The classics take centre stage
West End and Broadway musical hits will merge in one spectacular show, reports Taryn Utiger.
The UK’s criticallyacclaimed show Beyond the Barricade isona national tour of New Zealand. Director and performer Andy Reiss talks about his long history in musical theatre and what makes this venture so special.
What is this show about and how did it come to be?
Beyond the Barricade came out of an idea to feature the best of the West End and Broadway in one show.
Today it is quite common to see these kinds of shows come and go, but Beyond the Barricade was a forerunner of the genre and David Fawcett and myself began doing one-off shows while I was actually resident director for Les Miserables.
Our production primarily features music from the classic musicals such as Phantom, Saigon, Les Mis, Blood Brothers, but we also like to feature new works and even the Rodgers and Hammerstein classics.
Can you tell us more about what you did before Beyond the Barricade?
Before Beyond the Barricade I had a wide and varied interest in music, which eventually led to a route into musical theatre.
Primarily, my interest began with bands, playing bass and singing but always musical theatre was there.
I ended up auditioning for a role in Carousel, which had always been a favourite of mine. At this stage I’d never actually performed in a musical before and I ended up landing the lead role of Billy Bigelow.
After that I was bitten by the theatrical bug. At the time I was holding down a regular job, but went for an open audition for Les Miserables and got the job!
I have then gone on to feature in musicals such as Chess and Evita, and have been the musical director for other productions such as Annie, The Rocky Horror Show.
I’ve also created a successful Musical Masterclass using my experiences as resident director on Les Miserables.
Over the years, what has been your favourite role?
My time in Les Mis gave me the opportunity to play many of the roles, and I was fortunate to get the chance to do a few shows as Valjean in the Edinburgh production. I loved the role, but I actually enjoyed playing Enjolras more as it was a better fit for me.
In Jekyll & Hyde I had the opportunity to play the lead roles(s!) at the Teatru Manoel in Malta. The sheer scale of the opposition between the two roles really challenged me and so this is also high on my favourites list. I’m not sure I can actually choose a favourite because the wide and varied nature of them all is what makes the roles so special.
How big is the team for Beyond the Barricade, and what are they like?
From the outset it has always been so important for everyone involved with Beyond the Barricade to be like-minded, and be respectful of each others’ abilities and what they bring to the group.
We have the four principal singers whose vocals carry the full two-hour show. There are no backing singers or tracks.
We work very hard to give our audience the experience of hearing the songs we perform as if they are watching the original production.
The task is to do that with four musicians and the vocals. We also tour our own lighting engineer and sound engineer.
What it is like being on tour? Do you have any survival tricks?
Beyond the Barricade’s tour schedule in the UK is a little more user friendly for us, as we spread our production out throughout the year and we have a break in July and August.
Here in New Zealand we are so excited to be performing, and we have been given a full schedule which gives us little recovery time, so we will be hoping the beautiful country we will be travelling through will help with the survival tricks!
If you could play any role in any stage musical, what would it be?
I think I could retire happy, as the ones stated above ticked many boxes; however, I would love to have one more go at Billy in Carousel again, as its where it all started, and I still adore the part.
If you weren’t in the entertainment industry, what do you think you would be doing?
My job prior to running away to be an actor in musical theatre was in child protection work.
Although very demanding, perhaps I would not have swayed too far away from that. I always wondered about the use of music therapy, which is now a well respected area, so maybe I would have gone down that route.
In an ideal fantasy world I would be playing in a very successful rock band!
How are you feeling about the New Zealand tour?
Over the past 17 years on the road, Beyond the Barricade have been to many places, but we feel very fortunate to be able to perform pretty much across the whole of New Zealand, and experience this beautiful country. ❚ Beyond the Barricade will be on stage at Christchurch’s Isaac Theatre Royal on October 7 and 8 as part of a national tour.