When actor Jay Laga’aia steps on The Playhouse stage as The Pirate King in the Gilbert & Sullivan classic, The Pirates of Penzance, he’ll be doing what he likes best – interacting with audiences.

For this new show from Sydney’s Hayes Theatre, Canberra Theatre is even offering patrons game enough to sit on the stage a free drink and no wonder, as they might find themselves directly involved in the action as pirates, policemen or just the general public.

The New Zealand-born Laga’aia is, of course, a household name in Australia from years of appearances on TV shows such as Home and Away, Playschool and Bed of Roses, and internationally from the Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, where he played Captain Typho. 

On stage, he’s played Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar as well as father lion Musafa in The Lion King and many other roles.

When last we talked in 2011, he was coming to The Street Theatre for another thing he loves, impro theatre. He represented NZ in an international impro contest at the Ekka in Brisbane during 1988, and told me: “Improvisation is a skill not everyone has, but when you do have it, it can lead to magic.” 

There are many facets to Laga’aia, originally a singer, but he truly loves acting and even if you haven’t heard of him for a while he’s certainly been there, mostly in live theatre, most recently touring as the slick DJ Vince Fontaine in Grease and playing roles at Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre. 

“When people don’t hear about you, they think you’ve died,” Laga’aia quips. “I’ve just been doing theatre and it’s been great.” 

As well, he says, he’s been chaperoning his daughter, Catherine, who plays Moana in the upcoming Disney live-action movie, when she had to spend time in Atlanta and Hawaii shooting.

When you’ve got eight children as he does, it’s quite complicated being the patriarch.

One of his sons, Tana, a recent NIDA graduate, has been cast as Peter in the 50th-anniversary tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. Another, Iosefa, who debuted professionally in the original Australian cast of Hamilton, is in the show Hadestown. And daughter Georgia played the key role of Zoe Murphy in Evan Hansen.

As a sporting tragic, it’s particularly pleasing to him that his oldest daughter Jessie, now 26, is about to debut with the Queensland Firebirds Super netball team.

As for The Pirates of Penzance, the four actors on stage play everyone – Pirate King, Ruth, Mabel, Frederic and Major-General – as well as a motley pirate crew, a troupe of singing police recruits and Mabel’s sisters, all accompanied by their pianist, Fish Cake. 

“We are everything to everyone and we seem to have pulled it off… the audiences watch this group of people do their quick changes and move into different roles. They love the idea that there is such a sense of fun,” he says.

Even the dedicated Gilbert & Sullivan fans to whom he talks, worried that they’ve pushed it all too far, respond that it’s exactly what G&S did in their own day – make fun of the ridiculousness of society. 

“They would be so pleased with what you are doing,” people tell him. 

When he was first asked to join the cast, Laga’aia, who had been in a cast of 28 for the show about 40 years ago, couldn’t get his head around doing it with four, so had to ask the director Richard Carroll what he had in mind. Luckily Carroll knew what he was talking about.

“It’s very much a case of trust,” Laga’aia says. “The end result is a fantastic show, and it’s interactive – you become part of it.” 

In it, the audience becomes part and parcel of the crew, and it reminds him that in Shakespeare’s time most audience members were standing and engaging.

“Theatre is a people thing; theatre is precious,” he says.

The Pirates of Penzance, The Playhouse, April 2-6.