Back in March, I had the pleasure of attending the Dirty Dancing Media Call which included a Q&A with the cast. I lost all my audio, so thank you to Allison from Theatre People who was kind enough to transcribe my question and Mark Vincent’s answer for me.

Mark, you’re known for your classical voice; did you have to adapt your voice for the role of Billy in Dirty Dancing?

Oh God, yeah. I’m glad you asked. I remember in the auditioning process, I had to study this role for 6 months, learn obviously dancing, acting and … really about Billy. Because, it’s funny, Billy is 19 and at 19 I started with my career – well, continued on with my career. When I auditioned for the role, it’s funny cause they said, “Mark, don’t be 45” and I didn’t know what they meant by that.

So I had to go back and study. But even the contemporary style of singing, as you said, is so different to doing classical music so I had to study that style of singing and really being comfortable in your own skin. With classical music, you pretty much just stand there and deliver, whereas in this, you’re moving around everywhere and singing at the same time. But I think that’s a good thing. It’s something different.

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For more information on Mark, please go to: www.markvincent.com.au/
For more information on Dirty Dancing, please go to: dirtydancingaustralia.com/