Mona Vale’s Ashleigh Rubenach brings Hollywood glamour home in Sunset Boulevard
From a young age, Ashleigh had aspirations for the stage and now her musical career is taking off. The performer is set to appear in Sunset Boulevard at the Sydney Opera House this month, playing the role of Betty Schaefer.
It’s something she’s been working towards for a long time. Growing up in Mona Vale, Ashleigh was often cared for by her grandmother, LaRaine, while her parents worked, and together they would watch classic musicals starring actress Debbie Reynolds, like Singin’ in the Rain.
“When I was five my nanna took me to see The Sound of Music, which was my first ever stage show, and I was completely taken by it,” Ashleigh, 30, recalls. “Nanna said she had to keep checking to see if I was breathing throughout because I was so in awe! I actually remember watching the start of (song) Do-Re-Mi – I can see the image in my head of the kids and Maria on stage – and thinking to myself then that I didn’t really know what it was, or how to do it, but that’s what I wanted to do.”
Ashleigh says she ‘started singing the second I could make noise,’ according to her family, and spent many hours putting on concerts and plays for them. She attended dance classes in Newport, and with Manly Selective High School performed in Rock Eisteddfods and Schools Spectacular, the annual performance showcase for public schools. Ashleigh also joined Chatswood Musical Society (as it was previously known) and was given an opportunity to take part in a talent development project run by the NSW Education Department. She attended the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts after school and was soon taking on professional roles.
Her dreams materialised in 2016, when Nanna LaRaine got to watch Ashleigh perform on stage in the understudy role of Maria, during The Sound of Music national tour. “It was a pretty incredible full-circle moment,” Ashleigh says.
Just recently Ashleigh had another moment, realising that as a five-year-old, she’d been watching her now friend and co-star Tim Draxl on stage in that same Sound of Music show. He’d played the role of Rolf. “And now we play opposite each other in Sunset Boulevard. So it’s very funny how things come full circle,” Ashleigh says.
Ashleigh has been playing Betty, who is ‘very, very fun to play’ in the Melbourne leg of Sunset Boulevard since May, and is excited for the show’s Sydney season. Penned by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice, the musical features ‘this really lush, full, exciting, dramatic cinematic score,’ Ashleigh describes. She says that the 16-piece orchestra they have enjoyed in Melbourne will extend to a 26-piece orchestra in Sydney, which she says is ‘so special.’
The musical centres around the character of Norma Desmond, a tortured silent film star who longs to return to fame. In a chance encounter, she meets struggling Hollywood screenwriter Joe Gillis. Betty, a writer, is Joe’s ‘intellectual equal’ in the show.
Ashleigh says the musical has a ‘murder mystery element’ to it. “But all wrapped up in this beautiful old Hollywood package,” she explains. “And I think that’s what I love most about it.”
Sunset Boulevard is on now at the Sydney Opera House. See Ticketmaster for session details.