An Officer and a Gentleman Children’s auditions continue

Ben Mingay and Amanda Harrison
Searching for a young Zack Mayo... Ben Mingay (Zack) and Amanda Harrison (Paula) star in An Officer and a Gentleman

The search is on to find young Zack Mayo in the World Premiere production of An Officer and a Gentleman, set to open in May this year at the Lyric Theatre, The Star.

Yesterday at the ABC studios in Ultimo, Sydney, a group of 30 young performers auditioned for the creative team of An Officer and a Gentleman, all hoping to land the role of Young Zack, who is 12 years old in the musical.

6 young boys will be returning this evening after the adult cast finish rehearsals for a callback with director Simon Phillips. Two Young Zacks and two understudies will be chosen.

The young boys had to sing, dance and act in their auditions, and a spokesperson for the musical today told AussieTheatre that the calibre of auditionees was extremely high.

“Auditions included a Billy Elliot form Melbourne and US tour, and a boy from Priscilla in Sydney”, he said.

Zack is played by Ben Mingay in the musical and was made famous by Richard Gere in the film. Raised by a single mother who wounds him deeply when she commits suicide, Zack is an innocent young boy. But when he discovers his father is uninterested in raising an illegitimate son, he quickly learns how to survive and beat the system at its own game.

 An Officer and a Gentleman is co-produced by John Frost and Sharleen Cooper Cohen, with book by Douglas Day Stewart and Sharleen Cooper Cohen, and music by Robin Lerner and Ken Hirsch.

 

Erin James

Erin James is AussieTheatre.com's former Editor in Chief and a performer on both stage and screen. Credits include My Fair Lady, South Pacific and The King and I (Opera Australia), Love Never Dies and Cats (Really Useful Group), Blood Brothers (Enda Markey Presents), A Place To Call Home (Foxtel/Channel 7) and the feature film The Little Death (written and directed by Josh Lawson).

Erin James

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