BWW Interviews: ROCK OF AGES' Dominique Scott Never Stopped Believing in His Dreams

Dominique Scott was born and raised in South Florida where his passion for music began. Currently playing Drew in the enormously popular Rock of Ages and touring around the United States, Dominique took a few minutes to answer some questions for Broadway World.

You started with music very young playing classical piano.

That actually was the first training I got. My first professional production was a regional show when I was 10. I did a show that ran for 2 months in a regional theatre in South Florida. I did that for a while. But the first training I ever got was in classical piano. I was in the 4th grade and I did that for about 4 years and then I started getting training in all music when I went to middle school, high school and college.

How did you go from that to the lead in Rock of Ages?

I never considered myself a pianist even though I was quite good and my mom, at one point, was trying to convince me to be some kind of concert pianist. But, it was not what my thing was. I was much more into rock and roll. My dad was a rock star in his time. He was the lead guitarist in a band called Hollow Spirit. They toured in Europe, Germany and stuff. I have that in me and a lot of my influence is from him. I was always a clown. In fact, my first job was as a professional clown. I was 14 or 15 and I got hired by a company to be a clown because I could juggle. I loved being in front of people. I loved performing and so classical piano was the first of all the skills that I picked up in my attempt to be a Renaissance man.

You have done some stand out things in your life including Chris in Miss Saigon, the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, as well as Freddie Mercury. Which role has been your favorite?

I think I’m very fortunate to say that my favorite role I’ve ever done has to be the one I’m currently doing. A lot of people can’t usually say that but I’m very lucky in that. The best thing I’ve ever done usually happens to be whatever I’m doing at the moment. Like when I was doing Chris in Miss Saigon, that was my favorite role, Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar. Two years ago I did Freddie Mercury and Stevie Wonder. That was my first job out of college and playing Freddie Mercury and Stevie Wonder; who gets to play those 2 music icons? If you would have asked me then, I would have told that that was the best job. I couldn’t have imagined a better job. Then Rock of Ages came along and now I’m playing to 3,000 people a night. I just rock it out screaming my face off every night. It’s something that I don’t know how it can get any better than this. If my track record continues like it has been then hopefully it will just keep getting better and better. I don’t know how.

Let’s talk about your role of Drew in Rock of Ages. How did you find out you got the part?

We had a callback on a Monday. We went for the final creative team, the director and producers and that was on Monday and I got the call on Friday. I was working in a restaurant in New York City waiting tables and I got a voicemail on my phone and I went to check the voicemail and sure enough it was the casting director offering me the role. It was really cool. Actually, I auditioned for it among 300 other guys a day at an open call in New York City and they cut me. My audition didn’t go so well I think for multiple reasons. You only sing maybe 15 seconds of a song; it’s extremely short. You wait all day and they cut me. They were like, “OK, thank you, bye.” I was really upset about that. So, I made a video and I sent the video of me singing all of the Drew stuff ‘cause I didn’t want to give up (you can watch the video of Dominique's audition here). It was too perfect for me. I sent the video in and then I got a call to come in for the final day. I came in for the final day and it ended up being me and 16 other guys, then me and 8 other guys, then me and 1 other guy and then just me.

Did you quit your job at the restaurant immediately?

Kathy Strain spent most of her life outside of Philadelphia and has enjoyed Broadway shows for most of her life. Kathy moved to San Antonio, Texas in 2001 with her husband Ken and 3 children. She holds a degree in Public Relations from the University of Texas at San Antonio and runs her own Public Relations company. She loves to contribute pieces on the arts to several outlets and enjoys writing about talent and sharing it with the world.

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