When Thomas Lamont heard about Royal City Musical Theatre's production of My Fair Lady, he figured it was a good chance to try his hand at auditioning.
He hadn't been in a musical theatre production in awhile and decided it was worth it for a chance to polish up his auditioning skills.
What he wasn't expecting was that he would end up in a lead role - and singing one of the classic musical theatre songs of all time.
Lamont, a New West resident, appears as Freddy Eynsford-Hill in the musical that opens at Massey Theatre April 9.
Freddy, as devotees of the Lerner and Loewe classic will know, is the upper-class young Londoner who falls hard for the charms of the Cockney flower girl-turned-fine-lady, Eliza Doolittle - and who proclaims that love in finest Broadway style through the memorable strains of On the Street Where You Live.
"It's stuck in my head all the time," laughs Lamont, looking younger than his just-turned-23 years as he chats about the role over coffee.
As it turns out, that youthful demeanour comes into play on stage.
"I'm playing him younger than I think most Freddys are," Lamont says, explaining he sees the character as more of a teenage mama's boy, awkward and never quite fitting in to the high society he's part of.
Which is how he ends up drawn to Eliza - who, as anyone who's seen the musical will know, makes quite a splash when she enters society at the races at Ascot.
"He sees a connection that he has to Eliza, that's why he falls in love with her right away," Lamont says, but adds the truth is the over-romantic Freddy isn't necessarily in love with Eliza the person. "He's totally lost in being in love, he's more in love with being in love than he is with Eliza."
The young tenor notes it's the perfect role for him - he admits freely that he's not a dancer (in fact, he says, he was terrible at the dance part of his audition), and he's not part of the often intricate dance numbers that surround him.
He has a few lines of dialogue, but the biggest part of his role is that classic love song.
"It's really a role for a singer," Lamont says.
Which, after all, is what Lamont is.
His background in music stretches back to his days at NWSS - he starred in the school's production of Bye Bye Birdie on the very same Massey Theatre stage where he'll be stepping out in top hat and tails for My Fair Lady. He followed that up with two years of opera studies at UBC and some time at Douglas College before finding his place in the bachelor of music program at the Vancouver Academy of Music's S.K. Lee College, where he's currently taking a semester off.
Along the way he's done some opera performance, including two productions with the locally based DragonDiva Operatic Theatre, as well as classical music performances with an emphasis on German lieder.
"I just want to stay as flexible as I can, I want to do as much as I can possibly do," he says.
Ultimately, Lamont says, he'd love to end up singing opera in Germany - which he calls the "L.A. for opera singers" for its tradition of state-run opera houses that employ singers on four-year contracts.
In the meantime, however, he's immersed in the experience of being part of Royal City Musical Theatre - which, he says, offers up a first-class production on all fronts. The sets and costumes, he says, will amaze - and he notes that, thanks to the popularity of Downton Abbey, that "Edwardian-Georgian esthetic" that forms the backdrop of the production will appeal to a wide audience.
He's also blown away by the talent on stage.
"It's cast incredibly well," he says. "There's a lot of really great people in it. That's one of the things I'm most excited about."
Best of all for Lamont is the chance to perform right here at home.
"I sort of grew up in the Massey," he says, noting it started way back in elementary school, when Richard McBride School held its Christmas plays in the venerable theatre. He performed there while at NWSS and worked front of house.
"It's almost my second home," he says.
And, of course, it's also the chance to be in one of the most beloved musicals ever written.
"I've always loved the show," he says. "It's classic. This is one of those shows where every single song, every single piece of music, is a familiar piece of music. People will be humming them long after the show."
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My Fair Lady also stars Tracey Neff as Eliza Doolittle, Warren Kimmel as Henry Higgins, Michael Wild as Col. Pickering and John Payne as Alfred Doolittle.
Artistic director Valerie Easton heads up a team that includes director Max Reimer, musical director James Bryson, choreographer Suzanne Ouellette and associate director Cory Haas.
It runs April 9 to 26 at the Massey Theatre, with official opening night on Saturday, April 11. For tickets, see www.ticketsnw.ca. For more about the show, see www.royalcitymusicaltheatre.com.
