(Photo courtesy ImPRint)
Award-winning Broadway star, Michael James Scott didn’t plan on 2020 being the year he put out a holiday album, but this year has caused everyone to change up what their 2020 plan would be.
“I call 2020 the year of the pivot,” Scott says. “What are we doing to stay creative, to stay healthy, to stay active in all of this.”
Scott used is creative pivot to do something he has always wanted to do — make a holiday album. “A Fierce Christmas,” available to stream now, features holiday classics infused with Scott’s own brand of Broadway-funk-jazz-gospel fierceness.
“It was really important for me to just be unapologetically me in this music and really explore the idea of how far I could take the songs but still pay tribute to them,” he says.
Scott is bringing that holiday style to Orlando as a part of the Dr. Phillips Center’s outdoor, socially-distanced Frontyard Festival with “A Fierce Christmas” concert Dec. 19 starting at 8 p.m.
Scott chatted with Watermark by phone ahead of his fierce hometown concert to talk about the new album, holiday traditions and getting back on the stage.
WATERMARK: The last time we talked was at the beginning of 2020 when you came to the Dr. Phillips Center for “Aladdin.” And it was one of the last shows to play at the theater before the pandemic really started to impact the country. How have you been holding up through all of this?
MICHAEL JAMES SCOTT: I mean I am just like everyone else. Still in shock about it, numb really, in terms of what we’ve had to go through. Completely threw a wrench into what 2020 was supposed to be, like this ridiculously fierce year. I am taking it day by day. I am breathing through the uncomfortableness. I am asking the question of who I am without all the stuff. So I’m very grateful for my husband and our little Frenchie because we’ve gotten to spend a lot of time together. I’m just grateful to be an artist and that I can stay inspired by other artists who push me to stay creative during this dark time for us.
We saw a lot of people learning new skills or tackling new projects while quarantining and socially distancing away from others to help keep their sanity. What have you been doing to keep busy?
Cooking as been that for me. I have cooked so much and I love doing it. I will put on my “Real Housewives” and my reality television ridiculousness. I put it on in the kitchen and go into my own world and cook for my husband and I, and that has been really fun. It’s been fun to try out things and I never have time to do that so that’s been a really fun discovery.
I loved to cook before the pandemic but I never got to really do it and in this time it’s given me the time to play and so I’ve enjoyed that. It’s also so therapeutic and it’s just fun. There’s fun things you can do with dishes and come up with different things. I feel like I’m living my full suburban housewife dream of getting my cooking on.
What’s been your favorite thing to cook while you’ve been in quarantine?
I love making cacio e pepe. It’s a dish that’s pretty simple but you’ve got to get the timing right so that the egg doesn’t curdle. Listen to me, I sound like I’m talking on the Food Network [laughs].
You were also working on a new holiday album during the pandemic. What made you want to use this time to create a Christmas album?
The Christmas album thing for me is not a new thing at all in terms of I’ve always wanted to do it. You know as actors some people dream of practicing their Emmy speeches, Oscar, Tony speeches; I have been practicing my holiday album since I was a little chocolate, chubby child, so I had my [song] list already but what I’ve learned in this pandemic is that the time is now. We know that overnight things can change, and they have changed for us, so you have to just do it and you can’t wait on anyone.
My husband [filmmaker Jeremy Merrifield] was incredibly instrumental in making this happen and setting me up with a record label down in Orlando, Scratch 17, who in turn set me up with an amazing music producer and then I brought in some of my Broadway family, Jim Abbott to arrange the songs and then with the live musicians, who recorded remotely because that’s live music, live instruments playing. Then down here instrumentalists went one-by-one in the studio and then me recording in the studio and then putting it all together, it was just unbelievable.
As we know, there’s a racial awakening happening. There is still fighting for equality, diversity, inclusivity; all the things that we have been fighting for for so many years and we’re all doing that during a pandemic. It’s just unbelievable where we’ve come to in this extreme nature of where we are, so my answer to it all — I’m protesting with joy. That’s why I wanted to do this album now. I wanted to show a chocolate face that wasn’t afraid to smile, who’s not afraid to be joyful, who’s not afraid to be authentically himself: an out, man of color who is joyful and wanting to spread that. That for me is where this came from. It was a need to do that, to bring in joy at the end of this crazy year.
What was Christmas like in the Scott house growing up?
It was a chocolate lovefest of ridiculousness. It was gospel and Christmas music playing. The Temptations’ Christmas. Donny Hathaway. Patti LaBelle. It was constant music and I was the big leader in terms of that in my family. I really wanted to get our tree early, let’s get it decorated. I was the annoying child jumping up and down like can we please get our Christmas on now.
I’d watch the Disney parade on Christmas morning, then when I was in high school I was actually performing in the Christmas parade out at the parks. Then getting that home cooking with the stuffing and the mac n cheese and the greens, the cornbread and all of that goodness, that was what the Scott household was. We would open presents early, early on Christmas morning and play with them all day, running around and just being ridiculous and there I was, with me it was always related to music somehow, whether it was getting a CD player or radio and then it was just singing all day long. So that’s what Christmas was always for me.
I also used to be a part of the Caroling Company. It was this group back in the day, this a cappella singing group with a children’s group as well, and we’d be in Charles Dickens outfits and we would sing Christmas carols in malls, everywhere. We were like the Salvation Army folks with the bell. Just everywhere we could be.
There are so many classic songs about the holiday season. How did you decide which songs you wanted to include on your album?
I knew I wanted to pay tribute to the classics and put Michael James Scott fierceness on top of all of it, that’s what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to give my voice to it. I wanted to bring big band, Broadway, gospel, funk, holiday fun to it, and I wanted to infuse all of my influences into these songs.
I saw you got quite the glowing review on Twitter from Olaf himself, Josh Gad. Can’t beat an endorsement from one of the world’s most famous snowmen.
Josh is very sweet and so lovely and I’ll take it [laughs]. The snowman of snowmen himself gave us an endorsement. Yes, we will take it!
You all need to do yourselves a favor and listen to the new Christmas album by the INSANELY talented @iamMJScott https://t.co/OuIjlZpaLa
— Josh Gad (@joshgad) December 5, 2020
Your returning home for “A Fierce Christmas” concert as a part of the Dr. Phillips Center’s Frontyard Festival. Have you gotten a chance to see the festival set up yet?
I just got into Orlando, I’m doing my few days of quarantine, I’m getting my test and all that so I can actually go out and see it but I am here and cannot wait to see it. I’ve seen lots of photos of what it’s going to look like and it looks amazing. But I cannot tell you what a dream it is. First, I am bookending this year in my hometown which feels so crazy but also so comforting and so exciting.
Orlando is ahead of the curve of being able to bring live events back to the Dr. Phillips Center and do it in such a beautiful and safe way. AdventHealth is presenting it so you know it will be very safe. You will be in your socially distanced box as the audience, then the stage is gigantic, there are three big jumbo screens so people will be able to see. But you will feel safe and get to experience live entertainment.
We will have a 16-person live choir, a nine piece band and three back-up singers, all socially distanced. It’s a big one, it’s a very big concert and I am just thrilled that on Dec. 19 I can do that here and bring some joy to the city I hold so near dear to my heart at the end of this crazy year.
Are we focusing just on the holiday album in this concert or will we get a few of your Broadway hits as well?
We are going all out! We are giving you the album and more holiday favorites. But you’ll also be getting some Broadway, some gospel as well. We are going for it. We gotta pull out all the stops after this year.
As someone who has famously played the Genie in Broadway’s “Aladdin,” I want to finish up by asking, what is your biggest wish for 2021?
I think my biggest wish is that we all have grace for growth, I think that’s really important. I also am hoping and wishing and praying that no matter what you believe in — Allah, Buddha, God, whatever you believe in — that we can take some joy, some light, some laughter at the end of 2020 and bring it into 2021 so that we can start off the year with that. That’s why I made this album and why I’m doing this concert. Let’s just send up love and light and laughter that night and as we head into this holiday season and into a new year.
Michael James Scott’s “A Fierce Christmas” concert will be at the Dr. Phillips Center’s Frontyard Festival Dec. 19 at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at DrPhillipsCenter.org.
Michael James Scott’s “A Fierce Christmas” album is available to stream now. You can find it by going here.
