Interview: Celebrating National Swing Day with TITANIQUE's Rose Messenger

To celebrate National Swing Day, Broadway World had the opportunity to chat with Rose Messenger, one of the six talented covers in the Canadian production of hit show TITANIQUE - currently playing at Mirvish’s CAA Theatre and soon to be returning to the Segal Centre in Montreal. Not only is Messenger on stage every night as a Background Vocalist, she also covers the roles of Molly Brown, Rose, and Celine Dion. We chatted about her path into a career in Musical Theatre, life as an understudy, and her experience with a show as “kooky crazy” as TITANIQUE.

Broadway World: I would love to start by asking you about your path in the theatre industry so far. If I’m not mistaken, it has led you from Canada to the US and back again?

Rose Messenger: I grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick and attended the Theatre New Brunswick Theatre school there. It goes from Kindergarten all the way up to grade 12 and it creates a really safe place for kids to explore the arts. I was really lucky to have that a 10 minute drive away from my house, so I spent all my days there. That’s where I fell in love with Musical Theatre and also kind of figured out who I was. I had some great mentors who encouraged me to go into Musical Theatre and the Arts.

Throughout high school, I went to a Summer Camp in Upstate New York, called French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts. Picture “Camp Rock” [laughs]. You’re living in bunks and you’re swimming and you’re making crafts and eating at the dining hall in the middle of nowhere, but you’re doing theatre all day! While there, I discovered the world of American Musical Theatre schools. MY  friends there were auditioning for schools and I did some research. I auditioned for Musical Theatre programs in Canada and the US and I ended up going to the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (CCM) for the Musical Theatre BFA Program. It was really a dream come true. I had the best four years ever and it changed the trajectory of my life.

I graduated in 2023 and then ANNE AND GILBERT in Charlottetown was my first thing out of school, and then I moved to New York with my same college roommates and I did a production of CINDERELLA. I worked as a bartender and at a gym, and was auditioning every day, and then I found out I got TITANIQUE in March!

BWW: Were you familiar with TITANIQUE before you booked it? Had you seen it in New York?

RM: Yes! My friend Jake Wafard was the year above me in school and I was coming to New York for my spring break my senior year and he was like “Rose, you’ve gotta come see this musical, you’re gonna be in it! You’re gonna love it, it’s your humour exactly!” Also Marla Mindelle (co-writer and original star in TITANIQUE off-broadway) went to my school so I had known about her for a long time and I had actually worked with her dad before! So I had been really familiar with TITANIQUE and that team from a distance. I went to see the show and immediately was like ‘I’ve got to be a part of this in some way.’ I saw it a couple more times because my friends are the super fans so I saw a couple of different casts do it. Then I saw it was coming to Canada, and I auditioned and manifested and it worked out!

BWW: I love the Background Vocalists (BGVs) in TITANIQUE. I feel like you guys are the unsung heroes of that show.

RM: I love being a BGV. It feels a little bit like the Fates in HADESTOWN. Our director, Tye Blue, when he explained the BGVs to us, he explained that the show is kind of split between a Celine Dion concert and the Titanic movie world where the principals live. And the BGVs – even when Celine’s not on stage, they’re tying the story together and are always kind of radiating that spirit of Celine Dion.

BWW: You’re the Greek Chorus of TITANIQUE!

RM: Exactly that! It was pretty cool at our opening in Montreal, Elise Duguay, her real backup singer was there, which was like an absolutely horrifying moment to know that she was there! [laughs].

BWW: No no, I saw her interacting with all of you! She was having the time of her life!

RM: She was! It was awesome!

BWW: In addition to being a BGV, you cover multiple tracks in the show. I am always astounded by performers who cover multiple tracks because I just don’t understand how a human brain can do that. So I guess my question for you is how does the human brain do that?!

RM: [Laughs] Great Question! So this was my first time being an onstage understudy and swinging multiple roles at the same time while I also have my own track. I knew pretty early on that’s what I was being considered for because in the auditions I originally had a Molly Brown packet and a Rose packet. And then I went into the in-person audition and they were like ‘Can you sing Celine right now and then can you send us a Celine monologue by tomorrow and then can you film the whole Rose packet…’ Really early on they had me wearing all of the hats – Which I know they did for all of the standbys. We have an amazing coverage team on the show. We’re lucky because we have three offstage understudies, so there’s six people covering in our production.

I was really nervous but I learned very quickly that I do have a bit of a brain for it! I realized that I didn’t only know the parts for my characters, but pretty much every other character in the show too [laughs]. At least one of my characters is on stage at all times and they are interacting and standing in formations with all these other characters. I was like ‘You know what, if I had to go on for Cal, I think I could do it!’ [Laughs].

It’s definitely a challenge and you’re never really super relaxed. You go and you do your show and then you go home and review another track and then when the main actors have the day off, you’re there with the Stage Manager at 1pm and you’re rehearsing. You’re working overtime constantly, but it really is so rewarding.

BWW: Do you find you’re running lines all the time at home? How’s the work-life balance thing? Is it even possible to shut that off?

RM: I mean…I should be better about the work/life balance thing [laughs]. This is my first experience and that’s something I’m learning to balance, and hopefully with more experience I will continue to foster that. It’s my first big contract and I really feel a lot of pressure and want to do a good job, so that’s also a part of it. I go to sleep and I’m not even thinking about it but I’m running Celine’s track in my brain even though there’s a good chance I’ll never go on for Celine! Which is a weird feeling too!

BWW: Yes, talk about that!

RM: I’m second cover for most of my tracks. Actually my friends Sammy and Jake have a podcast called The Ladies Who Brunch. They were recently interviewing Caroline Bowman (Current second cover for Norma Desmond in SUNSET BLVD on Broadway). She’s been a standby on that show since it came to New York and she had one day to do the role. [In the episode] she talks about how it’s a weird feeling because you’ve done so much work on that character and you have such a deep understanding of who they are, and you’ve done all the preparation, but there’s not really a payoff. I mean, what you learn is it’s a personal payoff. It’s more about proving something to yourself. And then if you have to go on, it makes those moments so rewarding. Actually, at the CAA when I do go on, they put the understudies on a board but they don’t have a slip in the programme, and sometimes after the show, audience members think I’m a completely different person [laughs]. So the focus becomes less on that, and instead I’m proving something to myself, and I’m really proud of the work that I’ve done, and I’m really proud of our understudies who do all that work because it takes quite a bit of energy! I do this because I love it and because I want to bring joy to others.

BWW: What have been some of the biggest surprises and challenges to this experience as a whole?

RM: This is my first big contract, so everything has become a bit of a surprise and a bit of a challenge and a learning curve! I feel like I’ve learned a lot just watching these people that I’m in the room with create and play. [Director] Tye Blue did such a great job creating such a safe environment for actors to just let loose and discover these characters, and he did the same thing when it came to understudies. Obviously you have to hit all the marks, and you want to keep things relatively the same for the other actors to not get thrown off, but you don’t want to be a carbon copy of what the principal actor typically does either.

BWW: Last month, I had the privilege of seeing your fantastic debut as Molly Brown, and I thought it was neat that you got to do that performance with covers for Celine and Rose (Kaylee Harwood and Tess Benger) as well. I was thinking about how you all probably got to do your put-in together and how cool it was that you then got to debut that role with them!

RM: That day was really so special for the three of us to be able to do that together. Those are the roles we did in our first put-in. I love those girls so much. Kaylee actually says all the time that it’s so weird because as an understudy you have to rehearse on stage in front of a full house – which is so true because yes, we have rehearsals, but it’s usually just a few of us…But yes, that day was my first time going on for that track and it was really nice having those girls there. We all kind of helped ground each other on that day.

BWW: All of your performances were electric and it was special to be there and witness that. I love your Molly Brown. There is a fun scrappiness to her! And you have now gotten to go on as Molly a couple more times right?

RM: Yes! I’ve actually gotten to play her about a dozen times in Toronto. And of course you never want somebody to be out of the show, but it is a unique experience for an understudy because those first couple times you’re getting used to your comedic timing in front of an audience – what works and what doesn’t, and you’re playing and exploring the things that the usual actors were able to explore and find in previews and rehearsals. Once I got those first few shows out of the way, I was able to discover my own character and really live in it and it became a whole lot more fun. So I was really fortunate to have a bit of a run of shows as Molly. And Erica Peck is also the most incredible person to understudy. She’s so giving and so caring, and she was rooting for me and I felt supported. She’s created such a fantastic character that I was able to kind of blueprint off of, and I couldn’t have done it without her too.

BWW: I’m so excited that TITANIQUE is heading back to Montreal and that Canadian audiences really seem to be eating it up! I’ve noticed that performances in Toronto are all selling out during this final week!

RM: The weird thing with this show is it takes a second to find its audience. It’s kind of a word-of-mouth thing. A lot of people come in not really knowing what to expect and then from there they tell their friends and come back! We have a lot of people coming who wouldn’t normally want to see theatre but their friends tell them they need to see this. And I feel like we’ve really found the audience here in Toronto which is exciting. That’s how we were able to go back to Montreal! When we were there before, once word really got out, we were already heading to Toronto!

BWW: The theatre spaces in Montreal and Toronto are very different. What has been your experience like in those two different spaces?

RM: The Segal Centre was definitely a smaller space, but that stage…there was so much room. It was the first time the show had gotten the iconic Celine Dion Kabuki curtain that Tye had been dreaming about, and as background vocalists, when you are standing behind that curtain and it drops, there is no feeling more powerful! You feel like Celine Dion herself! That space was so fun and so close to people.

And then coming to Toronto, it’s a different feeling when that curtain drops because there’s 700 people instead of 300! I don’t think either space is necessarily better than the other. They just really are so different! For example, in Toronto, it’s different playing to a balcony, and the setup is different. The stage just kind of shrunk in a bit so we had to change all our spacing when we got here. We made changes to the entrances and exits, which as a swing, you can imagine it would be a bit of a nightmare to adjust to all that [laughs]. But yeah, Toronto has been quite magical. And also, [the longer we’ve been doing it], everyone is just a bit more comfortable, and we have so much fun and I hope the audience can tell! We are having just as much fun as the audience is and we’ve been so lucky to have audiences in both places that are giving us so much energy and loving our show as much as we love our show. We knew in Montreal that we had something pretty special and it's just been so fun to take it to two major Canadian cities and see the reactions.

BWW: The audience can absolutely tell that you guys are having a blast! And it’s contagious! Is there anything else that you would like to share as we celebrate National Swing Day?

RM: Just that Covers are superheroes. We’ve had all three of our Standbys swing on mid show! Covers and understudies and standbys and swings are what keep theatre moving and keep it alive. And just … Give your understudy a hug is what I would say! (Laughs).

TITANIQUE is currently playing at Mirvish's CAA Theatre until Sunday, January 19th. It will then return to The Segal Centre in Montreal from February 2nd until the 16th.

For more about Rose Messenger, visit her website at: www.rosemessenger.com

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Pickart

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