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| Lisa McCune as Nellie Forbush Picture: Kurt Sneddon |
There’s something about a success. Something you can feel when you know you’re onto a good thing. Something in the air of the rehearsal studio, on the faces of the cast, in the smiles of the crew, says Lisa McCune. “It’s the crackle of a good show.”
She’s talking about the musical juggernaut of South Pacific, which the Logie-award winning performer starred in through Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne last year. The Rodgers & Hammerstein hit returns for a repeat season in Sydney in September and then a whirlwind tour of Adelaide and Perth.
The role is now familiar territory for the tiny blonde performer, who “washed that man right out of her hair” night after night during 2012. But it doesn’t get old, she says. “The crackle remains.”
That same feeling of wonder can be terrifying for someone joining the cast: a feeling Gyton Grantley and Christine Anu know well. The star pair joined the cast for the Brisbane season last year, and were thrown in at the deep end for a whirlwind rehearsal period.
Anu recalls crying in her dressing room on her first day from sheer nerves. “It was insane. Lisa popped by to say hello and I thought ... Shit! That was Lisa McCune! She saw me cry!”
But it was straight down to business when they got out under lights on stage. “It was [director] Bart Sher standing there and saying, “Hi Christine. I want you to do it like this.”
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| Gyton Grantley as Luther Billis Picture: Kurt Sneddon |
All of the cast rave about working with Sher, whose directing accolades include four Tony nominations (and one win for his seminal production of South Pacific).
“You’d find yourself performing to the wings because Bart was standing there,” McCune said.
Gyton Grantley is positively excited about the director’s return. “He’s just got that crazy New York energy. Razor-sharp. Super smart. It’s an honour and a privilege to work with him.”
The characters each performer plays in South Pacific are worlds away from their own lives, but that can be immensely freeing as a performer.
Anu is hardly recognisable under the long wig and blackened teeth. “I just look like this ugly troll. To be unrecognisable on stage ... to not look like me, means I can transform, in a true sense. The wig even makes me walk differently,” the celebrated Australian singer says.
Grantley agrees. “Having a character is so freeing, I love being able to throw myself into someone so different from myself. While Luther Billis isn’t exactly a ray of sunshine, this time I wasn’t a drug dealing murderer (Underbelly), and it’s very different from being a gay house husband (House Husbands)!”
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| Christine Anu as Bloody Mary Picture: Kurt Sneddon |
In his years of working in opera and musicals, Opera Australia’s artistic director Lyndon Terracini has seen a lot of ensemble casts. “But this is one of the happiest casts I’ve ever seen!”
Why return for a second season? It all goes back to McCune’s feeling of the “crackle of a good show”. For Terracini, that crackle is excitement.
“Every night, South Pacific was just as exciting as the night before. And it doesn’t get much better than that.”
South Pacific returns to the Sydney Opera House from Sunday 8th September to Saturday 2nd November.
The smash-hit musical will also travel to Perth, playing from Sunday 10th November to Friday 6th December.
A limited season will play in Adelaide from Sunday 29th December to Sunday 12th January.
For more information and to book tickets, click here.