After spending time with Richard Marshall we're blowed if we could get the "There's no business like show business" lyrics off repeat play in our head.
As director of the upcoming Musical Theatre's production Chicago, Richard's love of show business is hyper-infectious. The reason's self-evident. He's been involved in musicals since he was 10, but fell in love with them when he was considerably younger, hearing snippets from Phantom of the Opera on radio.
"I pestered and pestered my grandmother to buy me the LP [long playing record], eventually she relented and I played it non-stop. I still listen to it, but now it's on CD although I continue to cherish that record."
Richard's on-stage musical theatre debut was as a member of the children's chorus in another Andrew Lloyd Webber-penned show, Evita. He'd acquired acting skills at the late Ngarie Gahan's Shambles Theatre kids' classes.
Duncan Whiting was Evita's director, Richard's worked frequently with him and Rotorua's own "Mr Show Business" Robert Young; it's from them he's taken his directional cues and Young remains his mentor.
Chicago's an ambitious undertaking for any director. At 34, Richard's undaunted, despite having a major hurdle to leap. When funding promised by a national trust failed to materialise he was forced to jettison his intended leading lady, entertainment big name, Tina Cross.
She was, Richard says, very understanding. To use that old showbiz maxim, the show must go on. Richard reports her understudy Tia Tuuta, has stepped with confidence into the professional performer's role playing "Mumma" Morton, the matron of the prison around which Chicago's plot revolves.
Richard's no prison set novice. His directional debut was Bad Girls.
"I read the script and just knew it was the show to choose. The thing about directing Bad Girls was it took the ordinary person of all different shapes and sizes off the street and developed depth of character on stage."
He fretted his choice could be a huge mistake . . . "that Rotorua people may not come out and see it because of the content but it was an outstanding success and we [the musical theatre] made a $10,000 profit."
The sweetener for Richard was discovering the Rotorua production was the first outside the UK. it was staged at Casa Blanca the musical theatre's home base, as is Chicago.
It was this venue which convinced Chicago's copyright holders to grant Rotorua the performing rights . . . . smart thinking, ticket sales have soared, extending the season by a further four shows.
"The Operatic Society [the musical theatre's predecessor] had looked at it but was declined because the Civic Theatre was considered too large, but with Casa Blanca being such an intimate theatre it works wonderfully well."
When the curtain goes up on Chicago on Friday night it will be a double celebration for the director, April 19 is his birthday.
"I didn't have anything else planned," is the throw-away line he trots out with the impassive delivery of a seasoned comedian. Humour's this director's hallmark.
Before directing Richard "did time" as a production secretary, then manager. The former was for Disney's High School Musical, but his biggest challenge was Cats; he was both production manager and in the cast, playing the old cat Gus.
"We were short of men and director, Dean McKerras, said I should audition".
There've been a host of other local shows he's performed in including West Side Story, Les Miserables, Jesus Christ Superstar and Annie.
Richard's memories of rehearsal time give lie to the sophisticated image that tends to surround showbiz.
"They've been in freezing cold warehouses in the middle of winter but boiling hot in summer, for Annie they were in an old shed, we got flooded out."
Much as he's devoted to theatre's contrasting privations and glamour, a man's got to eat.
Richard's day job's far removed from the footlights. He's Registrar of Electors for the Rotorua, Taupo and Waiariki electorates, a job that's been his for four years, encompassing local body and general elections.
At the same time the heat's on him to deliver the goods with Chicago, at work he's up to his eyes implementing the Maori Electoral Option (MEO). "Normally this happens every five years but because of the Christchurch earthquake it's now seven since the last MEO so it's full on."
His first job was with the Rotorua District Council, in records then accounts. After a six month OE "I got homesick and my grandmother was sick so I came home," he moved into banking, first in Auckland then with Rotorua's National Bank, remaining until 2008.
"My mother and I were planning to shift to Australia because so many friends were going over but the property market crashed and we're still here."
To those who knew Richard in earlier days he was Richard Nairn. He changed his surname to Marshall not because of some theatrical whim to take a stage name, rather the reason's that so many people had problems pronouncing and spelling Nairn, despite it being such a long-established Rotorua name.
"Marshall as my maternal grandmother's maiden name so that's what I opted for."
Family's everything to Richard Marshall . . . "Not just my own but my theatre family, theatre's my life."
Richard Marshall
Born: Rotorua, 1978
Education: Sunset Primary and Intermediate, Western Heights High School
Family: Mother Wendy Nairn, one sister "and all the theatre folk"
Interests: Theatre, genealogy "I've discovered some amazing French, Scottish and Croatian roots", frequent trips 'across the ditch' to see shows
Favourite Show: "I adore anything by Stephen Sondheim, vocally and musically his work's very challenging."
Personal philosophy: "Ever day above ground's a good day because in life you never know what's around the corner."