To get a break

When actor Jake Byrom returned to New Zealand due to the impact of Coronovirus, little did he realise the move might actually prove to be one of the best career decisions he’d ever make.

Having left Nelson for the bright lights of London to pursue his dreams of performing in the West End at the tender age of 18, it’s ironic that the Kiwi’s flight home has enabled his career to flourish.

While stage doors across the globe remained firmly closed, Aotearoa emerged from lockdown as one of the very few places in the world with a thriving musical theatre scene.

Jake had been starring in the UK as Barry Gibb in the hit show Saturday Night Fever and was about to embark on an international tour when news hit of its cancellation due to the pandemic.

“I was devastated at the time, but I don’t think any of us realised how much of an issue the virus was going to become,” says Jake, now 23. After studying at the London School of Musical Theatre, he’d gone on to perform in, among others, Camelot at the London Palladium, and Rent at the Shaw Theatre, as well as starring in Creedence Clearwater Reimagined and the international tour of Summer of Love.

He arrived back in New Zealand as quarantine rules set in, and despite concerns about the future for his work, put the time in MIQ to good use, continuing to write a musical Bandits! he’d started with friends, and finishing an EP from which two singles have already been released.

In the following weeks during lockdown at his parents’ house, he began writing another musical about prominent Nelsonian Ernest Rutherford, going on to develop it further after enrolling for the final year of a Bachelor of Media Arts (Hons) at Wintec in Hamilton.

“There had been a few performers who’d ended up back in Nelson, jobless and itching for work, including someone I know who’d been in a West End show,” Jake says.

As social distancing rules relaxed he organised a workshop of Bandits! and volunteered as Co-Director of a production with Nelson Youth Theatre Company, the organisation through which his passion for musical theatre had developed. It was during this time a message arrived inviting him to work from October to January on Jersey Boys in Christchurch’s Court Theatre.

Sellout shows led to an extended schedule. “It was exciting to be on stage in front of an audience again! When there are so many other parts of the world unable to do that, it is kind of nuts when you think about it.”

Jake now has a lead role lined up in a musical at Christchurch’s Isaac Theatre Royal, and a number of other promising opportunities are in the pipeline.

“I’m excited to see how things go in New Zealand, especially for the writing as that’s such an undiscovered scene here. There are so many amazing things to write about. Coming back makes me realise what an incredible country this is. I’ll always want to do stuff in the UK, but I’ve realised that the theatres of the West End aren’t everything. New Zealand is the place to be right now!”

Reported by Fiona Terry for our AA Directions Autumn 2021 issue