Talking with the Stars: Katrina Retallick

She's been in Titanic, South Pacific and has also made a name for herself in television. This week, Katrina Retallick spoke to AussieTheatre.com's Troy Dodds about her new cabaret show, her career and her future...

TD: You're working on a new cabaret show - tell me about it.
KR: It's called Impossible Blonde and it's a tour de force of blonde divas over the decades. These are women from stage and screen who have inspired me over the years and basically, I'll be singing two or three of their most well known songs and then, in character, I'll reveal an inside episode of their lives. So, giving impressions of these women, really, and trying to capture their voices and their nuances. It starts in May at the Statement Cabaret Lounge with Jeremy Brennan on piano and Hugh Fraser on bass. We'll start with Marlene Dietrich, then Marilyn, then move onto Peggy Lee and Julie Andrews just to name a few. It's certainly a challenge but it's been great learning more about these iconic performers. I'm aiming for glamour, comedy and good singing!


TD: Have you put a solo show together before? How are you finding the experience?
KR: I put a one woman show together for a series of cabaret nights at the Stables which was also produced by Alistair Thomson, called 'Catching the Light'. It was about my mother's side of my family coming to Australia from Lativa just after the war and the ensuing culture shock of it all! That was also a big project and I wanted to honour my family's story and also make it entertaining and musically diverse. I think we achieved that. It's weird sitting in the dressing room before the show and only having yourself and your band to say 'chookas' to! It's all on your shoulders. But there's a great amount of freedom in that as well, so if you embrace that, it can be really liberating and can improve you tremendously as a performer.


TD: Of course, your last show was Titanic which ended prematurely. Was it sad to see it go?
KR: It was really sad. It was so disheartening that the show didn't do better business, when we all knew what a wonderful piece it was.
Our audiences loved it when they got there, and ,as you would know, we couldn't have hoped for better reviews; we just couldn't get them in the door to begin with. I admire John Diedrich and Joanne Robinson immensely for their passion in and their commitment to delivering quality musical theatre to Australian audiences. It's a real shame they didn't respond. It's a shame for us as performers; it was a challenging, delicate work that relied on every one of us being right there, emotionally and vocally every night (I don't think I've ever heard so many amazing and true voices in any one cast); and it's a shame for audiences who may not have the privilege of seeing this kind of show on stage again for a long time.


TD: What else have you been up to lately, and what else is to come this year?
KR: Well, I've been extremely focussed on Impossible Blonde. My living room is strewn with biographies and sheet music right now. And in May, I'll be joining some of our best performers in Kookaburra's second show, Company. I'm really excited - it's a knockout cast! I'm working hard on my soprano register with my amazing singing teacher, Jeremy Powell. I'm also taking some life drawing classes right now. It's great to free up other parts of your creativity..I'm loving that.


TD: Of course, Comedy Inc. has been something that has given your career a boost, is it a fun show to work on?
KR: It was great fun and really developed me as a comic actor. Even playing straight has it's own challenges, and doing impressions or impersonations was a steep learning curve for me too. The cast was excellent and the pace was very fast so it works your memory and your skill for delivering a character in 30 seconds or less! Got to wear some pretty special wigs and costumes too!


TD: What's been the highlight of your theatre career so far?
KR: I'd have to say playing Nellie in South Pacific and Guenevere in Camelot. Beautiful material to work with - you can always find something new, every night. I was also thrilled to play Frenchie in the big top tour of Grease in front of my home town crowd in Wagga. They were really supportive and made me quite proud of my journey so far!


TD: You've done some work with The Production Company in the past - what is the experience of doing a show in such quick fashion like?
KR: It's pretty exhilirating! You only have about 2 weeks before you're in costume, under lights, in front of a full paying audience of 2000 at the beautiful State Theatre - so it's not for the faint-hearted! Of course, you put in a fair bit of work before you get there. For Camelot, Scott Irwin and I were lucky enough to have some time reading through the script and fleshing out the characters with our amazing director, George Ogilvy. He is incredible! He just plants seeds of thought and then lets you nurture them until they bloom right in front of your eyes! Really, it's like a well fed garden! South Pacific was wonderful too as it was the first lead role that was all my own - I lapped it up and didn't want it to finish. (Luckily, we had two more seasons of it, again, with thanks to John Diedrich). That's the traumatic part - saying goodbye after only 6 shows!


TD: Where do you think Australian theatre is at at the moment?
KR: It seems a little gun shy to me. Not much confidence out there, which is hardly surprising. Audiences don't have much choice right now. I think it's a minor miracle every time a musical theatre show gets up and going, so , I'm praying for more miracles I suppose! The arts don't have much support under our present government- that's really noticible, but we keep going because some of us don't want to live in a world without it.


TD: Are there any shows you would particularly like to see staged in Australia?
KR: There are many! I'm planning a trip to New York soon to check out all of the new shows - it's hard to keep track of them from here. I'd love to be involved in Avenue Q it was ever produced here and I've heard word that Mary Poppins is on its way. I'll be putting my hand up for that one when the wind blows it our way!