Interview: Michael Falzon of SWING ON THIS! at Sydney Theatre Royal

He's played everyone, from Galileo Figaro in We Will Rock You, to the titular character of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He's also earned a stellar reputation both here and overseas a soloist in his own right. In fact it's hard to find anyone in the performance industry who doesn't admire the talent, work ethic and congeniality of Michael Falzon. I found myself thoroughly charmed in a chat with him about his brainchild Swing On This that has had more comebacks than Farnham! And with good reason as I discovered.

So tell us about the show! How did it come about?

MF: Originally, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Kate Ceberano had been asking me to do something for the three years she was there and I was always away and couldn't do anything! Then I was speaking with my producing partner Torben Brookman, about this idea for a swing show but not Rat Pack! I thought there are lots of guys that are out there doing it solo or doing tributes but the idea of having Australian leading males get on stage together and just have some banter, just have some fun singing this music was so appealing because no-one had done it before. So that's how it was born. We talked to a few people, everybody said yeah!

Then the problem that we had, as we always have now, is availability. We want the best people and everyone's working, so that's why we've done a few concerts, supported big events where we can, we get invited to do a lot which is great, which brings us back together. We sang for the Olympic Farewell a couple of weeks ago, and this'll be our first show in Sydney!

Even in putting the cast together was dependent on who do we know and have fun with, because we're all mates, then the hurdle of when's Rob got a break, when's Dan not filming, and Luke's doing concerts all the time. When the stars align, that's when Swing On This happens.

Sounds like a good problem to have!

MF: Well that's why it's always a one-night-only type deal. We'd like to tour, we'd like to do all manner of things but to organise anything it has to be 2017-2018! It's not a show where there's too much of a discipline up there, I mean we all know what we're doing but we really can say every show is different.

When you say it hasn't been done before, I myself can't recall seeing a group of men up on stage since Jersey Boys or Il Divo!
MF: We're not an import, we work and play here in Australia. When we get swing acts, and classical acts we import a lot of stuff but I think it's fair to say that between the four of us on that stage there's an incredible amount of experience. We all have a lot fo fun together, happy to pass the baton and enjoy singing, watching any of the others' performance. That's where the joy comes from, you can sit back and have a bit of a drink at the bar, whilst someone else is singing a song and then high-five then you're into a group number, ito a duet and the ball just keeps rolling. It's really quite exhilarating as a performer.

So did you imagine it would be so successful?

MF: I always thought it would be fun, we thought it would be a one-off, one of those things that people talked about. Then when people keep calling saying 'can my client be part of it' or 'can you come and play this venue', you start to think everyone's interested, not just the public but the industry as well. It feels like a little bit of a club, which I didn't expect, but we try and do things at a level which makes it really broadly appealing for not only audiences but across the industry. My idea is that it may be a bit of a revolving door.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fck0Jqsp3UE

Well it's a new cast now, right?

MF: With Matt Lee leaving, we had to find a new member, I'd always envisaged four or five people. We got into that weird musical theatre mentality of 'we've got to to find someone to fit into that plot, we've got to find another Matt Lee' which of course you can't do! After two weeks of banging our heads against the wall we thought 'hang on, the strength of this is the personalities of the people! All we need to do is find another awesome leading man to jump in' and that was Rob. He was one of the first people I'd spoken to, but wasn't available, back in 2014. It all works out, it's constant rewrites and re-jigging but it keeps us on our toes! You never know what you're going to get!

And have there been many other changes to the show?

MF: We always have a trick up our sleeve, someone or something! Subtle differences, slightly different repertoire. Obviously, the relationship between all of us has grown over the last year and a half. It'll be two years, actually, by the time we play the Royal! We've got a new Musical Director, on this one we have Isaac Hayward, I've known Isaac for many years, he's a young gun. We've got the Sydney Jazz Orchestra, which is just such a boon. This is THE big band in Sydney. That's the first time working with those guys. We like to take some pop songs and teach them a lesson! We swing them! So there's some stuff that's never been performed before.

So what brings Swing On This to Sydney after all this time?

MF: Most of the guys are from Sydney, with the exception of Luke and we tease him mercilessly about that, so we thought we keep on getting taken places to do this but we really wanted to put on a show at home! That was basically it, and again it was one of those opportunities where Rob was going to be finished Ghost, Ben had a tiny break in schedule shooting this Alan Bond miniseries, I just get back from the States that week, and Luke was cool too and we just went bang!

So what would you say has been the most rewarding experience playing Swing On This?

MF: It's really nice when you get asked to do some of those big events, like the Olympic Athlete's Farewell Dinner with Chong Lim and his band. When we get asked to do something like that, we all drop what we can and make sure we can get there. Those things are, if I can use the word patriotic, it was a pretty warm room to be in. All the athletes were there, it was really nice to meet them and wish them well. We even got to sneak in a bit of We Will Rock You at the end. We couldn't resist! They brought out sixty dancers and we rocked it, took the roof off the place!

They seem set to repeat the roof-busting at Sydney Theatre Royal! Tickets for Swing On This are available through Ticketmaster.