Shorty star tried – and failed – to quit musical
There’s only been one gig that almost broke Lisa Chappell and that’s the one she thought would be a doddle. Sinead Corcoran reports.
Lisa Chappell’s showbiz career has spanned more than 30 years, but the only job she ever quit was Shortland Street – The Musical. Well, tried to anyway. ‘‘I had naively thought that because it’s a musical, there’d be hardly any dialogue so it would be really cruisy – but it’s turned out to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done,’’ she says.
‘‘It’s the only time I’ve ever tried to quit but they wouldn’t let me.’’
When I call Chappell, she’s stuck in rainy Auckland traffic, she’s swearing at someone who’s speeding and she’s completely forgotten about our interview – but she’s also not sleeping, two weeks out from the opening night of that show she tried to quit.
‘‘I’m perimenopausal, I’m getting the hot flushes at night, I’m in the fog,’’ says the 50-year-old. ‘‘It’s a challenging time in my hormonal state to try to pick up a new skill.’’
That new skill would be dancing, and while she has an impressive acting career under her belt – as well as a singing album – she’s absolutely terrified of letting the team down.
‘‘If I wasn’t so scared about how we’re actually going to get this done, I would be having the time of my life. But as it were I’m working my ass off, petrified.’’
Despite having a fear of public singing, that album When Then Is Now came about as a means to an end.
Previously based in Australia, the Aucklandborn McLeod’s Daughters star moved back a few years ago but even the most successful actors don’t always know where their next pay cheque is coming from.
‘‘I want to stay living in New Zealand so I said to myself, ‘look you have got to get more work because you can’t survive here’.’’
It wasn’t the money that got her to agree to Shortland Street – The Musical, however.
They offered her the part of nurse Carrie Burton, who has the honour of speaking what is perhaps the most famous line in the entire history of New Zealand television.
‘‘They told me I’d get to sing the most iconic line of the entire series – ‘You’re not in Guatemala now, Dr Ropata’ – and I said ‘OK, sold’.’’