Teacher Saves Phantom and Wins Bride

Photographer: Prudence Upton

Science teacher and amateur theatre ‘champion’ Lachlan O’Brien saved a performance of The Phantom of the Opera on Sydney Harbour by taking on a lead role during a medical emergency, then won the right to pop the big question on stage. David Spicer reports.

When Lachlan O’Brien shone in the role of Raoul in Strathfield Musical Society’s production of The Phantom of the Opera, he may well have daydreamed of taking his talent to a grander stage, as many an amateur thespian has.

Stage Whispers last spoke to the Science and Physics teacher in 2018, for an article titled ‘Amateur Theatre Champions’.

At the time, the then 32-year-old, with no formal singing or acting training, was rehearsing the role of Lumiere for Beauty and the Beast, was a week away from playing the Wizard in Wicked and had just starred as Billy Flynn in Chicago.

The problem he has faced since then, to fulfill his dream of breaking into professional theatre, was that he was not taken seriously by casting directors.

“Because my CV was chock full of amateur theatre, I had trouble getting auditions,” he said.

Covid-19 opened new opportunities for him.

“With video auditions, it goes through to the director and bypasses the middlemen. That broke the cycle.”

Lachlan’s social media account exploded with congratulations when he announced that he had joined the company of The Phantom of the Opera at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne Arts Centre in 2021.

“The biggest compliment came from the director from Broadway, who said I had versatility in spades, as I had worn so many hats with the 20 (or more) roles I had done in amateur theatre.”

News that the season was cancelled due to Covid-19 was crushing, but soon forgotten when he scored the roles of the Auctioneer and Monsieur Reyer (crazy conductor) in the outdoor season of Phantom on Sydney Harbour, and the indoor season was rescheduled to 2022.

Lachlan, who often stretched his amateur theatre cast mates to perform at a higher standard, was now in thespian heaven.

“I always took it really seriously. I had perfectionist tendencies, whereas most people in a show approached it as a hobby.”

At the first rehearsals for Phantom his jaw dropped at the “mung beans” being spent on the set and “being around all these people at the top of their game. For instance, there were 15 ballerinas, and they were all the best ballerinas.”

Thereafter the season went ‘swimmingly. Torrential rain caused havoc with the bump-in, and Lachlan’s human hair wig would often turn into what he described as a wet rat. But he did get to shake hands with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber on opening night.

Covid and old-fashioned colds then tore through the cast, and it prompted Lachlan to take some initiative.

“The problem was that each lead had only one understudy. I noticed that two understudies were flat mates.”

Sheepishly he approached the assistant director, Shaun  Rennie.

“I said to him that I know it is not my place but I think potentially we might have a problem. If it is any help, I said, I played Raoul in amateur theatre. I know the roles of André and Fermin and if you get desperate (and with courage he added) I know the role of Phantom fairly well.

“Shaun said, ‘good to know.’

“I thought, ‘Oh God Lachlan what are you doing.’ I was kicking myself as I would have to re-learn the parts.

“One day I went through the role of Raoul in the shower.”

A few weeks later fate took a fickle turn. Leading man Callum Francis came down with Covid, then his understudy caught a nasty cold.

“At 4pm, as I was driving in through the airport tunnel, the company administrator called me. Can you go on as Raoul? We don’t have anyone to play it.”

What Lachlan describes as survival mode kicked in. He likened it to someone lifting a car off a trapped child, aided by adrenalin.

“I had three hours and thought, if I am going to do it there was no room for emotion. I have never been so focussed in my life. Backstage I was madly looking at the script. I felt like my eyes were laser beams absorbing the score.”

“I definitely knew the opening bit. Where I got into trouble was ‘All I Ask Of You’, where you can forget which verse you are in. I did slip up and covered it clumsily.”

However, he was pleased to nail the Phantom’s lair trio, which he attributes to learning the part so thoroughly eight years previously.

“It was a frantic time backstage. As I furiously went through the score, Shaun was talking to me calmly about what happens next.

“I received some bad advice from cast mates. They said take it one scene at a time. Don’t think of Act 2. No, no, no, we totally should have.”

A wave of panic descended when he realised he only had ten minutes of interval to prepare.

Lachlan says his fellow cast members, especially Georgina Hopkins as Christine, got him through.

“I didn’t realise until I got on stage during Masquerade that I didn’t know any of the choreography.  ‘Yes Darling,’ Georgina said, ‘I am going to walk you around stage.’ They had our microphones off. She would go, okay let’s walk over here and look happy.

“I sang my normal ensemble part then I realised that was not for Raoul. The only one awkward part was when I almost ran into a ballerina. It was live blocking!

“As soon as the show ended, Georgina looked at me said, ‘you did it’, and burst into tears.

“Only once my body and brain knew the deadline had passed, then the emotions came through.”

Flush with success, Lachlan could turn his attention to another equally exciting and risky theatrical challenge. That was to get permission to propose to his girlfriend on stage.

Luckily, he got a call through to the dental surgery of his beau Dr Kate Xouris, and she cancelled an afternoon of appointments to see his triumph as Raoul.

The two had met and became ‘mates’ during the rehearsals of Engadine Musical Society’s production of Chicago, where he was Billy and she was Velma.

“My love life had always been a trainwreck because I went after the wrong girls. We spoke about our similar frustrations, and it dawned on us that we could solve our problems by getting together.

“I had been wanting to propose for a while, but I thought if I did propose it would have to be something big and theatrical.”

He discussed the idea of getting down on one knee on stage with fellow cast members and one said, “Oh Darling, I doubt they would be interested.” He later learned that Opera Australia has had many such requests in the past and the answer had always been no.

“I got along with director Simon Phillips, and I asked him. He said maybe, ask me again once we get through tech week.”

Rain played havoc with tech week, so he never had the chance to confirm permission.

Buoyed by his triumph in saving a performance, he pressed the issue again with the company management. The answer finally was yes.

The next challenge was crafting a ring. Lachlan, a graduate in geology from Sydney University, was determined to find his own gemstone. Fresh out of university he was hopeful of a stint as a geologist in Antarctica or the mining industry – but the end of the boom steered him to teaching.

This professional fossicker was not going to buy a sparkler in a shop. On the one day he had off from rehearsals, he told a little white lie to his girlfriend about “four-wheel driving with a mate” and instead took off to Oberon in western NSW searching for a jewel.

“I put a sieve in a little creek bed looking for anything that is shiny. I found a nice spinel which is gemstone like a sapphire.”

The custom-made ring was ready only two days before his scheduled proposal.

Lachlan’s final challenge was how to get his beloved onto the stage, without her realising what was happening until the last moment.

“My opportunity came when she booked tickets for final night, cheap ones in the front row.”

His ruse was to tell Kate that he heard a rumour that Lord Lloyd Webber was coming back for the final night. He told her Lloyd Webber wanted cast to be joined by friends and family on stage.

“She thought he was coming back to announce a new show, but thought it weird that family and friends were allowed on stage. When she started to smell a rat, I changed the subject.

“I didn’t want her to freak out, knowing she was going to be the only one on stage. I told the producer where she was sitting, so he escorted her on stage.

“Kate only realised what was going on when she saw I was not wearing my wig.

“I was told, ‘you are on a time limit, no monologue or singing during the proposal’. Allowing me to do it was an enormous favour.”

Kate said yes!