Go Girls' mum Bronwyn Bradley tackles a killer role in the hit musical Assassins, about the people who set their sights on the US presidents. By Michelle Coursey.
Sara Jane Moore is not a name many New Zealanders will be familiar with, but it's a name that actress Bronwyn Bradley is getting to know very well. For Bradley, best known on screen as Cody's mum from Go Girls, and off-screen as the wife of beleaguered entertainer Dave Fane, has been researching the 70s housewife for her latest role on stage in Assassins.
Moore is just one of the strange characters to be included in this "subversive musical". The 44-year-old was a five-times divorced wife, mother, former accountant and would-be political revolutionary whose moment of enduring fame came in 1975 when she attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford with a single shot from a revolver. The incident occurred just 17 days after Manson Family recruit Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme had also been nabbed by the FBI for pointing a gun at the president.
Moore missed Ford, but earned herself a place in history, and in jail for the next 32 years, with her brazen act.
The show brings nine individuals together on stage to explore their assassination plots, successful or otherwise. It might sound a little sombre, but the result will be anything but. Director Oliver Driver says the Silo production will transform the Auckland Town Hall's concert chamber into a circus tent and will be "a riot". "People will love it, you'll learn stuff, and be in tears of laughter."
Don't be put off by the "musical" tag either - the songs by Stephen Sondheim are a continuation of the story, not random tunes slotted in without purpose.
"The last thing I'd ever do is sign up to an earnest musical," says Driver.
Singing aside, there is plenty for the actors to get their heads around. It's a "difficult and challenging" ask to perform the role of a potential killer, says Bradley, especially one as unlikely as Moore. "She had a complex life," she explains. "I think she was searching in all these different places to find some kind of niche. It's something I'm really looking forward to doing, trying to figure out how this woman who was a mother and was 44 suddenly decided to take a gun and shoot at the president. How do you get there?"
Bradley, who has three children and has just turned 40, is delving into possible motivations for such an extreme act, including the desire to achieve the "American dream". Meanwhile, she has found recognition and success in her own life without turning to such drastic measures.
After working in theatre for several years, while holding down a day-job as a speech therapist, Bradley's acting and singing talent landed her the role in Assassins. Driver and the musical team auditioned about 130 people for the nine leads, and he says they all breathed a sigh of relief when Bradley performed. "She walked in, and she was it.
"She nailed it."
Bradley is still putting in plenty of practise though - so much that her children, who are 4, 9 and 12 years old, are getting annoyed at her singing all the time, she laughs. She sang a number from the show as her audition piece, although disaster plagued her preparation. "I was supposed to go and have a practice with the vocal coach, Paul Barrett, for the show, but I'd locked my keys in my car so I missed him, and had to do the audition without it," she says. "But it turned out alright."
Now she has to run the gauntlet of intense rehearsals for the show. And on the day Assassins opens, she'll return to the set of Go Girls for filming segments for the new third season. It's a busy schedule, but Bradley is excited to have plenty of work on the go. "I feel very lucky to be doing either [project], let alone both."
It may be a hectic timetable, but Bradley says she and her family will make it work. The actress recently married her long-time partner, comedian and Flava radio host Dave Fane, who has faced his own difficulties in recent weeks after the Herald on Sunday revealed his racist rant at the inaugural Radio Roast. Bradley doesn't wish to say anything about the incident - "He's made his comment and he's made his apology, and I don't think there's any more to say really," she offers, but this is a couple who are used to juggling their varying timetables depending on what project they happen to be working on. In the meantime, she is hoping people will come along to see Assassins, despite it not being about New Zealand's own history on stage. "It's kind of about the struggle for power and the struggle for relevance," she says, adding that's something everyone can relate to. It has also left her feeling some sympathy for the protagonists. That's a sentiment Driver agrees with. "The great thing is you end up rooting for the assassins," he says with a chuckle. "And after George W. Bush, who wouldn't?"
Assassins plays , July 24-August 14, at the Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber. See buytickets.co.nz for bookings.
