australian musical theater shows?

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 1:41am

Any good "australian" shows?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 1:53am

Only Heaven Knows is pretty good -- not great, but very sweet with some nice melodies.
http://www.stageleft.com.au/onlyheav.html

[Racetrack]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 2:01am

I can't really judge, but one that was popular a few years ago(don't know if it still is) called Shout!

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 3:03am

Lol. All my shows

[jefflang007]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 5:03am

Ah perhaps the boy from OZ!

there is very little that comes from here. We just dont have the budgets to take the risk on staging a large show. We are good at doing other people's shows that have been tried and tested. A couple of years back our revival of "The King and I" won the tony.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 5:11am

Wasn't Shout! the first Aussie jukebox musical?

(Er, never mind, maybe that would've been Boy From Oz.)

So...was Shout! the first Aussie jukebox musical to star someone who should've shared the lead role with his dad?

There.

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 5:21am

Yes, Jeff. I agree. You have no idea how many times I've been turned down by producers - because my work is just a little too expensive. Even shows that can be staged in any form possible - they still have to take the Broadway route first. And since Sondheim said that was now near impossible - and advised us to go back to the community - the producers then advised us to go to Broadway - well... we're all up sh!t creek in a barbed-wire canoe, lol. Even when I tried to stage The Confidence Man - with a major producer out in Melbourne they turned it down. And why? It's as good as Showboat, Oklahoma and My Fair Lady - in consistency and charm - and was written by a man who has had immense success in the theatrical and musical industry: Jim Steinman, not to mention the great Ray Errol Fox who's lyrics rival even Sondheim and Rupert Holmes - themselves - and has always had tremendous success in his industries. Hell, he even got the Academy for best Short Documentary. Success doesn't seem to matter, or even the idea of a show, or even one's past immense successes... because everyone is out here is so dumb and believes that it has to be huge on Broadway first. But, as an original artist and aspiring producer (I am the president of Radical Wizardry Entertainment) I am fighting back with my own Off-Australia: the next Joseph Papp and the Melbourne Steinman Festival. Call that crazy, or whatever, but I believe in the future more than the crap we're receiving in the present. If I have to die in the process, I will impress Sondheim and Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman. So there...

Lol

Updated On: 5/8/05 at 05:21 AM

[jefflang007]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 5:44am

Lizzie. are you referring to Jimmy BARNES and his son david? Please no!

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 5:52am

No, she's referring to my ambitions

Strike four! And we're almost out :)

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 6:05am

I'm joking guys relax.

[Vampbear]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 6:27am

Hi,

'The Boy from Oz' was on in Australia back in about 1998.

'Shout' came 5 or so years later I think 2003 and yes it was with David Campbell (son of Jimmy Barnes) in the lead role (He'd previously been in 'Only Heaven Knows' I believe and also as Marius in the 10th Anniversary production of LM in Sydney).

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 6:45am

Never thought much of Peter Allen. I've never heard Legs Diamond and I don't want to. I heard a lot about Boy From Oz, and can actually say (with conviction) it was far superior to the Broadway show. We should be having exports - preferably of original shows. I think, in general, the Jukebox reign should be coming to an end. An original musical is what is needed...
There were several incarnations of Shout! and some other shows, which have mostly been forgotten. Dance of the Vampires would have opened here if it was successful - and hopefully we'll get the German show to raize the standards and send over thrilling exports. But we shall see. We shall see...

[jefflang007]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 8:16am

agree never saw shout or oz. neither interested me.

and yes I know who david is as he is and old friend. But Jimmy. Don't insult musical theatre!

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 8:54am

I hope you're not talking about 'Jim Steinman' there
As he did definitely NOT insult musical theatre.
If anything, he enhanced it. Thank you for your email, btw.

[wildcat]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 9:19am

Well, this has made for bizarre reading. Why on earth was "Dance of the Vampires" named in a thread about Australian musicals?

As has been stated, Australians have had their greatest successes over the years with duplications of Broadway and London shows, mostly because our greatest strength has always been our performers who rank with the best in the world, but also because audiences have never expressed much interest in seeing their own culture reflected on the musical theatre stage. This is why producers are reluctant to invest in untried properties, because they're almost impossible to market to the public. SHOUT and BOY FROM OZ were biographies of established pop stars (Johnny O'Keefe and Peter Allen)which contained music that the audience could walk IN singing. Indeed, new shows from anywhere in the world that don't have familiar scores are a tough sell here these days unless they have a enormous publicity machine to put them over. The only new Australian show about to hit the world market is DIRTY DANCING-THE MUSICAL, which is really the film script with incidental songs, but needless to say, it's going through the roof because everything about it is pre-sold.
Nonetheless, hundreds of musicals have been written and produced in Australia going back to the 1930s, but most have been so specific to our culture that they defied exportation. Many have been produced by subsidised theatre companies (the Sydney Theatre Company is this year staging a revival of SUMMER RAIN by Terence Clarke and the late Nick Enright, who scripted the original BOY FROM OZ. The story concerns the effect on a drought stricken country town when a troupe of travelling vaudevillians are stranded there at the end of World War II) or have received arts council funding for one-off mountings. A couple of such small-scale shows were invited to last year's NY Music Theatre Festival. A new musical called BOYBAND is premiering in Sydney this week, and there is an annual competition run by millionaire industrialist's wife Jeanne Pratt with prize money to subsidise new Australian musicals. Last year's winner SIDESHOW ALLEY was successfully workshopped but is still awaiting additional funding, as is this year's recipient, composer Matthew Robinson. There is a lot of product out there, but until audiences can be convinced to come and see the damn things, producers will continue to invest in HAIRSPRAY and WICKED, which are the next big shows that Australians will see in 2006.

[rockfenris2005]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 10:26am

Yes, I am very aware of the Australian musical's history

It's my own work that I hope to add to it: with Off-Australia and the Melbourne Steinman Festival.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 10:44am

YOu make me smile Wildcat!

[jefflang007]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 4:13pm

No Jimmy Barnes not "Steinman" relax. he he!


"HAIRSPRAY and WICKED, which are the next big shows that Australians will see in 2006."
Where did that information eminate from? I had an email from SS and he mentioned he was in talks re Wicked however, nothing in concrete as yet!

Oh and there was an ausi musical I saw about 6 years ago called "The Emerald Room" that was quite good. Still its not world stage worthy.

[Jwaa]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 5:49pm

Prodigal!

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 6:15pm

yeah is Prodigal good? I heard some clips of BWW radio, but not sure if i liked it. i like kerry butler though.

[wildcat]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 7:16pm

A producer is currently checking theatre availability in Sydney for WICKED. That's as much as I know.

THE EMERALD ROOM was written by Dennis Watkins and Chris Harriot, who also came up with DINGO GIRL, about a baby who disappears in the Australian outback and is raised by wild dogs, and TITANIC-THE MUSICAL in which the 'hit' song was the new dance craze, "Do The Shelley Winters".

[jo]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 7:37pm

A new find from Australian musical theatre is Martin Crewes ( who finished his musical theatre course at WAAPA in Perth), the male lead in the London production of THE WOMAN IN WHITE. He has a great voice ( Ben Brantley refers to him as " handsome-voiced"), a good actor and has appeared on both screen and stage. Just listen to him sing in the OCR with EVERMORE WITHOUT YOU and I BELIEVE MY HEART. I hope he makes it to Broadway when the show transfers across the pond.

Yes, I agree - Australia has given the world a host of exciting musical theatre performers -- Hugh Jackman, Anthony Warlow, Philip Quast, Debra Byrne, Martin Crewes, etc.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 7:50pm

What are the good CDs stores in Sydney? any Tower records or Virgin megastore - esque places? thanks.

[gettinhep]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 7:52pm

Don't forget our backstage abilities. We have some gifted composers and designers.

Roger Kirk won a Tony for his designs for the 1996 'King & I' revival. He designs both costumes and sets. He works for such companies as Opera Australia as well as in musical theatre. Carmel Dean works with William Finn. She is responsible for the vocal arrangements for 'Spelling Bee.' I'm sure there are many, many others hidden away at home and abroad. I hope they do not remain hidden.

Wildcat, you missed on a musical from the 1950s - 'Lola Montez.' The show that began its life at Melbourne's Union Theatre Rep. It became a major production in Brisbane in 1958.

[wildcat]

Posted: 5/8/05 at 9:57pm

Oh gosh, I didn't even attempt to list any of the older shows. Apart from LOLA (one of it's authors, Peter Stannard, is premiering his new musical ROSIE in Sydney this year with a cast including Geraldine Turner, Angela Toohey, Sharon Millerchip and Rodney Dobson), other local successes have included COLLITT'S INN (1934), THE HIGHWAYMAN (1950), REEDY RIVER (1953), THE SENTIMENTAL BLOKE (1961), CAROLINE (1971), FLASH JIM VAUX (1971), STOCKADE (1971), RED, WHITE & BOOGIE (1974), HAMLET ON ICE (1974) THE HILLS FAMILY SHOW (1977), THE VENETIAN TWINS (1979), SAFETY IN NUMBERS (1982), and BETTER KNOWN AS BEE (1990). Other notable shows include Reg Livermore's ambitious rock opera NED KELLY (1977) and the recent all-star Gale Edwards production of EUREKA! (2004).