a day ago
- 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.
