Source : the age
Growing up, Georgia Laga’aia was adamant about one thing. “I was like, I am never going to do musicals,” she says. “I hate musical theatre.”
It was just something she had decided, she says, as we settle into a chat at the Arts Centre, where she is appearing in Dear Evan Hansen. At 19, Laga’aia plays Zoe Murphy, one of the leads in the show – which is, without question, a musical. It marks her main stage debut and, contrary to what her younger self expected, she is revelling in the experience.
Singer and actor Georgia Laga’aia.Credit: Paul Jeffers
Nominated for nine Tony awards after its Broadway launch in 2016, Dear Evan Hansen won six, including best musical, best book and best score. A coming of age story, it centres on Evan Hansen – played in the local production by Beau Woodbridge – an anxious teen who finds himself part of a grieving family embroiled in a complex charade.
Despite this being her first major professional show, Laga’aia was not “super nervous”.
“Dean [Bryant], our director, gave us so much freedom with how we built our characters, and so I feel like there’s a lot of myself in Zoe, which means that when I’m performing, there is a lot of truth to it … Some days it just feels like I’m just standing on the stage with an American accent, doing what I would normally do.”
Hours before we meet, The Age published a four-star review of the Melbourne production, not that Laga’aia has seen it. “My dad tells me not to read the reviews,” she says. “Interesting, good or bad, he is like, ‘Just don’t pay attention to it. You just do your work and you’ll be right.’”
Jay Laga’aia with daughters Georgia, Katie and Bella in 2015.
It’s good advice, coming from any father, but her dad has particular insights: he is New Zealand-Australian actor/singer Jay Laga’aia, known for roles in the Star Wars films, Play School, local series Water Rats, and long-running soap Home and Away. Her mother, Sandra, is a deputy principal at the Balmain campus of Sydney Secondary College.
As Georgia takes on her first major touring role, her older brother Tana is performing as Peter in the acclaimed Jesus Christ Superstar, brother Iosefa is in rehearsals for Hadestown, and her 17-year-old sister, Catherine, has been cast as Moana in the live action Disney movie of the same name.
One of eight siblings, Georgia credits her parents with giving their children the opportunity “to do this one day if we wanted”. Growing up, they all played an instrument, did piano and drama lessons if they chose, had various hobbies and played sport.
She was in the New South Wales Public Schools Millennium Marching Band for seven years. “And I was like, ‘I don’t want to sing, I want to play instruments,’” she says. I got to the end of it, and I was like, ‘Oh no, I don’t know, maybe I’ll sing.’ I definitely feel like I bounced around a lot more than my other siblings did.”
The Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack has been a favourite since her early teens. “I was doing arena variety shows in Sydney and Wollongong. On the drive … I would just play the soundtrack on repeat. I was absolutely obsessed with it,” she says. “Me and my little sisters would all pick people who we would play in certain songs. And if you were doing like, Good for You, we’d take turns singing: someone would sing Jared, someone would sing Alana, someone would sing Heidi.”
Last year, unsure if she wanted to be centre stage, Georgia completed a live production course. “So I did audio for a year, and then came back to it, and I was like, ‘No, I really do love performing.’”
Beau Woodbridge and Georgia Laga’aia in rehearsals at STC for Dear Evan Hansen.
She then appeared in a community theatre production of her first musical, Heathers. Several of the cast were auditioning for Evan Hansen, so she threw her hat in the ring. “I found out on my second day of orientation [for NIDA’s diploma of musical theatre] … that I had booked this.”
That’s a big week. “Yes, it’s very like everything’s happening at once – incredible,” she says with a smile.
“My dad always says, ‘Choose a job you truly enjoy, and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ And I just sort of try and live by that … I don’t hold myself to anything because why should I? I just want to enjoy what I’m doing and be around people that I love. And I’ve really found that with this cast so far, they’re such wonderful people to be around, and this is such a wonderful production.”
Dear Evan Hansen is at Arts Centre Melbourne until February 16; Canberra from February 27; and Adelaide from April 3.
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