Lunch with the Komazec sisters
I meet Nadia and Zoe Komazec at the stage door of Sydney’s Lyric Theatre, the Sydney home of the hit musical Matilda. The Adelaide-born sisters are both performing in the show. Technically, the sisters have that day free (ordinarily there would be understudy rehearsals) but have arrived early especially for our interview. I’m instantly struck by their immaculate presentation: their gorgeous smiles; their positive and vivacious energies, and their easy relationship with each other. We head across the road to a fab little café in the foyer of the Google building at Pyrmont – to introduce ourselves properly and to chat over lunch.
Once seated I direct the first question to Zoe, sitting diagonally opposite – except I’m actually addressing Nadia. Oops – faux pas! The girls giggle, but politely – because obviously although not identical they are similar enough for this mistake to happen often. I apologise and shift my eye-line straight ahead to address the real Zoe.
She confirms: “I’m Zoe. I’m 24 years old and I play the Child Swing* and I’m Assistant Dance Captain on the show.” I sheepishly shift my gaze back diagonally. “So -- I’m Nadia and I’m 26 -- so I’m a little bit older… even though I don’t look it!” She smirks at her sister. “I'm in the ensemble and I understudy Miss Honey and Mrs Wormwood.”
Both girls trained at their mother’s dance school – Barbara Jayne Dance Centre in Norwood – and very proudly affirm that the school is renowned for training elite music theatre performers and ballet dancers, which they list: Cameron Mitchell; Cristiano Martino; Monica Swayne and Stephanie Grigg among others. They each started at age two and trained in all facets of dance, including CSTD Jazz and Tap as well as Borovansky and Cecchetti Ballet.
We discuss when their passion for musicals was first ignited. “Ever since I was little I’ve never had any other idea of what I was going to do,” Nadia says. “I was going to finish school. I was going to get into WAAPA. I was going to get a show. I never had a 'back up'. I WAS DOING IT!” And, do it, she did. She left home at 17 to start her professional career (although she did have to forego her dream to go to WAAPA -- even though she’d been accepted) -- when she was offered the role of Meg in The Phantom of the Opera. She joined the touring company in Singapore: “I was so excited -- more than anything -- to go overseas!” That tour lasted for two and a half years and also took her to Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Auckland and Taipei. “I loved every minute of it! It was such a great introduction into the industry.” Since then she has performed in Mamma Mia (2009 – 2010); Moonshadow (2012); A Chorus Line (2012), Legally Blonde and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”in 2013.
Zoe’s career-path wasn’t as clear to her at such a young age, but she confesses that Nadia’s successful start in the industry helped define it for her. “When Nards got into music theatre my head sort of went … THAT is something that I think I’d love to do!” She continues: “I just didn’t know that I had the ability until I really pushed myself and went – No! I’m actually going to do it!” (She admits to not being confident her singing voice was good enough when younger.)
Her music theatre journey started at 18 when she was cast as Tantomile in Cats: “One of my dreams-come-true!” she states. “It took me straight to the Manila in the Philippines with Lea Salonga who was playing Grizabella. It was the first time I’d ever travelled anywhere by myself and,unfortunately,they lost my bag. So I was very alone and had none of my belongings with me.” She got that bag back before that tour next travelled to Taipei and two other cities in Taiwan. She moved to Sydney for her next musical, The Addams Family, and was cast as ensemble and understudy for the role of Wednesday. Her next tour was with the international magic show, The Illusionists 2.0, as a dancer, magician’s assistant and Dance Captain. She travelled o Istanbul, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Mexico, New Zealand and all over Australia.
But Matilda is the show of the moment. To get into the how, Nadi did four auditions in Sydney, while Zoe started the journey in Melbourne and ended it four to five auditions later in Sydney. Because they were being screened for completely different roles and responsibilities and often in different states, I get the impression that they never really felt they were in competition with each other – well, no more so than the other 400 vying for a part in the year’s most covetted ensemble. “I’ll never ever forget that audition process,” Nadia says, 'because they were so supportive. But at the same time they really pushed us. I think the show is so specific in its casting and they have just nailed it.”
Matilda's publicist, JP Bolton, puts it like this: “Aside from being a fantastic show, no corner has been cut on the production. And, the integrity of the casting was really important from Day 1. It wasn’t going to be a 'star cast' show. In a way [both girls being cast] is kind of like lightning striking. With all those variables – the integrity; getting the exact right people and the personalities of work ethic ??? the fact that it happened is kind of remarkable!”
Lightning did strike, though, and both girls were cast. How did they discover each other's fate? Especially when Zoe was on tour in Macau (performing in Cats) when the offers were made – and the producers had requested that nobody breathed a word to anybody.
I swear the next conversation drops in volume and suddenly feels like we are sharing secrets – but in that special way that only sisters can, and especially when they tell the tale in tandem, picking up where the other left off. Nadia starts: “We weren’t really allowed to say anything to anyone -- a lot of people didn’t even tell their own families -- but because we were both up for it we were both sort of like, 'Oh, we’ve gotta find out'!” Zoe continues: “Nadia had told Mum and said 'Don’t tell, Zoe'. And then I had told Mum and said 'Don’t tell, Nadia'!
“Then I remember Mum said to me, 'I think you need to call your sister'. And I was like…Oh! That’s awkward …what if she didn’t get it and I have to call her and say that I got it.” She pauses and they share a little chuckle at the thought of that travesty. “Anyway, we got in contact with each other while I was over there and we were like…EEEEEEEEEEE!!! We were so excited!” And Nadia agrees, “Yeah! It was really cool!”
So now that they are sharing this experience, what does it mean for each of them? Zoe admits: “I know it sounds lame, but, I’ve always looked up to Nards. She’s my older sister … and growing up she’s the person I wanted to be just like. I could not believe that I got the show with Nards. And to be able to see her and see her perform every day, it just makes me want to work even harder still.”
Nadia put’s it this way: “We’re always touring and we’re always separated. And I left really young, so we sort of missed out on a couple of those really great teenage years. When we got this show we were like, 'Oh! We actually get to spend some time together' . It's the strangest thing that work could bring us together, but it’s great!”
Once lunch is finished I wrap up the interview, keen to not impose too much on their “day off”. We exit the café into a shining Sydney afternoon and are heading back towards the theatre, when the girls remind themselves that they should grab a photo together on the pier. I look at them, beaming for the lens, and imagine this scene as a captured future memento they will have to cherish -- of the incredible time they got to share as sisters in Matilda.
- SALLY CLARK
*As “Child Swing”, Zoe understudies the children’s roles of Tommy, Hortensia, Alice, Eric, Lavender, Nigel and Amanda - on top of some of the adult roles!
After a season in Sydney, 'Matilda' moved to the Princess Theatre in Melbourne on March 17.