by Priscilla

Feb.10, 2010, under Cast Blog

We asked you to send in your questions for Tony. Here are the first set of them and his answers.

I saw your mother’s show in Wollongong, which you produced. Would you ever consider doing something like that for your own life?

I find that I am better writing for other people than I am for writing for myself. I suppose it’s having a clearer idea of what another actor’s image is and I don’t have a clear idea of how to project myself when I am not hiding behind a character. So that is something I will have to do when I am a lot braver.

Tony Sheldon

Do you think Priscilla’s success internationally will boost the success of more home grown Australian musicals?

I don’t know. We don’t have a tradition of musicals in Australia. A great deal of work, trial and error, money and technical genius went into making Priscilla what it is. It was also a story that lent itself well to being made into a musical. So I think a show would have to have all those resources behind to even come close to approximating the success of Priscilla. We just don’t seem to have the expertise that the British or the Americans have in making musicals. So we’ll have to wait and see. Every project will be different.

What is your favourite costume?

The blue dress I wear in the broken hill pub, because it is very slimming and I need all the help I can get.

What song would you add to Priscilla?

There was a beautiful Billy Joel song called Lullaby, which we had in the first workshop, where Tick sang to the photograph. We couldn’t get the rights to it and I’ve always really missed it. It was such a beautiful song and a real tearjerker moment. As much as I love Say a little Prayer, because of the sly humour of, ‘before I put on my make up’, Lullaby was actually quite devastating and it set up Tick’s grief at not having his child in his life. I’ve always regretted that that song has never been used.