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Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Trip back to the '50s well worth it
Through the haze of the St James Theatre in Gore shone the pastels of the 1950s, as Happy Days: A New Musical had its opening weekend. The humour, singing, and dancing of Gore Musical Theatre's Southland cast, with some new and old faces from across the region, shone in the show's debut. Costumes and sets partly sourced and partly hand-made by behind-the-scenes volunteers were taken out for their first spin. Invercargill's Craig Waddell directed the show, his first in Gore, and brought in some new talent from his part of the South to play the teenaged cast. The vocal stylings of The Dialtones, and the barbershop quartet of Richie Cunningham, Ralph Malph, Potsie and Chachi, all played by young Invercargill actors, were easy on the ear. The ad-libs and physical comedy of newcomer Flynn Elder as Ralph Malph stood out, alongside the voice of radio host Corbyn Shuttleworth, playing Potsie. New to Gore, Billy Weeks played the Fonz, and was also a strong singer, while also managing to hit the character's jukebox-thumping and thumbs-up signature moves on cue. The hilarity of some mainstays of the local theatre scene — including Gore Musical Theatre president Sean Burke as Richie's father Howard Cunningham — was a highlight. No spoilers, but Mr Burke, along with other actors, perform a surprisingly humorous scene as a purring spoof of sort of a Lions-club-meets-Freemasons group, called "The Leopards". Kayla Wilcox, who the audience knows for her titular role in West Otago Theatrical Society's production of Mary Poppins , found humour in the role of Marion Cunningham. Ms Wilcox played the pie-making, stay-at-home-mum like a dissatisfied Stepford Wife, tap-dancing on overdrive, much to the nearly full-house's amusement. Campbell Heads and Duncan McAllister were the show's villains and Fonzie's rivals, the Malachi brothers. Mr Heads played a very camp, Shakespearean and slightly operatic Myron, "The Count", while Mr McAllister took the gormless heavy route. After the show, Mr Waddell said he liked to add extra humour into all of the material, as it was one of his favourite aspects of any production. There were tender sincere moments in the show too, however, as Pinky Tuscadero and the Fonz's romantic relationship was portrayed. Invercargill nurse Willow Gush, who said previously she found getting into Pinky's saucy, sassy character a challenge, showed no fear on stage with her clear, confident singing. The levels of tap, rock'n'roll dancing and hand jiving by the whole cast, choreographed by Nikoia McKelvie, were also refreshing and not to be missed. Happy Days: The Musical has its last three dates this weekend; tickets are available on iTicket and at the theatre.
Otago Daily Times
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
‘Happy Days' for choreographer
Happy Days will be Nikoia McKelvie's 14th time choreographing for Gore Musical Theatre and she is showing no signs of slowing down. As a hip-hop dance teacher, Ms McKelvie was not as well versed in the rock'n'roll style of dancing in the upcoming musical, but she said she threw herself into it. "I was like, 'I don't know if I can pull this off', but hopefully I've done it justice." Happy Days is a musical ode to the well-loved '50s-set sitcom that ran 10 years from 1974 and the dance moves in the show included rock'n'roll and tap. Ms McKelvie said the cast had a special session in Invercargill last week at the Invercargill Rock and Roll Club to help master the more complicated moves. But, it was the dance's signature lifts, from a health and safety perspective, that more help was needed for. She said the cast had come a long way. Her 15-year-old daughter Ellie played Joanie in the production and she said there had been some "eye-rolling" at the beginning of rehearsals, but now she was teaching her with ease. Her favourite number to choreograph was Message in the Music which reveals the musical's overall theme — through music and dancing, you can find joy. Southland theatre mainstay Kayla Wilcox and the show's director Craig Waddell choreographed the one tap routine, as tap was not in Ms McKelvie's wheelhouse. For every production she has choreographed for Gore Musical Theatre, Ms McKelvie has been nominated for an Otago Southland Theatre Award. She faced similar challenges in choreographing the theatre company's 2021 production of Chicago , as its jazz-style was also not her forte. She won the award for that production, so she was fairly confident she could do anything she set her mind to. "I think when I get shows like this, I really throw myself into it and just study it, just so that I can do it justice," she said. Ms McKelvie studied many videos to help inspire her for Chicago , which had its famous Bob Fosse influence, but she studied burlesque too. For Happy Days , running August 8-16 at the St James Theatre, she had mainly used her video studying to help with formation. At the production's rehearsal on the weekend, the cast had their steps down and Ms McKelvie said they were just in the process of cleaning things up in time for curtain call. Tickets are available at the St James or on iTicket.
Otago Daily Times
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
‘Happy Days' ahead as the Fonz prepares for musical
A newcomer to Gore is introducing himself as "The Fonz" as part of Gore Musical Theatre's latest production. Billy Weeks moved to Gore last October and is jumping right in, playing the role of Fonzie in the musical Happy Days . Trained in IT, this is Weeks' first time on stage in ten years, having last performed in a university production. When he was in high school, he performed with Musical Theatre Dunedin and performed at the reopening of the Regent Theatre. As a teenager, nervous at first, he quickly caught the bug. "You get on stage, the lights come on and everything kind of fades away and it's just you there on the stage," he said. "Soaking in the character and kind of in your own zone — it's a bit magical to be honest." A trained singer, Weeks said for the last 10 years, all of his performances have been at a karaoke bar in Dunedin. In auditioning for the The Fonz, Weeks, who was too young to have experienced the sitcom the first time round, studied the show. "I binge-watched the first two seasons of Happy Days , and then I was like, 'oh yeah, I could do Fonzie'." Once he got the part, he binge-watched even more of the show, and was now halfway through the 11-season sitcom. Going quite method, he even read the autobiography of Henry Winkler, the actor who played the character on TV. "It's been like a full-on process trying to get into the character of Fonz," he said. The production had been rehearsing since March and the actor said he knew nobody at first and had to come out of his shell as he was usually quite introverted. Now the cast felt like family, as it always did and he was dreading when it was all over. "The part that I'm looking forward to the least is the closing night." He said everyone on the cast was just awesome, including Willow Gush who was playing Pinky Tuscadero. "[She's] incredible. She's so, just unbelievably good." He also praised Invercargill singer Bradley Crowe who was playing Richie Cunningham. "We're just so incredibly blessed to have such a great and talented cast for the show." As director Craig Waddell said previously, the production had some complicated rock'n'roll-style dance numbers choreographed by Nikoia McKelvie. Weeks said the choreography had been challenging for him and McKelvie had generously given him extra dance training. The number he was looking forward to most was Ooh bop where he and "the boys" would sing. "[It's] basically [Fonzie] telling them how to be cool and how to get chicks," he said. "Leather jacket, motorbike, the whole shebang." Happy Days will be running at the St James Theatre August 8-16 and tickets can be purchased at iTicket.
