Beauty and the Beast star on playing Hugh Jackman's role
Jackson Head and the rest of the stellar cast, including Perth's Shubshri Kandiah as Belle, took to the Crown Theatre stage on Thursday night for the musical's debut WA performance.
The Brisbane actor channels his inner villain as Gaston, an arrogant and ruthless hunter whose unrequited feelings for Belle make him want to kill the Beast once he learns she loves him instead.
It was the role a young Hugh Jackman played in the original show, which opened in 1995 and also starred Rachael Beck, Michael Cormick and the late Bert Newton. Shubshri Kandiah as Belle and Brendan Xavier as Beast. Credit: Daniel Boud
'It's incredible, Hugh is amazing,' he said.
'WA's own (acting product), very cool, great to be on the hallowed turf of Hugh Jackman.
'Gaston is a really cool role and lots of fun, the Gaston-Le Fou dynamic as well is really fun to play with,
The charming and charismatic but ultimately dark character has his sidekick, Le Fou, played by Adam Di Martino, with him at all times.
Di Martino, who has also starred in the Aladdin musical, said as Gaston's buddy, he was there to 'make sure he's feeling great all the time'.
'It's a pretty fun job because Jackson's a pretty good guy himself, so it's not too bad,' he said.
Head responded with: 'I get the privilege of being supported every night.' There are a total of 300 costumes and 119 wigs in the show. Credit: Justin Benson-Cooper / The West Australian
The duo take part in a Gaston prodcution number, during which the cast clink their mugs more than 800 times.
It's taken a huge team to bring the musical over to Perth from Adelaide with 23 trucks needed to transport the set and a team of 70 spending 15,000 hours to load it all up.
After a national tour enchanting more than 1.2 million Aussies in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide, Perth is the final stop and last opportunity to see the show in Australia.
After the Perth season wraps up, the musical will head to Singapore in December.
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