From Irish dance to Hot Shoe Shuffle

Two girls and a gay: it might sound like the title of a decidedly dodgy sitcom but in fact, it’s who makes up the cast of this 21st-anniversary staging of iconic Australian musical Hot Shoe Shuffle, according to star Bobby Fox (Jersey Boys).

“We’ve only got two girls and one gay guy in the cast – the rest of us are all straight guys. We’re more like a footy team than a musical theatre cast! I’ve been in shows where I’m the only straight guy in the entire show, but for some reason this is the total opposite,” the cheeky Irishman told the Star Observer.

Fox plays one of seven American brothers in the popular musical, which made its debut back in 1992. After learning their estranged father has passed away, the brothers discover they stand to inherit a $2.5million windfall – quite the wealth of riches given the show’s 1940’s setting. There’s just one catch.

“We only get the money if we can put on our dad’s old act, the Hot Shoe Shuffle, step for step – and we have four weeks to learn it. We also find out we have a long lost sister we never knew existed, and she has to be in the show as well.”

Cue much singing, dancing and general crowd-pleasing, as Fox discovered when the show played a Brisbane season ahead of its upcoming run at Star City’s
Lyric Theatre.

“I’d never actually seen the show before I did it, and it’s quite remarkable how it really captures people. They’ve designed it in such a way that it always draws an exciting reaction from the audiences – it’s quite remarkable the way they react. It’s like they’ve designed the applause, do you know
what I mean?”

‘They’ being world-renowned tap choreographer Dein Perry, and David Atkins who created the original production and this time appears with an intimidating list of roles after his name: central cast member, director, producer, choreographer.

“Absolutely, he is the man – it’s his baby. But David is also very generous in that he allows us to play and allows us to come up with our own ideas. For David, if it gets a laugh, it stays in.”

Fox has been in Australia for more than a decade now, and most audiences would know him for his stellar turn as Frankie Valli in long-running musical Jersey Boys – a role that highlighted his powerhouse vocals, but not one that seemed to require much in the way of advanced dance training. How was he coping with the more frenetic physical exertion of Hot Shoe Shuffle?

“I’ve had to step up my level of fitness. My background is in Irish dancing – I did Riverdance for years back in Ireland – but I’ve been focusing on my singing for this last while, so I’ve definitely had to dust off my cobwebs…”

 

Info: Hot Shoe Shuffle, Lyric Theatre Sydney, from July 5. www.hotshoeshuffle.com