Keegan Joyce Interview (Once the Musical)
Hi Keegan and welcome to Impulse Gamer! Going straight for the hard hitting question, can you tell us what you have planned for 2015?
I have a good year ahead with Season 3 of Please Like Me, and there may be another season of Rake and hopefully some other exciting projects. I’m hoping to get a bit of travel in there somewhere. At the moment though I’m just enjoying my role in Once Musical and trying to finish FarCry 4 on PS4 before some other cast members.
Will we see a season 3 of Please Like Me?
I am pleased to say there is going to be a 3rd season of Please Like Me. I have no idea about any of the stories yet and am really excited to see what happens over the series. It’s been really nice being here in Melbourne for Once and getting to know more of what I enjoyed when filming series 2.
What’s it like working with Josh Thomas?
It’s just lovely. The whole cast and crew of Please Like Me 2 was so welcoming and having the writer and EP (both Josh) on set the whole time I think is a real benefit when trying to get the perfect tone for each scene. I was really chuffed that the Please Like Me family came to see Once as well.
Is there a big difference between working on TV/movies and live musicals?
There is a difference, I’m not sure if there is a big one. With everything it really depends on the show. Most people consider theatre work to be ‘bigger’ because it’s got to be captured by a whole 1000+ seat theatre, whereas with TV you’re playing to a lens which makes every minute movement bigger on screen. Projection is probably the biggest difference, in shows like Once (and theatre in general) you’re always amplifying as little as possible and projecting as much as possible.
What do you prefer?
I have no real preference, I really enjoy the medium of TV and I think I’m beginning to really find my feet as a screen actor, so I hope I can keep working at the same rate I currently am. Having said that Once is an incredible piece of theatre and all I want is to keep working with the amazing scripts and people I’ve been lucky enough to work with to date.
You’ve had quite a diverse career and played in a variety of different musicals. How different is Once the Musical compared to something like Oliver or Fiddler on the Roof?
‘Once’ is very different to every musical out there. I would say that it’s less of a musical and more of a play with and about music. The cast are incredibly talented and we all have to play instruments (often multiple instruments) forming the onstage ‘orchestra’ for the show.
Having seeing Once the Musical and wow what a show, why do you think it’s become such an international hit?
Thank you – we are all very proud of it. I think the show has been a success because of the simplicity. There aren’t any lasers, big puppets or massive moving sets. It’s just a great story, great music, a talented cast and a really beautiful set.
What is your favourite part of Once the Musical?
My favourite moments are jamming with the cast. We have a moment before the actual show where the cast come out on stage (which is also a working bar) and they jam in front of the audience. Some of my favourite moments happen there, and also leading up to the pre-show where we are all hanging out backstage ready to go on playing a song that one of has written or something that we heard.
How much practice and rehearsals did you and the cast do before Once officially opened?
We had roughly 5 weeks of rehearsals here in Melbourne to get everything prepared. It’s a lot of work considering that you play all the songs and we have 20+ songs that are on rotation for the pre-show.
During your Melbourne performance of Once, has anything amusing happened that only you and the cast knew about?
Lots of little things happen but nothing big enough that anyone but us would notice. The one thing we plan for that hopefully the audience never sees actually happening are the string breakage scenarios. I’ve broken my ukulele strings twice or three times now.
With Once the Musical finishing in February 2015, why should people go see this award winning show?
If you like music, and you like people creating real acoustic music then you’ll love this show.
Thanks again for your time Keegan and all the best for the last few weeks of Once the Musical!
Photos by: Jeff Busby
Follow Keegan on Twitter at http://twitter.com/keeganjoyce or via his official website at keeganjoyce.com
Once the Musical Official Website – http://oncemusical.com.au/
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