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Crossing Over By: Peter Pinne |
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Source: ON STAGE Spring 2003 Vo.04 No.04
There's a bright, imaginative homegrown musical which, if it hasn't set Broadway on fire, has certainly lit a couple of bright lights off-Broadway. Why, asks PETER PINNE, hasn't it - and others - had a better run here?
Crossing over - John Edwards seems to have no trouble doing it on television, likewise Latin music stars seem to manage the transition into mainstream pop fairly easily, but when it comes to Australian musicals the majority of them find it difficult to even cross a state border.
No one can deny the enormous popularity in recent years of the bio musicals, Peter Allen in “The Boy from Oz” and Johnny O’Keefe in “Shout” or Jimmy Chi’s exhuberant, indigenous “Bran Nue Dae”, but these are the exceptions rather than the rule. And I’m not talking of transferring the bombs; “History of Australia – The Musical” with a credit list longer than the phone book, or John Waters schlock rock “Reunion” which the critics labeled “Worse than awful”. No, I’m talking about the shows that get good notices, good houses, and are entertaining.
For instance, whatever happened to Philip Scott and Luke Hardy’s “Safety In Numbers”? Premiering in 1982 at Sydney’s Q Theatre in Penrith, it had a strong score, a great cast, Robyn Arthur, Simon Burke, Frank Garfield and Mariette Rups, but could only manage a trip into town. After a highly successful season out West it transferred to Sydney’s Ensemble Theatre for another successful season but hasn’t been heard of since. Strange, because the subject matter was very timely: comunal living in the 80s. Long before “Friends” showed up on television and mined the same situation for years. Were Scott and Hardy ahead of the game? But if they were why hasn’t somebody picked it up since? Isn’t communal living more common in our society today than it was in the 80s?
Sydney’s Ensemble also played host to another transfer, David King and Nick Enright’s “Mary Bryant” which had premiered at WAAPA in 1996 as “The Voyage of Mary Bryant”. Pippa Grandison in the title role was hailed as magnificent, and the show was praised for its tender and evocative score and its vigour and passion. A period piece, it told the true story of convicts trying to escape the NSW penal system in the 18th century. “Top story, fine acting, creative direction and staging and , in this case, a most attractive score”, said Brian Gradley in the Mosman Daily; whilst Peter Morrison in the Jewish news thought it was “a deeply moving small-scale dramatic saga.” The audiences came but further productions didn’t! Why not?
The above examples are recent but the same thing was happening forty years ago. The Melbourne Theatre Company had a riotously successful season in 1962 at their Russell Street headquarters with Bruce George and Jeff Underhill’s “The Ballad Of Angel’s Alley”, with career-making performances from Mary Hardy and Frank Gatliff. Billed as a pocket opera, it was about thieves and whores and loosly based on Melbourne’s ‘push’ wars of the 1890s. Frequently referred to as a local counterpart to John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera”, it did in actual fact have more in common with two London shows of the late 1950s about low-life, Peter Greenwell and Peter Wildblood’s “The Crooked Mile” and Lionel Bart’s “Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’be”. Angel’s Alley had originally been tried out at Melbourne’s New Theatre in 1958 to enthusiastic critical acclaim. Frank Murphy in The Advocate thought it was “a delicious extravaganza, written in a mock serious style that capitally captures and sustains the old ballad melodramas”, and it was great fun. Gatliff went on to London and a West End career, Hardy went onto Williamson’s and stopped the show every night with her character portrayal of Gooch in Jerry Herman’s “Mame”, and Angel’s Alley went nowhere! Except for two brief runs at Sydney’s New Theatre in 1965 and 1973.
The list could go on and on but the outcome is always the same. Most shows never cross a state border which brings us back to “Prodigal”. Frank and Bryant’s show is not alone in being endorsed internationally and never seeing the light of day again in its homeland. Craig Christie and Wayne Hosking’s ambitious “Crusade” opened at the Melbourne Concert Hall in 1998. Set in 13th Century France it told the true story of a young shepherd who, inspired by a divine visitation, gathered an army of children to march to the Holy Land. Starring Francesca Arena and Darryl Lovegrove, and with a truly inspiring score, the work went on to become a huge success at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000, but since then, nothing! So we again ask the question, if it’s good enough for Edinburgh, why isn’t it good enough for Sydney? Or Brisbane? Or Adelaide?
Peter Pinne, amongst other things, is the composer and lyricist of 17 produced Australian musicals, and from 1981-2002 was the Australian correspondent for the U.S. magazine Show Music. His Bayview CD label has reissued several important Australian musicals.
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I
was reminded of this last year after seeing the New York production of Mathew
Frank and Dean Bryant’s “Prodigal”, the first Australian musical to be mounted
in that city. In Australia it had been called “The Prodigal Son” and had been
workshopped at WAAPA before opening a hit season at Chapel Off Chapel. The show,
a contemporary take on the New Testament parable, focuses on gay, 18-year-old
Luke and his journey of self-discovery. The New York production at the the small
Off-Broadway York Theatre had a strong cast headed by Christian Borle as Luke,
David Hess as his father and Alison Fraser as his mother. Critical reaction was
positive. “Prodigal has a cute sense of humor and a lot of heart” wrote
Brooke Pierce on Theatermania, whilst William Stevenson at broadway.com said
performances were excellent, there were several pretty songs and that the York
deserves credit for importing this sweet Aussie coming-of-age tale to Manhattan.
Even the difficult to please New York Times was impressed, remarking it had good
comic moments, a couple of decent musical numbers and two especially fine
performances. The New York season was successful and I should think Messrs Frank
and Bryant would have been more than happy with the reaction. But I’m still
stunned that the piece has received no further productions back in Australia and
I ask the question if it’s good enough for New York why isn’t it good enough for
Sydney? Or Brisbane? Or Adelaide? It can’t be the subject matter. If anything
that would be a plus in our current climate with more facets of gay life
depicted in the theatre and on film and TV than ever before. And being a ‘gay’
musical never hurt Alex Harding’s 1988 charmer “Only Heaven Knows” which has
played everywhere. It can’t be cost. Maybe forty years ago this was a
consideration. Musicians are expensive, but these days when one man and a
synthesiser can sound like an orchestra that argument just doesn’t hold water.
It must be something else. Maybe interstate rivalry which I’m told still exists
although I don’t want to believe it. Back in the sixties yes, but in 2003? It
could be one reason. But it doesn’t answer the question. Why shouldn’t
successful musicals be seen throughout the country after their initial
production?
The
same could be said for Wesley Enoch and John Rodgers “The Sunshine Club” which
the Sydney Theatre Company premiered in 2000 after a Queensland Theatre Company
tryout season in Cairns. “The Sunshine Club…
signals a brilliant new landmark in Australian musicals… an unashamedly
feel-good musical”, wrote The Australian, while the Sydney Morning Herald called
it “immensely entertaining… a significant achievement. The openess and joy
radiating from The Sunshine Club is certain to make your spirits soar.” The
story, about a returned Aboriginal soldier who finds attitudes are just as
racist in late 40s Brisbane as they were before the war finds him defiantly
creating an Aboriginal dance club where he can dance with his white girl-friend.
It was not only timely but contemporary addressing issues still prevalent in our
society today. With glowing notices, and an extremely fascinating score which
mixed 40s big band and modern sounds, you would think some theatre company
somewhere would be interested. But no! 
The Melbourne Theatre Company was also the home in
1962 for Reg Livermore and Paul Eddey’s Gilbert and Sullivan pastiche “The Good
Ship Walter Raleigh”. Played as an end-year-romp it drew full houses, good
press, but today is but an entry in the roll call of productions for that year.
The same could be said for Livermore and Patrick Flynn’s musical version of “Ned
Kelly” (1978). A flawed show but a show that had lots going for it. Whatever
happened to Chris Hariott and Dennis Watkins entertainers in Vietnam epic
“Pearls Before Swine” (1986)? A strong cast (Watkins and Valerie Bader were
standout), a contemporary score, and spot-on satire. Or the same writers very
funny send-up of the fast-food industry “Burger Brain” which starred the young
Toni Collette. We all love G and S, Ned Kelly is a folk hero, our lives have
been touched in some way by Vietnam, and we all eat fast food so it can’t be the
subject matter that’s holding these shows back from getting other productions.