The Curse of the Music Theatre Actor

Image: Tim Draxl in Into the Woods with Andrew Coshan. Photographer: Christopher Hayles

Les Solomon turns his focus onto the invisible casting barrier facing music theatre actors wanting to enter the Aussie film industry, highlights some terrific theatre he has seen recently and weighs in on the Groundhog Day the Musical casting.

In my last column I wrote extensively of the problem of self-tests and how much harder they are making it for actors to get roles. I received thanks from a lot of actors for my comments. I am afraid I am going to shoot a few more bullets at the world of casting.

I am talking here, on the invisible wall that tends to face actors who have received either their training or their early professional work in music theatre. I speak of what could only be called a curse because no matter how you like to dress it up, if most of a performers’ professional credits are in the world of musicals they are locked out of so many chances to prove themselves in film and television. This is a problem that is very specific to Australia only - it is not the case in New York and London. 

Yet in Australia, if your first professional mark is in musicals, there is an unspoken lack of interest in you from film and TV. Most casting agents will deny there is a bias. Some say those who work a lot in musicals are too “big and theatrical” for the camera. There is often talk about the naturalistic style needed in Australian film, but what I observe in many cases is that performers are quite simply ignored if most of their credits are in musicals.

The great irony is if an actor makes a mark in film/TV first, then does musicals … aha, that’s a different story. Look at Lisa McCune, Hugh Jackman and Virginia Gay - but it is a very short list.

When they first left drama school each got a major TV role - with Lisa it was Blue Heelers, Virginia made an early mark inWinners and Losers, and for Hugh it was Corelli. Later on, each went on to star in musicals and managed to move between the two worlds.

But how many big musical stars or even regular musical performers ever get the chance to work that success in reverse?

So, let’s look at New York. Glenn Close got her break in musicals. She was the first Charity Barnum in the musical Barnum. Her success in this led to her being cast in The World According to Garp and she has successfully managed to move between the two worlds ever since. Patrick Wilson’s leading role as Curley in Oklahoma! on Broadway opened the door to a leading role in the TV version of Angels in America and he too now straddles both worlds. My favourite story is that of Sara Ramirez, who, after years of musical theatre work, won a Tony for her hilarious Lady of the Lake in Spamalot. She was visited by TV executives who gave her a choice of about a dozen new TV projects. She chose Grey’s Anatomy and continued in it for years.

A few years ago, I was in New York to escort a client who had recently been granted a Green Card around the New York agents, looking for the best representation. It was both refreshing and frustrating to hear one agent say, “and of course if he makes a mark in a Broadway musical, Hollywood and TV will quickly come calling.”

My first reaction was, “not in Australia they won’t.” Look at some of our most successful music theatre stars - Lucy Maunder, Caroline O’Connor, Marina Prior, Todd McKenney, Hayden Tee - of course David Campbell has his own TV talk and entertainment show, but I haven’t noticed him leading a TV drama series or movie lately. The one performer who lately seems to have straddled both worlds is Tim Draxl (pictured above left).

But for so many others, what is the curse and what do they do wrong? It is so bad now that many young actors in musicals begin to believe they aren’t good enough for film and TV, no matter how gifted an actor they are. I don’t buy that “they are not natural enough, not minimalistic enough for Aussie films”. I just think in Australia there are two different worlds, the world of the musical and the world of everything else.

There is perhaps a little less of a stigma to being a non-musical theatre stage actor, though many will tell you it is almost as tough. 

There is a lack of imagination in seeing a singing actor on stage and not envisaging them in a film and TV role. The once leading casting agent for musicals in this country, Lynne Ruthven, used to work in film and TV casting and changed to musicals to try and bridge the two worlds, but has also found it impossible. Sadly, Lynne is semi-retired these days.

I know one music theatre star who only started to get film and TV work after they had turned down every MT role for three years. How wrong! What’s the answer? I would love to see actors’ thoughts on this very challenging problem.

An Overview

Over the last few months, the show that seems to have dominated most conversations was the Hayes Theatre’s mighty new production of A Little Night Music - sumptuous, glamorous, well cast and well designed. Of course the highlight of this great revival was Nancye Hayes performing once again in the theatre named after her, in a role she has played before—Madame Armfeldt. What a master class in performance. Every word, every moment of silence, every gesture, makes the audience almost stop and hold their breath.

Image: The cast of A Little Night Music. Photographer: John McCrae

I could write a thesis onwhat this remarkable woman has given Australian theatre over the years. Nancye is Australia’s Angela Lansbury, Elaine Stritch and Gwen Verdon all rolled into a classic package – may she continue to blossom in everything she does.  Also - to hark back to my earlier comments—why has Nancye never been given her own TV comedy series. Imagine how wonderful that would be.

Wicked has returned and how lovely to have it back, in a totally A+ production, with not a false note anywhere in production or casting. It would be nice to see a re-interpretation of this modern classic, but for now, we have Wicked in its same comfortable clothes showing once again why it is one of the truly great musical successes of the 21^st Century.

Image: Courtney Monsma, Sheridan Adams and Ensemble in WICKED. Photographer: Jeff Busby.

Miss Saigon - now in Melbourne and soon Adelaide, after a hugely successful stint in Sydney - is as wonderful as ever, with a new interpretation of the “Bui Doi” song and an Engineer in Seann Miley Moore who is breathtaking. Redesigning the character like never before, he has given the world an Engineer like no other.

Finally, a quick mention of my production of The Disappearance. It’s such a joy to have taken this adaptation of the classic youth book The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear and adapt it into a powerful ninety minute piece of theatre about an emotionally fragile young man coping with his family and personal demons. It started as a one-night stand for the Actors Benevolent Fund in May at the New Theatre (Sydney) and developed into a widely acclaimed two week season at the wonderful newly re-opened Chippen St Theatre in October, with a cast of eleven lead by Gordon Vignelles, Kath Gordon and Andrew Lyndqvist. We hope to see it re-appear early in 2024 at a bigger city theatre. Stage Whispers said lovely things – “An elegant and ambitious production”, as did the Sydney Morning Herald -"A production built from and for love”.

Groundhog Day the Musical 

I do wonder how people feel about Andy Karl taking the lead (as I predicted) in Groundhog Day. This is a terrific part and one that could have been played by a list of well known Australian names. I saw Mr Karl do the role on Broadway and he is fine (except he fractured his leg that night) but with the importing of Sarah Brightman in Sunset Boulevarde (a huge name in UK, little known here) I am seeing a trend I dont like. Is this not going back to the days when Broadway actors who meant nothing to Australian audiences were imported for shows like Hello, Dolly, South Pacific, Promises, Promises, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying etc etc.

Image: Andy Karl in 'Groundhog Day' at London's Old Vic. Photographer: Manuel Harlan

Jill Perryman in Funny Girl and Nancye Hayes in Sweet Charity changed all that and we have only seen it rear its head very occasionally since (the recent production Pippin with an import as the narrator and South Pacific with Paige O Hara for instance). Andy Karl has played the role on Broadway and in London -great, but if we take that measuring stick this means in the future we are going to be fed every person who has done the role in one of the main centres instead of a local. Have we, as an audience regressed so far we would rather see these people than an outstanding local professional, just because they had played the role in London or New York. Here is a very short list of fantastic local talents who I guarantee would have put more "bums on seats": than Mr Karl….MEAA where are you on this?

Australian suggestions for the role in Groundhog Day—#David Campbell,#Martin Crewes, #Tim Minchin (now that would be amazing), #Murray Bartlett (hot off his recent Emmy award),#Ben Mingay,#David Harris,#Scott Irwin, #Tim Draxl, #Simon Gleeson,#Hayden Tee, and most of them have had major West End and or Broadway credits and thats just a few of them.