I can’t get over this production of ‘Assassins’ at the Hayes Theatre in Sydney. I’ve been a massive fan of this show for several years now but have only seen it once before as a student production. When I first visited the Hayes, which is an intimate theatre seating just 110, I thought Assassins would be the perfect show for this venue. An added bonus was David Campbell would be playing John Wilkes Booth. The whole cast were spectacular though. I think I may have to go again before it closes.
I posted recently about how sometimes I get a line or an image that I know is going to be in a future story, but that I have no idea what to do with at the point when it first occurs to me.
The line I posted was “Bobby Fox is not in good shape”, and at the time I knew nothing about Bobby Fox, who he is, what sort of shape he should be in, why he’s not in shape now, etc.
Today, despite the fact that I have a major WIP ongoing and another queued just behind it, I had to write Bobby Fox’s prologue. Hopefully now the story itself can wait until I have space for it…
Bobby Fox is not in good shape.
*
Bobby Fox was never going to be the kind of guy who got remembered. Bobby Fox was a third line grifter, the guy who went out there and did his minutes and came in again, got the odd assist and the occasional goal, but never spectacular.
Bobby Fox was just there. The kind of guy you never thought about until you were going to score a beauty against his team and there’s Bobby Fox, like gum on the sole of your shoe. Irritating. In the way. An inconvenience.
Not really a fighter, he’d drop the gloves if he had to and unless the other guy was a real enforcer he’d hold his own. Some you win, some you lose. Point is that you stand up and you try.
Bobby Fox bounced from league to league, country to country. Continent to continent. Canadian passport from his Dad, Northern Irish from his Ma. Third line grifter, everywhere he went.
Anna married him because he got her pregnant, and her parents weren’t happy.
Anna divorced him because he was a nomadic hockey player, and she wasn’t happy.
He played a season and a half in Scotland, and when his contract ran out and he got an offer in Germany, she stayed put. Lucie was in school, Anna was putting down roots. Anna was tired of moving.
Anna was tired of Bobby, and while he was away she met a guy and moved on.
When it’s time to hang up his skates, when nobody has a space for him on their third line, Bobby can’t go home because he doesn’t know where that is any more.
He knows two things:
He wants to be near his kid.
He’s not ready to give up on hockey entirely. Even if hockey’s given up on Bobby Fox.
In 2015, Sun played the part of Sunny in Matthew Lee Robinson's musical 'Happy People'. Ironically, the musical is about life in a children's band and Matthew got the idea for it while watching Hi-5. This is a video of Sun performing 'Easy for You' with Bobby Fox.
Sometimes being part of “jukebox” shows can have its difficulties. The material can be hard to make work. But in Jersey Boys it's so unbelievably well crafted and written and directed that it was nothing but a wonderful challenge every night. Some of the finest pop music ever written by some of the finest writers that ever lived.
Bobby's debut album The Fantastic Mr Fox is out now and available on iTunes here: http://bit.ly/MrFoxiTunes
Find out more about Bobby Fox here:
www.fantasticmrfox.com/
www.facebook.com/bobbyfoxmusic
www.twitter.com/thedancingfox
www.instagram.com/thedancingfox
Directed by Mark Alston
Produced by Starchild Media
www.starchild.net.au
Australia’s Frankie, Irish import Bobby Fox, recalls being asked, “Why would anyone in Australia care about four guys from New Jersey?”
Having seen the show performed overseas, Fox had an inkling of why we would care.
“I said, ‘The same way as you watch West Wing or Breaking Bad, it’s got nothing to do with them being from Jersey; it’s four guys making something of themselves from nothing. That’s what it’s actually about.
“But the thing that Jersey Boys had in its back pocket was the show,” Fox adds. “The show was magnificent. The show was an absolute blinder.”
