|
|
When news breaks, the theatre industry turns to Australia's biggest and best theatre website - AussieTheatre.com - online since 2003 |
Menu |
FEATURES |
| Talking to the Stars: Lucy
Durack AussieTheatre.com talks to one of the true sweethearts of Australian musical theatre, Lucy Durack...  AT:
Lucy, what have you been up to of late? LD: I was given my first regular character on channel 7’s ‘Headland’, which was axed earlier this year, and then filmed an ad where I sing Zip-a-dee doo-dah with an animated lamp post (it’s apparently airing later this year!) which was an hilarious experience! I have just come back from an amazing trip to London and am currently rehearsing two concerts, one with Shaun Rennie and Ray Allridge and one with Peter Cousens, Trisha Crowe and Guy Noble (and currently rehearsing with Tommy Tycho until Guy returns to Sydney - which is another awesome experience in itself!) and a 16 piece Orchestra - both of which I’m really looking forward to! AT: You’ll be appearing in Thoroughly Modern Millie with The Production Company very soon. How do you think it will go? LD: I hope it will go fabulously! It’s a big, crazy, energised broadway style show set in the jazz era - so it should be HEAPS of fun. I’ve had a great run with the Production Company in the last couple of years - I love the adrenalin rush of these shows - and I think that adrenalin comes out on stage too - how can it not? It’s quite a magical experience to be part of as everyone comes together for such a short time, everything is super fresh and you’ve made all these incredible friendships- it’s like that beginning part of a relationship in a way- where everything is just too wonderful for words- and before the ‘honeymoon period’ is over- the show is! Of course it is a double edged sword in a way as the toughest part is not the very very hard work everyone puts in, but rather that IT DOES finish so soon - what goes up must come down and ‘coming down’ from Oklahoma last year after having the run of Metro St (which was funded by and run by the Jeanne Pratt and The Production Company), then Kiss Me Kate and then Oklahoma - I was so heart broken that it was all over - you JUST start to hit your stride with it and then you never get to do it again!! However - having said that - the magic FAR outweighs the heart break and I wouldn’t miss it for the world - so I can’t wait - I’m particularly looking forward to the tap dancing scene Chloe and I get to do in the elevator - I got a call from Dana Jolly - our choreographer - the other day and she said “I hope you’re practicing that tapping!” – it made me very excited as it’s getting closer! AT: What’s your opinions on where musicals are at the moment? It's obviously great to have Titanic, The Boy From Oz, Miss Saigon and Priscilla on the way? LD: It’s marvellous that there are so many shows - and I hope with all my heart that they all do well. I really do feel that our industry and ‘the musical itself’ is on the rise, with the above mentioned musicals, and with Dusty having done/doing so well as well as Kookaburra having launched its season. I think we’ve come out of that trickier period and we’re moving into a new era which has a slightly different focus, it’s shifted a little, we’re sort of trying to find what it is that our own country and society needs and wants to see in 2006 and beyond, I feel, as an industry, a bit like we’ve been in the chrysalis stage for a while and are finally, hopefully on our way out - new and improve . I do think everything needs to be so carefully marketed and carefully done so that we make the very best use of this time and no opportunity is wasted  AT:
What shows would you most like to see produced here in Australia? LD: Most definitely Wicked, I’d love to see (and possibly be part of) a longer run of She Loves Me - that is one of my favourite musicals of all time, of course I’m gunning for Matthew Robinson’s Metro Street and also Nick Enright and David King’s The Good Fight – this was one of Nick’s last shows that my year at WAAPA workshopped with the two of them and eventually put on while we were at uni - it is a heart wrenching, epic, moving and magical piece set in Australia around the time of World War 1 that I really feel should be seen in Australia on a professional stage. AT: I’ve noticed quite a bit of ‘unwritten’ competition between performers. What’s it like? Is it an encouraging environment to be a performer or is it extremely competitive? LD: Well, of course there are only so many roles and many more capable performers around - and everyone wants a nice juicy role - but I think most people are pretty honest about it - so while there’s competition due to the ratios of roles vs performers, it is fair, out in the open “I’d really like this, and I know there’s a few of us up for it” kind of thing – it’s not malicious. I think once you’ve been in the industry for a little while, most people know how it feels to ‘not get’ a role they’d really like, so everyone is pretty supportive when someone ‘does’ get a role - as while we may feel like “Ooh I wish that was me” for a while - fairly quickly I particularly think “Oh that’s so great for them” and usually you can see that they have been very well cast, and you move on - besides, there will always be other roles - and chances are you might get one of them! I am very much a believer that everything happens for a reason and for the best, and I know most of my friends feel the same way - even if sometimes it’s hard to see close to the time of a disappointment. Eventually something great happens and if you’re keeping aware, you’ll go “Ah that’s why!”. I think we are a pretty close knit industry and my experience has been that everyone is really very supportive. AT: What fellow performers have had an impact on your career? LD: When I first graduated I worked with Anne Wood in Mamma Mia, I used to stand side stage almost every night and watch her sing ’The Winner Takes it All’ with such heart and strength, when I was in Carousel, watching David Campbell work was exhilarating - to say the least and having idolised Marina Prior since I was a little girl, working alongside her last year in Kiss Me Kate was really a dream come true. Working with Dana Jolly and Roger Hodgeman on the same show was SO much fun. I love working with Matthew Robinson and always will - I just adore his writing - and we worked with Geordie Brookman as our director last year on Immaculate Confection - I think he is so very clever too. As well as working with James Millar in Oklahoma, I've also recently been working with him on a few other projects and find him incredibly intelligent and innovative. I got to work with Mitchell Butel last year both in Oklahoma and he gave me a little bit of direction for a number in a concert I was doing later in the year, and I think he is a genius - I look forward to hopefully working with him again one day, both acting with and being directed by - I feel he’s going to keep doing lots and lots of both. In fact, the Oklahoma company itself was pretty special, but I think most special of all was working with Nancye Hayes, she is a true star, and an inspiring and lovely person who I admire very much. AT: What’s your view on Kookaburra? LD: I am incredibly excited at the thought of Kookaburra, being part of the launch concert was amazing - it was like we’d bottled the entire Australian industry and put them on stage together - it was electric! I think the extraordinary turn out and spirit at this event was largely because everyone is so amped about this idea - and now that Peter has launched the first season it’s a complete reality and of course even more exciting! Theatre can be expensive especially for families and young people and I think it’s so important to have financially accessible music theatre so that everyone has the opportunity to ‘go to a show’ and grow up with that being part of their psyche. I love the idea of ‘The Nest’ - developing new work - it really is exactly what we need right now as we have so many fantastic writers in Australia that an outlet like this is going to be so very helpful and exciting for - not to mention performers who are dying to be part of new works! AT: Where does Lucy Durack want to be in 10 years? LD: I’d love to be basking in a flourishing Australian Entertainment industry, playing some wonderful role in a musical, with some other fun work on the horizon and I’d like to have had a good go at some film, tv, concert work (particularly with big beautiful orchestras as well as some fabulous big bands!) and straight theatre along the way - with hopefully more to come. I currently do a fair amount of voice over work and I’d like to continue doing that – perhaps up it a notch and maybe even one day voice an animated film or something - I think that would be very cool! I’d like to be continuing to organise the nursing home concerts I run – but hopefully on a larger, more organised scale, and I’d like to make sure I still have a good amount of time to see my wonderful family and friends. |