Gruntski

Yup, I auditioned yesterday for a part in a new musical production in Canberra.

The play is “Oliver!”, and just because I am an utter bastard, I auditioned for the part of Bill Sykes, the down right nasty-fighting, girlfriend-killing, self centred villain.

 And truth be told, I sucked.

In the original musical (not the one filmed with Oliver Reed and Ron Moody) Bill Sykes sings a song “My Name”.

 The song indicates the character of Bill Sykes, and leaves the audience in no doubt that he is one mean S.O.B.

 It’s a Baritone part, but sung in quite a gravelly sounding voice.

 So I smoked like a chimney all the way into the auditions, waited around for three quarters of an hour (I was early, and they were late), with my nerves going up a notch every few minutes, until I was called in to the theatre for my audition.

And as funny as this sounds, I was more nervous at this audition that I was when I was on stage in front of 300 people taking my clothes off (The Full Monty- although I got to keep my undies on…).

My singing, to put it mildly, was shit.

The dancing routine we did as a group was OK, nothing very hard there (I think if you managed to stay on your feet, you were considered a “pass”).

The “reading” (they hand you a page or two of script, and you get to act the particular part you’re auditioning for) went alot better- I got to get low down and REALLY angry at some poor little girl (20-ish) that I’d never met before. That’s something (being angry) that I do quite well… Even if I’m doing it in a corny Cockney accent.

Call-backs (allowing the casting crew to finalise their decisions) are supposed to be tonight, and as I haven’t heard anything, then I guess I’ll have to wait til the next show to further my aspirations of fame and fortune (I’ve already mastered Infamy and Misfortune).

Ah well, an artist’s life, en’ all ‘at.