8 Questions With "Sound of Music" director Jonny Bowles
The London Palladium production of “The Sound of Music” hits the stage this summer in Hong Kong. Following a recent casting call for Hong Kong kids to play as the von Trapp children, Evelyn Lok speaks to Jonny Bowles, Associate Choreographer and Assistant Director of the musical, about the three-day audition process.
HK Magazine: Why audition for local kids in the cast, rather than bring the already trained team from London?
Jonny Bowles: Normally the kids with us in the UK stay for about five to six months, with a team of chaperones staying with them at the hotels, but that makes it a lot more work for us [to take them internationally]. It’s a lovely quality if we can bring people from whatever country or city that we’re in, to get involved with the show.
HK Magazine: How was it auditioning kids here? Is it any different to the way you’ve done it in the UK?
JB: You never know what you’re going to find. I audition kids the same way I do in the UK as I do here. The children go through the same rigorous harmony testing, choreography testing, acting, and we will try and get a dialect coach to get that neutral tone just like when it was first directed at the Palladium, which works well internationally.
HK: Is accent more of an issue in the tours abroad than back home?
JB: When we audition for the UK tours, we have kids coming from Scotland, Liverpool, Wales, from Ireland, all over, so the accents and variation are just as varied, if not more than here. It’s actually slightly easier here, even though there’s different backgrounds here.
HK: Does it look odd if the cast are from different backgrounds? Will they have to wear wigs or something?
JB: No—I have seen a production in the past where they put the girls in wigs to try and make them look the same, it just looked strange. Wigs add a falseness to the show. Each character will have the same hairstyle: for instance the Martas will have a hairstyle, as do the Brigittas and the Gretls, so even if you watch one set of kids today and another tomorrow, the hair styling will be the same for that character.
