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[title]A little less conversation, a lot more drama, please. Presented by David Venn Enterprises in partnership with Authentic Brands Group, owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, this brand new bio-musical exploring the extraordinary life and cultural impact of rock’n’roll superstar Elvis Presley is about to make its worldwide premiere on the Australian stage. Ever since this news was announced, the question on everyone’s hips has been: who will play The King?
Well, the wait is over. Following an extensive nation-wide talent search, with over 700 applicants, theatre and television star Rob Mallett has been selected to play the iconic role in Elvis: A Musical Revolution. Time Out landed an exclusive chat with the star to talk about how he plans on filling those big blue suede shoes.
It surprised me when I started doing the material, it sat on me really well...
You’ve most definitely seen him in something. On stage, Mallett has landed roles in mainstage musicals such as Disney’s Aladdin, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Singin’ In The Rain, Les Misérables, and more recently in Hayes Theatre Co’s celebrated production of Nice Work if You Can Get It. On television, he has acted in Home & Away and House Husbands.
As much of a career highlight as it is for him to play Presley, it's not a role that Mallett ever intended on auditioning for. With a baby on the way in August with wife Chloé Zuel (who plays Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton in the Australian production of Hamilton), the timing didn’t seem ideal. But he couldn’t help but send in a self-tape audition, and not long after, he landed the role. “For me, it just sort of came naturally,” Mallet told us. Read on for the full chat.
Who is playing Elvis in the musical?
So Rob, how are you preparing to embody The King? Are you trying to nail the accent, or the hip swivel?
I'm working on all of his elements independently. I’m working with the choreographer to nail his movement, I'm working with the dialect coach to get his voice right, with a singing teacher, with a guitar teacher. So actually, what I'm most looking forward to about the show is bringing all those elements together and bringing The King to life on stage. He's funny, he really is greater than the sum of his parts.
It surprised me when I started doing the material, it sat on me really well. It came to me with this great sense of ease, which I guess was surprising, because I've never tried to do my best Elvis impersonation. Because why would you? The secret to casting is just finding people that naturally fit it, so you're not trying to squeeze square pegs in round holes.
Do you have any concerns about getting stuck doing the ‘Elvis voice’ like Austin Butler did for Baz Luhrmann’s movie?
He got pretty ingrained in that, didn’t he? *Laughs* I hope not. I guess I have the advantage of having an Australian accent as my native accent, so it's further from his Memphis Tennessee accent. So no, I’m not so concerned.
What are some of your earliest memories associated with Elvis and his music?
It's impossible to avoid Elvis. Elvis is ubiquitous in our culture and around the world. I didn't know anything more about him than the next person, so that's actually been part of the great pleasure in starting to rehearse and learn more. Just to become more familiar with more of his songs, which are all amazing, to learn about just how prolific he was, and how quickly it happened for him. He was a star in his 20s, and unfortunately he was dead by 42.
But also what I'm learning is how much he influenced lots of the people that I grew up loving, so I was influenced by proxy. He was there at the birthplace of rock’n’roll and I was a punk rock tragic in the ’90s, which may not have existed without Elvis. And I grew up Irish dancing, so the hero in my household was Michael Flatley who, of course, often dressed head-to-toe in these tight leather suits and eyeliner – and if that's not Elvis, I don’t know what is.
What cool Elvis trivia have you picked up while preparing for this show?
Simply how prolific he was. He had 149 songs in the top 100 Billboard charts, of which 114 were in the top 40. Like, name another solo recording artist who had anywhere near that sort of success?
His whole life is interesting, which I think is why it's gonna make such a great musical. He grew up in desperate poverty, tin-shed stuff. And then had this textbook American Dream, rising to be successful and famous. He lived a rockstar life with Graceland and the planes and the Cadillacs and his entourage.
We've heard Elvis's story told before – what sets apart this telling of the Elvis Presley story?
Rather than just rehashing the movie or a biography of Elvis, it's about his impact on music and what he started. You know, he started a new sound, which is hard to imagine these days, given how diverse our music and media and content landscape is. What must it be like to be in a room and hear a new sound, or turn on the TV and see dancing you hadn't seen before?
You and your wife have a baby on the way. How are you going to navigate new parenthood with this role?
We're taking it step by step. We hold it as a great strength of our relationship that we are both actors, because we just have an innate understanding of what the other one is going through – the highs and lows of navigating this career, this industry.
We both do a lot of travel, we work late nights and really unsociable hours. And so you do need a level of understanding between each other to make that work. How we then fit a baby into that, I'm not quite sure yet. I'll let you know. But we've been really heartened to see lots of mothers of young children returning to performing work lately. We're excited for these opportunities beyond when we step into parenthood, and certainly I can say that this company [for Elvis] have been really supportive as me and helping me make that work.
What is your favourite Elvis song and why?
This is basically the hardest question, because as I mentioned he's just so prolific. I love singing ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ on my guitar. I love listening to him singing ‘Jailhouse Rock’, he just lets it rip and is careless about his voice. But then I really love his later songs that have this storytelling vein through them, like ‘In the Ghetto’ and ‘I Can Dream’. You really get a picture of the time and place of where he was, he was bringing communities together, which he did throughout his whole career.
Elvis: A Musical Revolution opens at Sydney’s State Theatre from August 5, followed by a Melbourne run at the Athenaeum Theatre from September 30.