Surprise! Five line up for a new adventure

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This was published 14 years ago

Surprise! Five line up for a new adventure

By Caroline Marcus

THEY celebrated their 10th anniversary in show business last year but Hi-5 are virtually unrecognisable from a decade ago. The ''new generation'' of performers are now taking their show Hi-5 Surprise! on the road, playing at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, on Tuesday.

Three new members, Lauren Brant, Fely Irvine and Tim Maddren, will join the more experienced performers Casey Burgess, who replaced the original cast member Charli Delaney early in 2008, and Stevie Nicholson, who came in for Tim Harding in 2007 when he was badly hurt in a motorcycle accident.

Other original members Nathan Foley and Kellie Crawford left at the end of 2008 along with Sun Park, the replacement for another original, Kathleen de Leon Jones, who quit to become a mother.

Burgess, who celebrated her 21st birthday yesterday, said the quintet were looking forward to introducing a ''new dynamic'' to the group after a tumultuous transitional period.

Speaking from Singapore, where the group performed three live shows a day for two weeks, Burgess revealed that it had been a difficult time when the two remaining original members, Foley and Crawford, left. ''We didn't know what was coming up for a moment there,'' she said.

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''It was just Steve [Nicholson] and I going, 'OK, what's happening now?'''

''I remember having a day when I rang Nathan and Kellie and said, 'I'm going to miss you so much,' because that was all I knew.''

Burgess said she now felt like she was one of the ''oldies''.

As far as how long her tenure would last, she has not thought that far ahead.

''As long as you're doing something you enjoy, I think stick it out. I'm quite passionate about singing-songwriting. I'd like to do my own album and tours of my own and things like that. I'd like to go overseas and try the acting circuit.''

Her intense filming and touring schedule has taken its toll on her personal relationships. The break-up of a three-year relationship with her high-school sweetheart coincided with her joining the group.

'To be honest, it is one of those jobs people don't realise how much we're away from home and how much we're working,'' she said.

''It's hard to keep up a relationship. You tend to become quite independent in this job. Our job is our life at the moment. You just sort of realise what you really want.

''Before you join Hi-5 you could be wanting something, and by the time you step out of [the Hi-5] world you could want something different.''

cmarcus@fairfaxmedia.com.au

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