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Ned, Juanita and the gang By: John Thomson |
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Source: National Library of Australia Newsletter May 2003
John Thomson sings the praises of Australian musicals
Several Australian musicals have won popular acclaim in recent years. Shout! (the story of Johnny O’Keefe) premiered in Melbourne in January 2001, ran for nearly a year touring to Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, and is touring Tasmania and regional Queensland in 2003. Similarly, the dance musical Hot Shoe Shuffle has proved enormously popular since its first performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne, in January 1993. It also played in London’s West End, and a third revival toured regional Australia last year. The Boy from Oz, based on the life and music of Peter Allen, toured Australia for two years (1998–99) and seems set for a Broadway production this year. Bran Nue Day, The Venetian Twins and Beach Blanket Tempest have all had extensive tours around Australia.
These productions are evidence that Australian musicals can compete successfully against imported American and British works. In fact, Australia has a long history of producing locally written musicals. The field has been largely neglected by researchers, but work that I have undertaken in recent years has so far resulted in the identification of a surprising 530 Australian musicals.
Much of my research has been done using the collections of the National Library, particularly the PROMPT Collection of Australian theatre programs, the Manuscripts Collection and the Music Collection. The extensive holdings of Australian newspapers were consulted to try to locate performance dates and reviews. Performing arts museums and state libraries have also proved invaluable. However, many musicals are performed on a local, amateur basis, and the coverage of such events in libraries, especially local public libraries, is erratic.
Australian musicals cover a diverse range of subjects. Although many have original plots, some turn to existing literary sources, including The Torrents by Oriel Gray, Robbery under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood, Darlinghurst Nights by Kenneth Slessor, and The Cousin from Fiji by Norman Lindsay. J.C. Bancks’ larrikin characters from the Ginger Meggs comic strips have inspired at least three musicals. Unlikely foreign sources include the Lulu plays by Wedekind, Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen, The Miser and other comedies by Molière, and Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, which has inspired two musicals.
The lives of real people have also been a rich source of inspiration. Australians include Caroline Chisholm, King O’Malley, Vladimir Petrov, Eileen Joyce and Charles Kingsford Smith. Ned Kelly is perhaps the most popular, with at least four musicals devoted to his colourful exploits. Foreigners include the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Abelard and Héloise, William Shakespeare, Francis of Assisi, Boadicea, Paul Robeson and Rasputin. Australian history has been a popular source for stories both real and imaginary. These include the early days of Hobart, the Rocks and Sydney Cove, convict transportation, the Eureka Stockade, the Rum Corps, the goldfields, Bathurst’s Federation story, the Snowy Mountains Scheme and even Australian Rules football.
Paralleling the development of American musicals in the 1920s, there were at least 16 Australian musicals produced in the period from 1920 to 1939. These included lavish productions of Yvonne (1926), Juanita (1929) and Dutini: A Song of India (1931), written by the Adelaide musicians Jack Fewster and Tom King. The intriguingly named FFF: An Australian Mystery Musical Comedy by C.J. De Garis and R.A.A. Stoneham is probably the first professionally produced Australian musical. It opened in Adelaide in August 1920. The Advertiser reported ‘an Australian success acclaimed by Saturday night’s capacity audience many of whom rather than miss seeing the show through had to walk home’. It subsequently toured to Perth and Melbourne.
Collits’ Inn, billed as ‘Australia’s first historical musical play’, by T. Stuart Gurr and Varney Monk, received a lavish production at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, opening in December 1933 and starring Gladys Moncrieff. It ran for more than 100 performances before transferring to Sydney for a less successful two-month run in 1934.
Since the early 1950s, there has been at least one Australian musical produced every year. The folk musical Reedy River is one of the most enduring of all. The show features Australian ballads and contributed to a revival of interest in folk culture in the early 1950s. Following its premiere at the New Theatre, Melbourne, in March 1953, over the next three years it received productions in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle and London. The original Sydney production played for eight months, toured to 12 suburban venues and Newcastle, and was seen by 26 000 people. Reedy River has been revived many times since, most recently at the New Theatre in Sydney last year.
In 2002, at least 13 new musicals were performed, including The Good Fight by Nick Enright and David King, based on the life of the boxer Les Darcy (performed at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Perth, in March); Jonah—The Musical by Jonathon Wheeldon (performed in Huskisson, NSW, in June); and Nostradamus by the West Australian team of Jackson B. Sutcliffe and Ziggy de Voight, which received a high-profile concert performance by the West Australian Opera in June and was subsequently broadcast on ABC FM. Tracing the performance history of musicals can be difficult. Scripts and music are rarely published. Production photographs and designs may be kept by individuals or companies, but only occasionally find their way into public institutions. Few productions get reviewed or receive newspaper coverage. Programs are therefore the major source of information and, unless they are collected by heritage institutions, details of productions can easily disappear.
One musical which appeared to have vanished without a trace is Dalley at Manly. A letter to Theatre Australia in November 1977 echoed the experience of many producers when, despite being sent invitations, critics failed to come to this new musical. The author lamented ‘outside of our enthusiastic group there would appear to be no interest at all’. Thankfully, however, a script and program have been discovered recently in the collection of the Manly, Warringah and Pittwater Historical Society.
Judging by critics’ comments, it is understandable why some musicals have not survived. ‘The story is simply a sprightly array of nonsense’ wrote one critic for the Sydney Morning Herald (October 1933) when reviewing The Ship of Heaven by Hugh McCrae and Alfred Hill. ‘Though the show is barely two hours long, it creates the feeling it has gone on much longer’ said the Newcastle Morning Herald (June 1962) about Round the Reef by Allan Watkins and Alan B. Cairnes. ‘After the worst choice of script came the worst performance’ opined Canberra Times reviewer Frank McKone (April 2001) after viewing Lord of the Rocks by John O’Neill.
It is not only amateur musicals that are savaged by the critics and then disappear. The much-hyped Manning Clark’s History of Australia—The Musical received mixed reviews in January 1988 and closed after only five weeks: ‘A tawdry and tacky affair, enough to give the Bicentennial a bad name … more lost than Burke and Wills …’ (Clark Forbes, Sun News–Pictorial, January 1988). ‘Rex Cramphorne’s production of The Ballad of Angel’s Alley is best summed up by the increasing number of empty seats after each of the intervals at the St Martin’s last night’ (Gerald Mayhead, Herald, April 1973).
Despite the odds, there are success stories. The Sentimental Bloke by Albert Arlen, Nancy Brown and Lloyd Thomson has become one of Australia’s most popular musicals and barely a year passes without a production being staged. Arlen and Brown tried for many years to interest both Australian and English theatre managements in the show. In desperation they decided to form their own amateur company and to produce the show themselves. The Sentimental Bloke opened at the Albert Hall, Canberra, in March 1961. Australia’s leading theatrical entrepreneurs, J.C. Williamson’s, saw the show and agreed to produce it professionally. It opened for a limited six-week season at the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, in November 1961, played to packed houses and subsequently toured to Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and New Zealand, running for over a year. There was a version on the ABC TV in 1976. The Australian Ballet presented its version using Arlen’s music at the Sydney Opera House in May 1985 and it was revived last year.
Musicals written especially for children to attend, or to perform in, are a popular genre and make up about one third of the musicals so far identified. Companies such as Brisbane Arts Children’s Theatre, St Martins Youth Theatre (Melbourne) and The Australian Theatre for Young People (Sydney) have all regularly produced original Australian works. Man of Steel is claimed to be Australia’s most produced show (3720 productions to date) and is ‘an action-packed musical spoof’ by Simon Denver and Ian Dorricott. It had its original production at La Boite Theatre, Brisbane, in November 1977. A relatively new trend that will help, in part, to preserve new works for the future is the CD recording. As technology improves, and as the cost of recording becomes cheaper and interest grows, more local musicals are being recorded. Last year at least three new musicals were released on CD. All of these, however, await a staged production. In yet another twist, an American cast recording of the Australian musical Prodigal by Matthew Frank and Dean Bryant, which had an off-Broadway production in 2002, is to be released this year. It is of concern, however, that a check of holdings in major heritage institutions reveals that less than 25 per cent of the recent CDs have been collected. The future of Australian musicals received a major boost in 2002 with the establishment of The Pratt Prize for Music Theatre. The prize aims to support the writing and development of new Australian works. Sideshow Alley by Paul Keelan and Gary Young won first prize and is set for a workshop production in Melbourne this year. The 144 entries for the prize provide ample evidence of the continuing interest in writing and producing Australian musicals.
JOHN THOMSON is a former arts librarian. He is currently a consultant on ephemera and performing arts resources
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