FLYING THE OZ FLAG INTERNATIONALLY

With the recent opening in Hamburg, Germany, of the Australian developed musical version of the hit movie Dirty Dancing, and the imminent launch of John Michael Howson, Melvyn Morrow and David Mitchell’s, Dusty – The Original Pop Diva, in the West End in early 2007, it’s time to take a look at how other Australian musicals have fared on the International stage.

The most famous in recent times was The Boy From Oz, the Peter Allen bio-show which opened, October 16, 2003, at the Imperial Theatre, New York, to raves for its star Hugh Jackman – “One of the breakout leading-man musical debuts in recent Broadway memory” (Newsday), “delivers a vividly charismatic and entertainingly florid star turn” (Hollywood Reporter). The show however was mercifully panned, “…pitifully flimsy musical” (Variety), but that didn’t stop it playing a standing-room only twelve-month season on the strength of Jackman’s performance. The show had been a huge hit throughout Australia in 1998/99 with Todd McKenney in the central role. Australian audiences are now about to experience Jackman’s take on the part when he opens in an Arena production of it in August this year.

The year before New York had seen the U.S. premiere of Mathew Frank and Dean Bryant’s gay coming-of-age story, Prodigal which was given a season at the York Theatre with Christian Borle, David Hess and Alison Fraser in the principal roles. “A small-scale Australian musical by a promising young writing team,” wrote William Stevenson on Broadway.com and then went on to praise the music, “…includes several pretty songs.” The show had originally debuted in Melbourne at Chapel Off Chapel on July 5, 2000, under its original title The Prodigal Son. The authors have since seen a further U.S. production of their piece at Spirit of Broadway, Norwich, Connecticut, which opened November 2, 2005.

Chapel Off Chapel had also been the site in 2003 of the launch of Dean Lotherington and Martin Croft’s Joe Starts Again, a one-man musical about a 49 year-old man searching for his Mister Right, that starred Croft. Called an, “amusing, touching and rather wonderful one-act, one-man, one pianist, one-of-a-kind musical” by the Sydney Morning Herald, the show went on to win the Green Room Award for Best Original Musical in 2004, and later played a season in the inaugural New York Music Theatre Festival in September the same year with Croft repeating his performance. New York critics were just as charmed as their Aussie counterparts, “Those worried about the future of the blockbuster musical can be heartened that the chamber musical alternative has candidates like Joe Starts Again.”

Back in 1979 Grahame (Aunty Jack) Bond and Jim Burnett had a huge success with their riotous take on Shakespeare when they created, Boy’s Own McBeth. Critically endorsed, “A combination of Welcome Back Kotter, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Shakespeare in Rock ‘n’ Roll” (Sunday Telegraph), and “The Marx Brothers and The Goons” (The Bulletin), the show starred Bond with Rory O’Donoghue as Musical Director. The work was so successful that it ended up touring the country, played over 600 performances, and in 1982 opened in Los Angeles with a U.S. cast. The 600-performance Australian run of the show was a record at the time for a locally written musical. It wasn’t eclipsed until The Boy From Oz came along in the 90s.

Before William May and Jason Sprague’s Always opened at London’s Victoria Palace Theatre, on May 22, 1997, with a starry cast that included Clive Carter, Jan Hartley, Shani Wallis and Sheila Ferguson, the show had been work-shopped in Australia by the Victorian Arts Centre Trust. Telling the story of the Duke of Windsor’s love for commoner Wallis Simpson, the workshop used John O’May and Jenny Vuletic in the principal roles, with Michael Tyack as musical director and Philip Cusack as director. Although the Art Centre’s head honcho Sue Nattrass was convinced it was a “brilliant musical,” and Michael Shmith’s headline in an article for The Age screamed, “The Windsors ready to take the world by storm,” unfortunately it didn’t. The work didn’t live up to its pre-show hype – not the only show to suffer from this problem. Audiences, enthusiastic at the previews, didn’t remain that way once the notices came out. The Evening Standard’s Nick Curtis opined, “The tunes are bland and repetitive, the lyrics staggeringly banal,” while Michael Coveney in the Daily Mail said it “starts feeble and progresses from bad to embarrassing.” The show staggered on for a dismal two month run, closing July 26th.

Leonardo – the Musical – A Portrait Of Love is probably more famous for its investor, the Republic of Nauro, a small Island in the Pacific, who financed the show from its major export – bird droppings (they are high in phosphates). Written by Duke Minks, Russell Dunlop and Tom and Greg Moeller, the show about the life of Da Vinci, had originally tried out at Oxford in 1992 with Simon Burke as the lead. Paul Collis played the role in London, where the show opened June 3, 1993 at the Strand Theatre to a harsh critical reception – “A great deal of risible tosh,” “Only six months to Christmas and the first turkey has arrived,” but there was praise for John Cameron’s “sensitive” arrangements. Leonardo folded after a run of a little over four weeks. The Australian premiere was at The Randall Theatre, St Martins, Melbourne, on April 28th 2000.

David Atkins’ Hot Shoe Shuffle had an impressive pedigree when it opened at the Queens Theatre, London, March 22, 1994, with the original Australian Cast that included Atkins, Rhonda Burchmore, Dein Perry, Adam Garcia, and Jack Webster. The show had premiered in Australia, October 7th 1992, at the Hills Centre, Penrith, for a smash season that turned into a smash tour of the country. “…Absolutely irresistible… The dancing and music are simply wonderful,” said Jill Sykes in the Sydney Morning Herald, while the Herald Sun, Melbourne, claimed the dancing was “the most exhilarating ever to shake a theatre floor.” The songbook show, was conceived by Atkins and Max Lambert, set in the 1940s, and was a hokey showbiz tale about seven tap dancing brothers and their tall clumsy sister. The London production played a respectable six months, closing on August 20th, whereby the BBC taped the production for television. Later the show embarked on a UK tour. Because of copyright restrictions, the George and Ira Gershwin songs used in the original were dropped in the West End.

Peter Wylie Johnston’s musical version of Moses! has had two London showcases, the first on May 2nd, 1999 at the West London Synagogue, which received glowing notices; “A polished score” (London Jewish Chronicle), “There are several potential hits” (The Tip Sheet). These comments were only endorsed at a later showcase at the Kaufmann Concert Hall, New York, “The big discovery here are the lovely melodies and honest emotion found in the music” (WRTN/WVOX Radio), “Beautifully crafted songs… I think Peter Whylie Johnston is an important song-writer on the brink of serious recognition” (Backstage). The Australian premiere was at the Ford Theatre, Geelong Performing Arts Centre, in June 2004.

During the nineties the UK also hosted the premieres of two musicals based on popular Australian television series. The first, Prisoner Cell Block H – The Musical, written by myself and Don Battye, and based on the Grundy TV series Prisoner, opened at the Queens Theatre, London, October 30th, 1995. It starred Drag Queen Lily Savage and Maggie Kirkpatrick as ‘The Freak’ reprising her original role in the TV series. Jack Tinker in the Daily Mail called it a “prison camp singalong that’s sealed with a kitsch,” while Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph said, “Lily’s jailhouse frock is the campest musical in town.” With other critics labeling it, “A hoot,” “Bliss,” and “A huge hit,” the show successfully played out it’s limited three-month season and then did tours of the UK in 1996 and 1997. The second show was Home And Away, a jukebox musical that also toured the English provinces in 1991 but failed to get a London gig. It starred Sharyn Hodgson, Julian McMahon, Justine Clarke and Adam Willets. So far both shows have not been produced in Australia, although a production of Prisoner is mooted for late 2007.

In 1982 Robyn Archer’s hit one-woman musical A Star Is Torn opened at the Theatre Royal, Stratford, London, on June 1st. Co-devised by Rodney Fisher, the show was a feminist look at the lives of famous female singers; Bessie Smith, Helen Morgan, Judy Garland, Billy Holiday and Edith Piaf, through their songs. The show was so well received that it transferred to the West End. Archer had first performed the work at the Universal Theatre, Melbourne, in 1979, and had toured Australia with it in 1980. After the London season she did return seasons of the show in Melbourne and Sydney.

Australia’s most recorded musical, the folk song compilation, Reedy River with a libretto by Dick Diamond premiered at the New Theatre, Melbourne, in 1953. Based on the 1891 shearers’ strike, the show was an immediate success, “a landmark in our theatrical history,” “Good theatre, and as unmistakably Australian as a blue gum or a kangaroo,” and went on to play productions in all capital cities. The show has frequently been revived and boasts three different original cast recordings of its score. In 1954-55 the Unity Theatre, London, home to Lionel Bart’s early musical efforts, mounted a production with an English cast, who played a successful two-month season.

The 1960s in London saw two enormous hits created by Australians. Queensland born Ron Grainer provided the highly praised light-operatic score for Robert And Elizabeth, a musical version of The Barretts Of Wimpole Street, which starred Australians, June Bronhill and Keith Michell. “Grainer’s score sounded if it had been soaked in minor Novello rhapsodies for several decades,” said Sheridan Morley and also remarking it had “everything to guarantee success,” and he was right. Opening at the Lyric Theatre, October 20, 1964, it went on to play 948 performances, before Bronhill returned down-under to repeat her role opposite Dennis Quilley in Garnet H. Carroll’s Australian production opening at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, on May 21, 1966. The show has had several major productions in the U.S. but so far has not played Broadway.

Charlie Girl, had a score by John Taylor and David Heneker. Taylor was a composer/ lyricist who began his career in the 50s at Phillip Street Theatre, Sydney, writing revue material. Starring Anna Neagle, Joe Brown, and Derek Nimmo, the show was slaughtered by the critics, “brash, charmless, vulgar, obvious and wilfully lacking in wit” (Daily Telegraph), but that didn’t deter the audiences who kept this Cinderella story running for 2,202 performances at London’s Adelphi Theatre. Neagle and Nimmo repeated their performances when the show opened September 25, 1971, at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, for what was to be a six-month season but one that extended to a year. It was helped no doubt by pop-singer Johnny [John] Farnham who was making his first outing in a musical in the Joe Brown role.

In November 1950 Melbourne saw the premiere of Sydney composer and chemist, Edmund Samuels, The Highwayman, which was set in the Bendigo goldfields of 1860. Samuels was a friend of the American director and performer Carl Randall who had directed J.C. Williamson’s Annie Get Your Gun with great success. When that show closed, Samuels and Randall offered The Highwayman to Williamson’s but they stalled so long in making a decision, Samuels and Randall decided to mount it themselves. Using the unemployed chorus from Annie Get Your Gun, one of its stars Earle Covert, plus the English soprano Beryl Seton, and Australian comic, Charles Norman, they opened at the Kings Theatre. Norman stole the show according to The Age. They also thought the Aboriginal chant and ballet at the end of the First Act was a “highlight.” Critics reviewing the Sydney season, which opened at the Palace Theatre, March 10, 1951, thought the piece was “old-fashioned in style,” but that there were some “agreeable songs.” But this wasn’t the first time the show had trod the boards. In 1936 Samuels took his show to London to try to get a production there. He auditioned it at the Wigmore Hall with a 24-piece orchestra hired for the occasion and succeeded and getting some investor interest. With a new title, At The Silver Swan, and starring Alice Delysia, it opened in Glasgow, on February 4th, 1936, with a revised book by Guy Bolton, some new lyrics by Clifford Grey, and additional music by bandleader Percival Mackey. Two weeks later, the show moved to the Palace Theatre, London, where The Times noted “the entertainment works visibly for its living.” It lasted 51 performances, but Samuels never saw any of them having returned, disillusioned, to Australia after the two-week Glasgow season.

Adelaide born, Douglas Glass’ light-opera version of The Beloved Vagabond, based on William J. Locke’s popular novel, and with a libretto by Adrian Ross, opened at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre in 1927. Set in three acts, the romantic story followed the fortunes of a French ‘Vagabond’ and his love for an English lady. The 27 year-old composer’s music had “well-shaped and rounded melodies,” according to The Stage, but The Times thought the lead had “little to sing that is worth singing, but neither has anybody else.” The show had a 107 performance run. Frank W. Thring later mounted a production of it at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, in 1934, with Gladys Moncrieff and the company of Collits’ Inn, which had just finished its run. The production later played the Tivoli Theatre, Sydney.

Finally we come to the greatest Australian success of all, Chu Chin Chow. Written, produced and directed by Australian, Oscar Ashe, who co-starred with his wife, Lily Brayton, the musical played for a record-breaking 5 years from August 31, 1916, until July 22, 1921, at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, clocking up an incredible 2,235 performances. This was a West End record until Salad Days surpassed it in the 50s. Chu Chin Chow was an oriental spectacular based on the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. The show, with music by Frederick Norton, was really a combination of musical comedy and Christmas pantomime. The Times said it was “an overwhelming entertainment,” while The Era praised the “colour schemes and costumes, spendour of the scenery, and an adequate amount of pretty, tuneful music.” The London success was not repeated on Broadway where it played 208 performances, but subsequent productions across the U.S. did. The first Australian seasons of the show were in 1921 where it played Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide under the auspices of entrepreneur, Hugh D. McIntosh. He later sold the production to Williamson’s who revived it in 1923 with Ashe playing the lead. To date it’s the only musical on this list to have been filmed – twice in fact. The first was a silent movie version released in 1923, and later a talkie appeared in 1935 starring Anna May Wong and George Robey.

So the scoreboard for the Oz musical internationally is looking good. Certainly more hits than misses, with two record-breakers amongst them; Charlie Girl and Chu Chin Chow. Let’s hope Dirty Dancing and Dusty – The Original Pop Diva create their own records as they continue on their journey to fly our musical theatre flag.

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