WINNIPEG - Iconic stage composer Andrew Lloyd Webber might be lingering in the darkness at Manitoba Theatre Centre when he and writer-director Ben Elton's revamped musical The Boys in the Photograph officially opens tonight.
Then again, the London luminary could have already snuck in to catch a rehearsal or preview show last week. But even while MTC remains tight-lipped on when exactly Lord Webber will be here -- or whether he's already come and gone -- it's safe to say the fact that he's making the trek to our city at all has the local theatre community buzzing.
"It's a surreal event," says Carson Nattrass, one of two Winnipeg actors who scored a role in The Boys in the Photograph -- an elaborate $1.4 million co-production between MTC and Toronto's David Mirvish. "Me being from here -- it feels like you've won the lottery. Like, Andrew Lloyd Webber's here next week, or something?! I'm not gonna lie; that's pretty cool."
Set at the start of Northern Ireland's civil war in late-'60s Belfast, The Boys -- which Webber and Elton debuted at London's Cambridge Theatre in 2000 as The Beautiful Game before reworking its script, folk-rock soundtrack and title to give it a brighter feel -- captures a young soccer team and the girls who cheer them on, focusing on the romance between kicker John Kelly and feisty Mary McGuire.
Along with fellow carrot-topped thespian Laura Olafson, Nattrass was hired for the show's 15-person ensemble -- a job that requires him to play everything from a jerseyed kicker to a prison inmate and change costumes up to 24 times.
"When it came to an Irish soccer musical, as a young, red-headed, athletic actor, people were like, 'You must be excited about that,' " Nattrass laughs. "I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I think the other members of Winnipeg that are a part of this show are counting their blessings. And it's nice to be an ambassador for the city, with so many people from out of town."
Famed British comedian, TV scribe (Blackadder), novelist and playwright Elton, for one, has spent the last six weeks away from his London home directing the show at MTC's Market Avenue headquarters by day, and shacking up at the Fort Garry Hotel at night.
"It's been 30 years since I lived a singleton existence," Elton, 49, quips. "I feel like a sort of very wealthy student, really. I don't have to worry about affording my beer or oven chips, but that's kind of what I'm living off."
Boys leads Richard McMillan (soccer coach Father O'Donnell), Tony LePage (John Kelly) and Erica Peck (Mary McGuire) are all in from Toronto, where the bulk of the musical's auditions were held last year. Other members of the all-Canadian cast hail from Calgary to the Maritimes and spots between.
A first-timer to the 'Peg, Peck says her temporary home is "a lot prettier than Toronto" and has enjoyed exploring the city during the few spare hours she's had outside of rehearsals.
"We've gone to see a couple concerts and we saw some shows at Shannon's," she says. "We're very good at having a drink after rehearsal."
Assuming Peck remembers to pack her ID. At 22, the fresh-faced actress is the youngest member of the cast -- yet she's two-for-two where leading roles are concerned. Three years ago she beat out 500 others for the part of lead rebel-girl Scaramouche in the Mirvish's Toronto production of We Will Rock You -- also produced by Elton. She had to leave her theatre studies at Sheridan College to join the Queen-themed show, and since she's scheduled to return when The Boys wraps at the end of May, it doesn't look like she'll be hitting the books again any time soon.
"It was kind of a different experience for me in terms of getting into theatre," Peck says.
But there's no doubt the up-and-comer has found her calling, according to her boss Elton: "First two roles out of school, both leading roles: That's all you need to know," he says. "She has yet to play anything that wasn't a lead. It's a hell of a career."
As John's opinionated love interest Mary, Peck gets to explore more of her troublemaker side and flaunt her chops, namely in Act 2 tear-jerker If This is What We're Fighting For.
"I consider it a huge honour to even be allowed to sing that song because -- apart from being incredibly difficult -- it's a very important song," she says. "Rarely do lyrics speak so strongly in musical theatre."
Peck also gets to cuddle up to her "inspiringly talented" co-star Tony LePage, who dons the cleats of impoverished soccer player John Kelly. Not exactly born a 'baller, the Fredericton, N.B., native had to study Irish field legends like George Best and -- like his colleagues -- had to hone his Irish accent for the role.
"You can get caught in the 'Rs' a lot," he says. Though his biggest acting challenge has been conveying a truthful image of the troubled times in Belfast -- where bombs were detonated and guns were fired as Protestants and Catholics butted heads -- through his character.
"John is a young guy with really big dreams who is in a place where those dreams just don't typically come true," LePage says. "Along the way he meets Mary, and that's when he starts to discover that maybe there are other dreams out there too."
Landing the part of John was a dream itself for LePage, who literally fell to his knees when Elton hired him on the spot at a callback audition.
"I think my knees just buckled," he says. "They were all laughing and I was like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe that just happened.' You very rarely get told right then; usually they say thank you very much and you go home and you hope that the phone rings for a couple of days. So it just completely caught me off guard."
After all, a chance to star in MTC's The Boys in the Photograph could possibly lead LePage to Broadway -- if his dreams of the musical dominating the world also come true.
In the meantime, Webber and Elton are shopping for a Toronto venue in which the show can go on after its scheduled summer run at the all-too-spacious Canon Theatre was cancelled late last year. With over $1 million worth of production costs, Elton has said The Boys will have to perform elsewhere just to pay for itself.
MTC artistic director Steven Schipper, however, believes the biggest production in his company's 51-year history should be able go "anywhere there are smart producers and artistic directors," bearing in mind it's not so much about where The Boys end up as it is about where they started out.
"As far as MTC is concerned, we'll be fulfilled when our own artists and audiences feel they've had an extraordinary experience in the theatre," he says. "And we're confident that both those groups of people will indeed be uplifted and thoroughly entertained."
The Boys: Playing by the numbers
1.4 million: How many dollars the Manitoba Theatre Centre/David Mirvish co-production is worth
1968 - 1972: The timespan in which the story takes place
365: About how many days ago local designer Brian Perchaluk started working on the set and costumes
165: The musical's approximate length (with intermission), in minutes
25: The size of the cast
20: The number of different scenes, including a prison, funeral, pub, locker room and hotel room
5: Costume changes made by key characters John (Tony LePage) and Mary (Erica Peck) in Act 1 alone
2: The number of local actors in the show
1: The number of burnt-up vintage Austin Minis the props department had to borrow from a local car collector for a major musical number
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