A FIRM friendship was formed between soprano Marina Prior and tenor David Hobson in 1984 when they met on their first professional production, The Pirates of Penzance.
“We’ve been working together and great mates and family friends ever since,” Prior said.
Their latest collaboration has been the concert The Two of Us Up Close and Personal, which had a 15-date tour this year and a more comprehensive 44-date tour in 2018, including the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre on May 12 and Astor Theatre on May 13.
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READ NOW“You can’t fake that familiarity and kindred spirit-type feeling which I think is what makes the show work; we’re so relaxed with each other and we genuinely enjoy what we’re doing,” Prior said.
“There’s been a lot of rehearsing at my place and his with our music director David Cameron, who is also a close friend.
“We both have a concert repertoire up our sleeve so it was a matter of picking duets and discovering songs that we both wanted to sing together. We’ve got a lot of the expected music theatre and opera repertoire but we both also love Celtic folk music, which people aren’t expecting and it’s been an aspect of the show they’ve said they really love.”
Prior said the hardest part of choosing the set list was not deciding which songs they could do but more which they could bear to throw out.
“That’s the hardest part but the beauty of touring is that we have more songs than we need, so we can shift them around and change the order,” she said.
“Then we might get a request from the audience to throw one in.”
The 2018 tour will see Prior spend Mother’s Day in Perth away from her five children aged between 13 and 21.
“I’ve spent more Mother’s Days on stage than having breakfast in bed,” Prior said.
“Which is hard but goes with the longevity of my career that I’m really proud of; I’m still as busy as I’ve ever been.
“I think the reason for the longevity is the diversity. I’m happy acting in a theatre company and just as happy singing in a musical or performing in a concert.”
Community Newspaper Group has 5 double passes to give away to The Two of Us Up Close and Personal at Astor Theatre on May 13, 2018. Enter here by 10am, December 8.
THE ESSENTIALS
What: The Two of Us Up Close and Personal
Where and when: MANPAC, May 12 and Astor Theatre, May 13
Tickets: www.manpac.com.au and www.astortheatreperth.com