. He was in Blood Brothers, Rumours, Cats, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, The Gospel at Colonus, Rough Water and Buddy (HiPockets) at Neptune Theatre, and also did shows at Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro, Festival Antigonish, The Charlottetown Festival, and graced the stage at other theatres across the country as well.
MacKay also released a number of solo albums, and was a songwriter as well. In 2013 he performed his one man play The Red Row at Chester Playhouse, which was a memory play of stories and music centered on growing up in Stellarton in the 1950s. He also released an accompanying album of the music.
On a more personal note: The first professional theatre show that I remember seeing was Les Miserables in 1994 at Neptune Theatre. Frank MacKay played Jean Valjean. I was obsessed. He was my Colm Wilkinson before I knew who Colm Wilkinson was. I was the nerdy kid who sat in her seat during the intermission and read her program. I read the Les Miserables program so many times, I’m sure I knew some of the actors’ bios by heart. I immediately knew Frank by name. I still have the program. It looks like it’s seen trench warfare, but I still have it. This show changed the course of my life.
Another defining time in my life was the Summer of 1998. I got to do two Neptune Theatre School camps that summer and we had the opportunity to see the two Neptune summer shows: Rumours and Blood Brothers. Frank was in both, along with Charlotte Moore, who had played Fantine in Les Miserables. In these shows I saw Jeremy Webb, Martha Irving, and Raquel Duffy on stage for the first time, and this experience was also life-changing. From that moment on I started making lists of the Neptune Theatre shows I wanted to see each season, asking for tickets for holidays and birthdays, hoping we would get the chance to go to Neptune with our school, and Frank was in at least five more of the shows I saw there. I still read the programs thoroughly. I still had bios memorized.
These shows that I saw in the late 1990s and early 2000s at Neptune Theatre, while still a teenager, were the foundation upon which my love of the theatre was built. They are my touchstone shows. They are the ones I am the most nostalgic about, and the ones that I know shaped what sort of theatre artist and theatre critic I grew up to be. Frank was such a huge and integral part of that. He was such a huge part of my theatre education and the way I felt rooted and connected to Neptune as my home away from home as a young girl.
I feel extraordinarily lucky to have been at Neptune so much during this time in its history, to have seen Frank in so many shows. He was an icon. His voice was gorgeous. He was funny, he was charming, he was wonderful. Even as a child I knew I was watching someone exceptional at work.
A few years ago I found a program for Neptune’s production of Don Messer’s Jubilee. This show was produced in 1985 and I was born in 1984, so it’s clearly not mine, but when I opened it up I saw Frank’s name. He played Charlie Chamberlain in the show. Charlie was one of my granddad, Joseph Campbell’s, good friends. I always felt a bit closer to Frank after that.
Rest in peace, Frank. Neptune and all of us here in Nova Scotia have lost a bright light.
