The Emerson Colonial Theatre’s will present a seven show run of the touring dance/theater production Message In A Bottle, based on the music of Sting and works from his band The Police. Featuring 28 songs, some re-mastered and re-interpreted, and developed by Kate Prince, Artistic Director of ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company, Message tells the story of displaced refugees and their struggle to find a new home. Theater Mirror’s Mike Hoban spoke with Associate Choreographer Lukas McFarlane in anticipation of the show’s opening on March 26 (through March 30).
by Mike Hoban
Theater Mirror: How did the idea for Message in a Bottle come about?
Lukas: Kate Prince (the show’s creator) grew up with the music of Sting and the Police and is huge fan. One day she was listening to Sting’s “Desert Rose” and thought, what if we (put together) a show using the music of Sting and the Police? She wrote an email to one of our producers, Sadler’s Wells, and within a couple weeks Sadler’s had her in a meeting with Sting in a hotel lobby pitching this idea to him, which was really cool and quite surreal for her.
It’s really hard to explain dance with words, so Kate decided to do a workshop, and this is where I came on board. We had a workshop for the show where we got in a studio with about 15 dancers and created six or seven pieces, and Sting came into the studio with his manager and watched what we had created. He was emotional, he was crying and he said “I never thought I would see my music three dimensionally. I’ve heard my music for so many years but to see it and experience it like this is kind of unexplainable and very visceral.” And he gave us the green light right there.
TM: When did this take place?
Lukas: That was in 2017. Message debuted in January 2020 in the U.K. right before COVID hit, so we did six weeks and then we got shut down with the rest of the world.
TM: When I first heard about the show, I thought it was a jukebox musical. But this comes from a dance perspective, so can you tell me what the show is like structurally?
Lukas: It’sa narrative piece, and a very universally human story about love and survival. It tells the story of this family that is displaced and it follows their journey as they try to find a new home and it’s all set to Sting’s music. But what’s unique, and why this isn’t a jukebox musical is that it is Sting you hear the whole show. There are incredible renditions of the songs that you’ve never heard before by our music director Alex Lacamoire, the guy behind Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen and The Greatest Showman, In The Heights. He’s created an incredible body of work with Sting’s music, and Stingthing even came in and rerecorded songs for us, so they sound fresh.
TM: So is there a target audience for this show? Is it for dance fans or theater audiences?
Lukas: I don’t think you have to have seen dance. If you love musicals, if you love Sting, or if you just love a night out, this is for everybody of all ages and all kind of entry points to dance. It’s really palatable and a unique experience for the audience I think.
TM: In a recent interview Kate Prince said Message is “based on the idea of war-torn countries and refugees and displacement in the global story and how it’s affecting so many people.” That’s a pretty tall order for a dance musical. How do you incorporate all of that and do that with dance?
Lukas: I think the cool thing with dance is that it’s the universal language. When you get the words out of the way everyone can understand what’s going on on the stage no matter what language you speak or where you’re from, because what we’re just getting to the base of intention and emotion and Kate is a master storyteller. Working with her as her associate I learned so much from her in that way and she’s absolutely brilliant at getting across this beautiful and very poignant story without words. You’d be incredibly surprised how well Sting’s lyrics tell this story. He was writing about political stuff back then and it’s relevant now. The way we have put together the songs to tell this story, the lyrics really carry the story seamlessly.
TM: So if I’m just walking in unaware and I have no idea what the show is about, am I going to be able to understand the story?
Lukas: You’ll know that you’re watching a story about a family that have to leave their home and are on this journey together and you will be able to follow the story. It’s a narrative piece of work. But yes, you’ll be able to follow this story and because it’s a universal story and it’s and it’s based in hope and love and survival, those themes are so apparent and on that stage glaringly in a very beautiful way.
For tickets and information, go to: https://www.emersoncolonialtheatre.com/events/message-in-a-bottle/
