Top 5 Australian Cast Recordings with Blake Erickson

I just got back from the US after a holiday with the family. I was going through my emails and I saw one that was entitled ‘Love the Podcast’. It was from Blake Erickson. It’s always nice to get positive feedback for the things that you’re doing and there was only one thing to do upon receiving this email – which was to get Blake on the show!

The great thing about Blake is that he brings a wonderful mix of community theatre experience and professional theatre experience. It gave us the chance to discuss the Top 5 Australian Cast Recordings as well as community theatre, professional theatre and theatre in Australia.

About Blake…

Blake has worked throughout Australia, Asia, Britain, and the United States as a writer, actor, and singer. He studied drama and musical theatre at the University of Sydney & The Actor’s Connection New York. In early 2019 Blake co-wrote the new Australian musical The Dismissal, which premiered at the Seymour Centre. Prior to this he appeared in the international tour of Cameron Mackintosh's Les Misérables. For his performance in the title role of the one-man show Pearls Before Swine: An Evening With Orson Welles (Neil Gooding Prod.), Blake won Best Actor at the inaugural Sydney Fringe Festival Awards. Other credits include: CRY-BABY, High Fidelity, Melba, and his acclaimed cabaret Hold Me Closer Logies Dancer (all at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre); Mamma Mia!, the Australia & New Zealand tour of Madiba, Of Thee I Sing at the Sydney Opera House, Grey Gardens, and Sondheim on Sondheim for Squabbalogic.

Blake’s Top 5

1. Jesus Christ Superstar (1992)
2. Muriel’s Wedding (2019)
3. Man of La Mancha (2015 – Squabbalogic)
4. Smoke and Mirrors (2010)
5. Pirates of Penzance (1995)

Honourable Mentions

• Miracle City (The Hayes)
• Priscilla Queen of the Dessert

FANTASTIX BITS IN THE INTERVIEW

• The apprenticeship nature of community theatre
• Are professional performers embarrassed by their community theatre roots?
• Exactly how much can you learn from community theatre?
• Does going pro take the fun out of theatre?
• Do you know your ‘Why?’
• Mr Erickson is very eloquent. The meaning of rubric or zeitgeist can be found in our show notes?
• How Aussie casts and crew put their own unique spin on musical recordings
• Show of hands. Who else can trace back their love of G&S to the 1995 Aussie recording of Pirates?
• After the success of the Greatest Showman, will we see the return of Smoke and Mirrors? Can we smell a 10-year rerun for 2020? We know that symmetry will appeal to Blake!
• You can still buy a copy of #3! See the show notes below
• All those Aussie firsts rockets a ‘terrible’ musical into the runners up place
• #1 was always going to be #1 – it went into the Top 40 Charts
• Some tongue in cheek basic geography for our American listeners
• Daddy versus Papa Bear – get it right, Paul!
• Border control alert for the first Shrek rehearsal
• A gentle reminder that Warlow’s career was made on Australian stages
• The cheers and boos of a memorial service AND a musical!
• Stand by for a fast five question change from comfort food to a death row meal!

SHOW NOTES

Man of La Mancha 

Shrek the Musical 

Rubric & Zeitgeist 

The Dismissal

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