Tag: Lara Soulio

Calm the flock down

When I was a younger man, imagining where I might be in 2011, I thought I might be on my way to becoming the next Dr Karl, auditioning to play an elder Weasley brother, or perhaps starring in a YouTube Doctor Who fan film as the first ginger Doctor.

I never considered I might be in a musical about a killer robot travelling back in time to kill Jesus before He’s born.

The Terminativity is easily one of the greatest things I’ve ever been involved with. First, it’s been super popular: I’ve never before sold out an entire (short, and not including the preview) run before opening. So a big thank you everyone who came along! Second, the response has been great. Cameron Woodhead in The Age gave us four stars (not 40, as the Google search result suggests). Wonderful talented people I admire came to see it and liked it and wrote about it on their blogs and told me so on Twitter. And so many friends have come as well and laughed and said lovely things! (Mostly, it’s true, “I didn’t know you could sing!”, to which I want to answer “I’ve been in five musicals!” but I understand that very few people saw the last four.) I love you all. I even got the chance to sing on the radio – and you might get to see a bit of the show online in the future. (I’ll keep you posted!)

But most importantly, The Terminativity is a great experience as a performer because it’s a great show. The cast – Aurora, Mike, Gatesy, Lawrence, Andy, Tegan, Adam, Rebecca, Scott and of course Richard – are amazing. I’m working with friends and peers and people I admire, all putting in professional effort out of all proportion with the amount of time we’ve had to prepare. The band – Casey, Matt, Ben, Ross, Enio and Vincenzo – are amazing: we sound good because they are all top notch, and similarly have put in hard work to sound so amazing. Our production team – Catherine, Jacky, Jackson, Julz and Lara – have done an incredible job with props, costumes and lights; we don’t just sound good, we look good. Nick Caddaye (with a little help from the cast, it’s true, but not too much) has crafted some of the finest Christmas/Terminator mashup gags you can imagine. And Casey Bennetto…well, I’ve used the term musical genius before, but that’s because I’ve now met about half a dozen people who really deserve the title. Casey is king of the bunch; when people tell me they love my song, I reflexively deflect that praise onto him. After all, he created it, and was kind enough to let me be the one to sing it.

In short, I’m in the kind of show I would be in the audience watching if I could be, and really that’s the best possible thing any of us can ask for, isn’t it? It’s like a Christmas present that we all get to do this again. Now I understand what the cast of Doctor Who mean when they go on about it being like a family.

So thanks to everyone involved in, watching or even just talking about The Terminativity; it’s only halfway through our brief run of four nights and it’s already been a rollercoaster.

And if you wanted to come, but you didn’t get in quick enough, don’t worry: I’ve a feeling you haven’t seen the last of us.

We’ll be back.