By Tiarne Lambert
One of our very own ex-WAAPA students, Joel Granger, has returned to Perth to perform as Elder McKinley in The Book of Mormon. I had a chat with him about the show, which finishes its run in Perth on 17 November.
What is The Book of Mormon about?
The Book of Mormon is a musical written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who are the writers of South Park, and Bobby Lopez who wrote Avenue Q and Frozen. It’s about two Mormon missionaries who go on their two-year mission and they’re sent to Uganda. It’s basically a satire about what happens when these wide-eyed, innocent, all-American boys are thrust into the poverty and violence of Uganda, and 2-hours of hilarity ensue!
You play Elder McKinley; how does your character fit into the story-line?
Elder McKinley is the district leader of the Mormons that are already in Uganda, and he may or may not be a closeted homosexual.
Did you find it difficult taking on a leading role?
I graduated from WAAPA in 2015 and since then I’ve been lucky to play a lot of principal roles, so I think I was just excited for the challenge of it. I think WAAPA trains you so well for a wide variety of mediums. Even in musical theatre, you have small scale stuff that you self-devise from the ground up and then you have your large-scale musicals. We did Legally Blonde at the Regal in Subiaco, and it’s similar to that as it’s a big, splashy, commercial music theatre, and I think WAAPA trained me very well for it.
Do you have a piece of advice for current WAAPA students who want to be in similar shoes to you one day?
The biggest thing I learnt from WAAPA, as well as the skills and training, was I learnt who I was, my relationships with other people and with the world. As an actor, it’s so important to know who you are and what you can bring to a particular character and make that empathetic through your own experience. So, it’s more psychology than anything.
You joined The Book of Mormon cast a little later in the season. How do you feel like you’ve made this character your own?
Yes, I joined at the end of the Sydney season which was about a year ago now. I like to think my take on McKinley is he’s a lot going on underneath. Even though he’s a happy, welcoming Mormon on the surface, underneath he’s actually a hot mess! I like to play with all that stuff and how this poor man is having to suppress everything that’s real about him.
Most of the reviews have been hailing you as a standout performance, how does it feel to be getting a reaction like that?
Oh, it’s lovely! It’s a really fun role and I’m so grateful for the writers that they wrote a role that gives you so much to sink your teeth into. It’s a lovely showcase for me personally, but it’s really just good writing.
What are some of the most challenging parts of your performance?
The very first thing I do is I have thirty seconds on stage and then I go offstage and have seven seconds to totally change costume and come back on stage as a happy Mormon. It’s those technical things that at first are a bit difficult to get used to; especially because when I joined the show, I joined by myself. So, I was learning the show for two weeks in a room with just me and the creative team, and then suddenly I’m put on the stage with everyone else and there’s a lot of technical elements to grasp. But now I’m in the swing of it and 300 shows later, it’s fine!
Do you find it difficult to maintain your performance standard with such a long show season?
I think the difficulty with this show is it requires a lot of energy with energetic performances. So, it means you have to look after yourself during the day and live a really healthy and boring lifestyle. But with this show, the material is so good and so well written that, naturally, the audiences have been so fantastic, and you get that immediate feedback of them with the laughter and they’re so onboard. That it makes it so much easier because each night you’re spreading so much joy and doing such good work because of it.
Some of the writing is a bit risqué and controversial, have there been any incredible audience reactions?
It is very irreverent–if anyone knows South Park, they do get cheeky. But I think in this musical everything is justified and I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t liked it. One of my favourite things about doing the show is hearing the audience’s laughter. Some people have very loud, distinctive cackles, and it’s so funny to hear people’s difference types of laughs! Nothing is safe in The Book of Mormon; they make fun of everyone. It’s liberating to be able to have a laugh at this satire, because it comments on our relationship with belief, not just the Mormon religion, but belief in general. It’s very clever about the message it’s telling us through the all the fun it makes at these groups.
If people haven’t seen the show, where do they need to go?
We’re here in Perth until November 17, so four more weeks and then we have to leave. You can go online and get tickets at thebookofmormonmusical.com.au. As well as online tickets, we have a lottery two hours before the show, so you can put your name in at the box office and go in the lottery to win $30 tickets for the front row which is a bargain. So, come see it, or come see it again!