Bushnell Theater Presents MJ

We spoke with Bushnell Theatre Actor Devin Bowles about the show “MJ.”

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest today is Devin Bulls. He's an actor who's an
MJ right now at the Bush No. He plays Joe
Jackson and Rob. Can't wait to talk about this. Good morning, Devin.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
How are you?

Speaker 3 (00:15):
I was a good morning. How are you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm so great.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
I saw you the other night and I was with
my friend and we are theater people. You deserve an award.
Everybody was great, Oh my god, everybody was so good.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
But you playing this dual role.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
You played Joe, the father of Michael Jackson, but you
also play Rob.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah. Well, first, thank you for those words. I absolutely appreciate.
I don't take those lightly. And I'm glad you and
your family enjoyed it. And it's been a quick paced
first week here. I mean we're only here for one
week in Harford, but we have a lot of rehearsals
and things are going great. And yeah, you said that
you hit the neil on the bud. Yeah. I played
Joe Jackson, who is the infamous father of Michael Jackson,
who Jackson's Bob. And then Rob is this character we've

(01:00):
created in the story space where he is Slord of
Michael's right hand man, his call, but for his director,
his go to person with anything analytic and logic and
his artific ideas. So that's the device that we placed
in the show.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Wow. So for the people who haven't seen the show,
I just had this moment of like, you're like a
Jiminy cricket for him.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yes, you know what, I got to give you props
to that because I've never heard that before, and that
is that is very accurate.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
And again, people have to see the show. It's playing
through Sunday at the Bushne'll go to Bushnell dot org
to get your tickets. The way that you switched from
this mean dad, unfortunately I hate to say it like
that to this other person. Your acting skills were off
the charts and then you could sing.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
You could see you could sing.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
I mean we were like, Wow, this man blew me away,
just blew me away.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
It was that good.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
So for people who don't know about the play, without
giving it all away about.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Oh my god, I can say this unbiasedly. MJ is
one of the biggest spectacles that Broadway has ever seen.
You're going to get a little bit of everything. You're
going to get the vocals you're going to get the
iconic core. You're going to get the iconic Michael Jackson costumes,
you know, all the sparkles and the bedazzles, and then
then on top of that, you're going to leave with

(02:23):
a better perspective of Michael's art, in his humanity. And
that's what it is, you know, it's We've set the
story in nineteen ninety two, takes place two days before
we leave for the Kick and for the debut of
the Dangerous Tour. Basically, in those two days, we're in
a rehearsal space in LA and we kind of navigate
through Michael's artistic endeavors, you know, obstacles come up with

(02:44):
financial issues with artistic ideas. We placed some variables in
there to try to really bring the humanity out of Michael,
and we see that. We see a frustrated Michael. We
see a joyful Michael, we see a energetic Michael, and
sometimes we see a little motion frustrated space of Michael
where he lives in the space. And then well then
we jump back and forth. We have the Jackson five

(03:06):
and we have Joe Jackson, who really was an impactful,
unfortunate impactful piece of Michael's legacy and his ambition and
his work ethic, and we just live in that for
two solid days in the story and it's a little
bit of everything. It's so exciting. I mean, it's everybody, young, old,
newer generation, order generation, pop rock fans, it's a little

(03:27):
bit of everything. And it's a beast of a show.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
It is a beast of a show.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
The first act chills, the hair standing up on my arms.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
I just kept looking at my friend going wow, wow,
wow wow.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
And the talent, the children and everybody was in the
Jackson five, the mom, the duet that she does with Michael.
I'm choking off talking to you about it.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
It's so beautiful. And you know, somebody, for myself, who
is such a I love magic. I'm a big Disney guy,
and I love broad Away, and I love anytime you
can steal that energy from story being told and see
yourself in it and get inspired and get hopeful. And
the energy that we you know that myself in this
tremendous talented cast that we bring every night, it's something

(04:11):
to be inspired by. And I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
I'm even more excited for Hartford to continue to be
exposed to great art and talent and skill and just
you know, the annointment that some of these people have
and their skill set.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, I love what you just said.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
You close your eyes, you hear Michael Jackson, You open
your eyes, you think it's Michael Jackson. You don't have
to go to Broadway. We have the Bushnell right here.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
It's a Jaman.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
It was just as good, if not better than Broadway.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Oh my god. It's funny because you know, when we
first launched this tour, half of the touring cast was
from Broadway. And that's one thing about MJ is well
one big family. You know. We have people from a
London company from Broadway with us, and we all mix
and mingled, all work with each other in the past,
and it just makes it more of a communal experience.
But you know, we try to do our best and

(05:06):
we bring the show to people's backyards, and for myself,
trying to be the best leading man I can be,
I've really stepped into that of the power of that
I have an opportunity to bring this magic and these
stories to people's backyards and touching people emotionally across the country.
So I don't take that lightly, so I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
And again everybody was amazing, the harmonies, the mom singing
the duet with Michael. As I said before the Jackson five,
but I'm telling you, you playing this dual role, you
actually are.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
The star of this as far as I'm concerned.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
I'm not just saying it because I'm interviewing you. Mike
Friend and I are like, do you think he's single?

Speaker 3 (05:46):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
I'm glad, all right, I have a question for you,
without giving away the show because it's so good, the
thriller part where you come out out looking like a
voodoo daddy. I don't know how else to explain it.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
It's a lot. Yeah, without giving too much away, I
tell people you have to this is the show. You
have to wait to the end of the show. You know.
We tease you with from Chorea. We tease you with
some music in the first act, and I don't want
you to grow weary. I don't want you to grow tired.
You sit down and wait till the end of the show.
And like you said, you see a you go see
a number that we take a lot of pride in

(06:26):
and that we that we really enjoyed.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
My take was when he was singing the Thriller song
with you and this number, it was almost like he
was singing about his dad, like he wrote Thriller because
of maybe the abuse with his father.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Yeah, to a degree, you know. And I think one
of the bigger things when Michael does sing in this show,
it's always coming from a place of what he's going
through mentally at that moment, you know. So with that
particular song and other songs throughout the show, Joe had
a really impactful hand on Michael's self perception of himself

(07:01):
and how he viewed himself in the industry, in his
workspace and his artistry. And yeah, when he's delivering these
pieces and singing these songs, you know, Jamal philis Green
and Jordan Marcus are tremendous in Jays and Eric Hamilton,
and we really can understand where he was coming from
seeing these songs. And unfortunately with Joe, you know, he
played a big role in the feeling aspect in the

(07:25):
holding hostage and having a chokehold on Michael and his growth,
and so we see that very vividly. It's very receptive
in the show, and we do a good job of
portraying that and.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
It's interesting he became the same way toward himself. If
he didn't have a father who was like that when
he was a child, maybe he wouldn't become such a perfectionist.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
But maybe not. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
And you know what, that's the question. It's sort of
like it's sort of like I tell myself with Hades
town of like we left the question if he gonna
turn around. He's not going to turn around. That's the question.
If Joe was not there, we have the same Jackson five,
but we have the same Michael Jackson as an entity
of himself, but we have the same music. Where he

(08:07):
would have left you know this R and B and
gone to a pop rock you know where we would
have had that transformation of Michael. So all these questions
are valid. But I think for his artistry, that's why
he's so timeless, is that his music stands the time
of multiple generations, his influences and multiple artists today, Bruno, Mars, Beyonce,

(08:27):
Chris Brown, we still have his influence. And then on
top of that, like you said earlier, it's the questions,
you know, well, where would we be without Michael Jackson
If Joe was out there? Who would Michael Jackson be?
So these are all great questions and just dive into
the artistry of who Michael was as a person and
an artist.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
So you were born in Tennessee or you come from Tennessee.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Tennessee boy won and raised. Yeah, I was born in
a town called Jackson, Tennessee. Is about an alpha Misslis.
I studied and either around the Nashville area, in the
city outside of Nashville called Murphusboro. I went to Middle
toes he Stay University. Yeah. I got my professional start
in Nashville and then moved to New York. I did
some theme park work, worked in DC for a little bit,

(09:07):
and moved to New York. And now we're now we're here.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
And you were just in Kinky Boots at Broadway.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yeah, that was my first experience of working in the
city as being a resident of New York and also
working in the city and being with that amazing creative team,
you know, Jerry Mitchell and Cindi Lauper and having a
time to work with them. It was, it was beautiful,
It was. It was a great first introduction to the
caliber of work that I that I stropped to work on.
And and you know now with Michael Jackson and co

(09:35):
leading the show, Uh, it's it's it's just stretching even more. Yeah,
Kiky Boots was a blast.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Do you feel the need to decompress after you portray
Joe Jackson and Robin the show.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
To to a degree? For me, uh, I I navigate
more towards Rob for ib was a very organized abc
D guy. He wants stuff in order. He's a very
ambitious man. He's driven, he wants things to go the
way he planned them, and I navigate more towards Rob

(10:07):
for Joe. I really do have to try to get
myself in a mind's space. Obviously, I don't have kids
in my personal life, so have an opportunity to play
that and have kids that you have futures for and
invest in them and groom them and try to unfortunately
control them the way Joe did. I definitely have to
go into a mental space of that. But when that

(10:28):
current closes down, you know, the old Disney loving teddy
Bret Devin comes back out and it's just I play
some video games, hang out with my cast facetimes with friends,
with some good food, and we get ready to roll
the ball again. The next to day.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
What do you hope people take away from the show?

Speaker 3 (10:46):
Oh a lot, Honestly. I really hope people take away
the humanitarian that Michael Jackson was. I hope people take
away the influence that Michael had and continues to have.
But I also hope that people come and really grow
and appreciation for the skill and the talent that's on
the stage. It's something that we dedicate. I speak to myself,

(11:08):
you know, we dedicate our lives too, and we really
try to grow that eternal craft in us because we
love it and we love what we do. And we
really hope that that people can be inspired by the
work and the vultability that we place ourselves on stage
and just become a fan of storyteller, become a fan
of theater of art and Michael Jackson injured and Musicore

(11:29):
is a great example of that. But also hope people
just laugh a little bit, you know. And I got
to be so deep all the time, you know, so
a lot of it. But those are some things I've
put people walk away with and have a good conversation
about for the holiday season. You know.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
I'm speaking with Devin Bowles, he plays Joe Jackson and
Rob and MJ. It's a story about Michael Jackson at
the Bushnell through Sunday. Go to Bushnell dot org to
get your tickets. Devin, thank you so much for speaking
with me this morning.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
I can't thank you enough. Alison abtruly free, says you
all right,