I had the immense pleasure of sitting down with Bette MacDonald at Doktor Luke’s in Sydney, Nova Scotia to chat about Island Girls, an evening of comedy and song featuring MacDonald with Lucy MacNeil, Heather Rankin, and Jenn Sheppard, which returns by popular demand to The Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay on April 4th and 5th, 2019. The show then tours to Halifax’s Rebecca Cohn Auditorium (April 6), The DeCoste Performing Arts Centre in Pictou (April 7th) and Strathspey Performing Arts Centre in Mabou (April 8th).
Island Girls premiered at The Savoy this past September to incredibly enthusiastic responses from audiences. Several people wrote on social media that it was the best show they had ever seen.
“That was so exciting,” says MacDonald of the response, “It’s great when that happens. Working with [MacNeil, Rankin, and Sheppard], that’s something new for all of us. Heather and I worked together in the [Cape Breton Summertime] Revue, of course, and we started within a year of each other, so we had that experience, but not for many years after that. I’d never worked with Lucy, except sharing the same stage for a fundraiser or whatever, although we’ve known the family for years, and Jenn, same thing. That was the first time that Jenn and I were ever on stage together. So, it’s a great dynamic, that group. Everybody has a great sense of humour. We’ve all been on stage a lot; we’ve clocked a lot of hours there, so there’s lots of experience, and there’s sort of a shorthand that comes with that. In the early days you spend so much of your time being nervous about performing, but as you go on, that becomes less so, hopefully. That’s our situation, so we get to have more fun as a result. We laugh a lot.”
Often in theatre, music, and comedy women are tasked with creating their own work because the opportunities aren’t inherently there. But the idea for Island Girls was conceived initially by “a fella”: Stephen Muise, Sheppard’s partner and a conductor for Men of the Deeps. “He called me one day,” says MacDonald, “Maynard and I were out running errands, buying batteries, and I get this phone call from the both of them, and he said, ‘I have this idea’ and I loved it immediately.” Muise is the show’s band leader and Musical Director. “He’s a genius musician,” says MacDonald, “so, we have all that going for us. The band is spectacular. They’re just the best at what they do.”
MacDonald is known for playing certain beloved characters in her shows, last Christmas, for example, she toured in Bette MacDonald: ’Tis the Season 12, so these characters have their own built-in audience around the province. She is bringing some of these characters, including Beulah Claxton and Mary Morrison to Island Girls as well, where they get to play with Sheppard’s Cape Breton character Elsa and Rankin’s old man character, Mickey. Throughout her career MacDonald has, at times, been compared to her biggest influence in comedy: Carol Burnett. “Can you imagine what that was like?” says MacDonald, “I can’t even describe it because I adore her. The first time that happened- well the first thing you feel is unworthy. And then, after I got over that, I thought, “Ooh that’s such a brilliant thing to hear.” I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s thrilling.” The Carol Burnett Show was formative for MacDonald as a young child, followed by watching Catherine O’Hara and Andrea Martin on SCTV and Gilda Radner on Saturday Night Live when she was a bit older, all of whom MacDonald describes as being deeply impactful.
“It was the coolest [watching O’Hara and Martin on a Canadian comedy show)”, she says, “especially because they were the funniest thing on television. It was funnier than SNL. It was funnier than anything, and it was Canadian, so that was hugely important. I also adored John Candy. You’d come home and just race to the TV to get to your shows. It was a Golden Age of comedy, certainly. Today, doing a sketch show like Carol Burnett’s would be like putting up a Broadway show every week. Enormously expensive. But, wouldn’t it be thrilling if there was a network that would get behind something like that?”
Inspired by brilliant women like Catherine O’Hara, Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner and Andrea Martin, Bette MacDonald joined forces with Joella Foulds very early in her career and created a show called Broad Assumptions, where they played different female characters. “That was a great deal of fun, and there was music in that as well,” says MacDonald, “But, even before that, I started performing in the backyard, or the basement of my house. I’ve always performed, from single digits. It’s just a matter of finding an audience. There’s never been a Plan B, which is not, perhaps, wise, but thank God it worked out. I would have been in big trouble,” she laughs, “I had to go about it a different way, too. I knew I wasn’t going to go to Toronto and be cast to play the kind of roles I wanted to play. I didn’t want to just be the funny friend in every show. I wanted to do more than that. Fortunately for me my brother [Ed MacDonald] is a comedy writer, he worked on [This Hour Has] 22 Minutes and The Jon Dore Show, so we did shows together, and then, eventually, when he was hired by 22 Minutes, then- he’s busy now- and he said, ‘You know, you could write these yourself. You’re already writing half of them now.’ And I didn’t really realize that. It hadn’t really occurred (to me). I just assumed that we would always do the writing (together). So then when he went off to do that I was like, ‘Okay. Now I have to write this’ and I did, and so, it was fine. It was like being pushed off the pier a little bit, but it worked out great. Thank goodness. I spend a lot of time writing, and rewriting. I spend a lot of time on the scripts. The characters, I do work at physically. But it’s on paper first. But characters like Mary, she came before anything was ever written. I just sort of knew that woman. And Ed and I would improvise a lot. We did a lot of that. There are some characters that we’ve never done on stage. There’s an Irish brother and sister who are musicians and the stage is full of instruments but they don’t know how to play any of them, so every song is an a cappella song,” she laughs, “it was great fun. I think we, by default, fall into characters when we are together. We go to Australia a lot.”
Growing up in Cape Breton seems to lend itself well to observational humour and the creation of characters, like Mary Morrison, that people recognize from their communities. MacDonald agrees, “Our culture is so strong here. That’s sort of why you do this. That’s why you go to shows like this, because you want to see yourself. You want to connect on some level with what you’re seeing, and I think that’s why these characters are so popular, people really feel something for them, because they’re telling the truth and you can’t beat that. The audience, of course, recognizes the truth and they recognize when it isn’t, so you can’t short sell anyone, you really have to bring the business. Spend the time on the writing, fully develop the character, and make sure that it’s finished and ready for the stage, and that what you’re saying means something. Even if on the surface it just sounds like you’re having fun, it’s always more than that: it’s something that resonates. It has to have substance. And the comedy that doesn’t have substance, that’s just sort of set up and then punch, may be funny in a moment, but it doesn’t stay with you the way that solid, good, meaningful, comedy will. It sounds very serious, doesn’t it?” She laughs heartily, “One of my favourite characters ever of all time is [Heather Rankin]’s Shirley… Oh, my God. Just hilarious. We did a sketch in The Revue once and it was me and Heather and we’re watching Wheel of Fortune and one of her lines, we’re watching, and there’s a little beat, and then she turns to me and says, ‘D’ya think Vanna and Pat ever done it?’ and the audience just went ballistic, and I did too every night, but I would have to chew the inside of my mouth. I’m sure there’s not very many people alive on this Earth who haven’t wondered if Pat and Vanna have ever done it.” We both laugh, “Heather is a joy to work with. Everything is easy. She’s funny as Hell. And the same with Lucy and Jenn. Lucy is just full of sweetness. I love her. Jenn is a powerful performer. She’s a great singer, she’s one of those very naturally witty, funny people. She has lots of characters too that will pop up in a car ride between here and New Waterford. Just… there she’ll be, somebody new. It’s fun to watch. You never know who you’re going to get when you’re around these women.”
In reference to Rankin’s Old Man character, Mickey, in Island Girls MacDonald says, “It’s so hard to be that close to [Heather] and to look her in the eye when she’s playing Mickey. In her costume, the audience is seeing a guy, and I am too, except I’m so up close to her that I can see her big, long eyelashes. That’s all I can see. It’s so funny. She’s a rig and half, that one. A lot of control is required to get through the Mickey sketch. I’m so glad that we get to be together on stage again. I love that. Because it had been a long, long time. I’ve seen her, of course, I’ve been in the audience for her shows. The solo music she is doing now, it’s magical, it’s powerful. I keep thinking that’s it’s sort of always been there, but when you’re part of a group and you’re singing harmonies, beautiful harmonies I might add, but you don’t really have a singular voice very much, but now all of sudden it’s like, “Get out of my way, everyone, here it is.” She hasn’t changed a bit, she’s just wiser. Comedy has always been a man’s game, so that has been a bit of a road. I’m not a Stand Up comic, so, fortunately, I’ve never had to deal with that whole thing. But I’ve been in that atmosphere. It’s like being backstage with fighters, boxers. I admire the great stand ups, but I wouldn’t want to have to do it.” We talk about how female comedians, like Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Samantha Bee, and Maya Rudolph, have just recently started to get some power and agency in the business. “Back in the Vaudeville days the music halls were all owned by men, the theatres were all owned by men, all the producers were men, so nobody’s going to shine the light on any of the women doing comedy because it’s a “man’s job.” Billy Rose would have gotten women on stage, like Fanny Brice, but it was Billy Rose’s show. It’s great to be part of this change that’s happening now. I thought when I was younger that I was going to have to do all these things that I wanted to do before a certain age because I would never get another opportunity to do them. And, as I get older, I realize that’s not the case. Also, what you want to do changes. So, you can still get excited about doing something new, like Heather is doing with her solo music. There are no time limits on anything artistically, thank goodness.” She does find it bizarre, however, that she still has to emphasize that even though the show is called Island Girls, it’s not just a show for women, that it’s a show for everyone.
“I love this show,” she stresses, “From the very first note to the very last. I love every minute of it. And I love being onstage, and I love being in the wings and watching the others. It’s all wonderful. Of all the shows over the years, this one is definitely in the top three for me, and it has everything to do with Heather, Lucy, and Jenn. It’s a powerful force, a bunch of women together.”
Island Girls is SOLD OUT in Halifax and Pictou, but there are limited tickets available for the shows at The Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay (April 4th and 5th) and at Strathspey Performing Arts Centre in Mabou (April 8th). Shows at The Savoy (116 Commercial Street, Glace Bay, Nova Scotia) begin at 7:00pm. Tickets are $54.50 and can be purchased by calling (902) 842-1577, CLICKING HERE, or visiting the Box Office. The show at Strathspey Performing Arts Centre (11156 Route 19, Mabou, Nova Scotia) at 7:00pm. Tickets are $55.00 ($50.00 for members, $60.00 on the day of the performance) and can be purchased by calling 902. 945.5300, CLICKING HERE or visiting the Box Office.
You can follow Bette MacDonald on Facebook. You can follow Lucy MacNeil on Twitter & Instagram (@Laughanmac). You can follow Jenn Sheppard on Instagram (@JennShepp). You can follow Heather Rankin on Facebook. Twitter. Instagram (@HeatherRankinMusic).
You can follow The Savoy Theatre on Facebook. Twitter. Instagram (@SavoyTheatreGlaceBay).
You can follow The Dalhousie Arts Centre on Facebook. Twitter.
You can follow The DeCoste Performing Arts Centre on Facebook. Twitter. Instagram (@DeCostePerformingArtsCentre).
You can follow Strathspey Performing Arts Centre on Facebook. Twitter. Instagram (@StrathspeyMabou).
