FOLLOWERS of Glaston Toft’s career will have noticed a trend on the music performer’s resume towards playing real-life characters.
“It’s an accidental trend but I think it comes more from the format of a musical itself,” Toft said.
“I think the biographical musical is more popular now than it was 10 years ago; it’s probably a niche for me but also for the art form.
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READ NOW“It goes a bit further and people don’t have to suspend their disbelief watching two witches talk about First World problems on stage.”
WAAPA graduate Toft had a week in 2013 where he got his wisdom teeth out between finishing the Perth season of Jersey Boys playing Four Seasons member Nick Massi and flying home to Melbourne to take part in the first workshop of Georgy Girl – The Seekers Musical.
He is now filling the shoes as Seekers member Athol Guy on double bass and vocals in the show that tours to Crown Theatre Perth, July 8 to 31.
“Being on the journey from the start is something that doesn’t happen all too often,” the father of two said.
“A lot of these big shows, like Jersey Boys, come over to Australia where they’ve already seen 10 other guys do the same role and tell you what works best.
“There’s not a lot of freedom to have any kind of creative input, whereas with something like this, we’re still making a few adjustments and tinkering with it.”
Georgy Girl – The Seekers Musical follows the group from its early days in Melbourne through to 1960s Australian icon status to today.
“The show is about these four kids from Melbourne who are gung-ho about their folk music and have the chutzpah to go out there and make it happen,” Toft said.
“Some people might think of them now as being wholesome and perhaps daggy, but at the time they were so big they knocked The Beatles’ Ticket to Ride off the number one chart spot.
“It’s a buzz to play Athol; he has led a big life and takes a lot of his contribution to the group for granted, but I really recognise he was primarily responsible for driving the group’s success.”
Toft met his wife Amelia Christo during their time studying music theatre at WAAPA and said the couple would enjoy staying with Christo’s parents in Mt Lawley during the Perth season.
“We have an eight-month-old and three-year-old,” he said.
“That’s the great thing about their age at the moment in that I can bring them with me on tour, especially to Perth for lots of family time.”
THE ESSENTIALS
What: Georgy Girl – The Seekers Musical
Where: Crown Theatre Perth
When: July 8 to 31
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.com.au