School camp or playing the King of Rock and Roll onstage? It’s not a choice most 12-year-olds have to make.
Geelong performer Daniel Lim, 12, is missing out on grade six camp at Healesville to make his mark in Elvis: a Musical Revolution, which opens Friday.
“Obviously I was a bit disappointed but it’s either this or that, and I chose this, which is very good I think,” he told AAP.
The musical had rave reviews during its Sydney run and has already extended its Melbourne season until December.
Starring Rob Mallett as a grown-up Elvis, it looks at the King’s life from his childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi, through to his televised comeback special concert in 1968, with more than 40 tunes along the way.
School camp is not the only sacrifice Lim is making to be one of four children to alternate playing the young Elvis Presley – it’s a 90-minute trip from his home in Geelong to the Athenaeum Theatre, which can mean getting home at 10.30pm.
But it’s all part of the gig for someone who is practically a theatre veteran with recent roles in The Wind in the Willows, Priscilla, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Sebastian Dovey Cribbes, 10, also played in Joseph and joins Lim in the Elvis cast, with each playing two shows a week and on stand-by for another two.
Dovey Cribbes appears unconcerned about singing in front of more than 800 people, but is a little worried about attending school three days a week.
The pair have quickly become Elvis fans though, naming Hard Headed Woman and Blue Suede Shoes among their favourite tunes.
For Lim, just like the King, performing is all about the emotions.
“It puts a smile on people’s faces because they’re enjoying the show so much, I just like how it makes me feel and how it makes the audience feel,” he said.
Elvis: A Musical Revolution is on at the Athenaeum Theatre from Friday.
