Magnormos
20 May 2011
Theatreworks
Theatreworks
Like all the best
musicals, The Hatpin is heartbreaking
and miserable and reminds us why this form of storytelling is so compelling and
important. Forget the likes of Priscilla;
this is what Australian musical theatre is really about.
Based on the 1893 Sydney
case of baby Horace Murray, The Hatpin
is the story of the baby's teenage mother and the women who helped her. Filled
with dilemma and unthinkable choices, Peter Rutherford (music) and James Millar
(book and lyrics) have taken a piece of Australian legal history and created a
universally resonating story about maternal love.
First produced in Sydney
in 2008, The Hatpin went to the 2008
New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF). Since 2004, this festival has become
the largest program of its kind and lives by its motto "Changing the
world, 30 musicals at a time". Next
to Normal (currently at the MTC) was still called Feeling Electric at the 2005 festival and [title of show] (Magnormos 2010) was created to enter the NYMF.
Since New York, The Hatpin had been
acclaimed whenever its been seen, especially the Riverside Lyric Ensemble's
production, and Magnormos gives Melbourne our first look.
Thank the theatre gods for
Magnormos. Formed in 2002, this small company does everything they can to
support and produce new Australian works and to bring us productions of the
boutique or forgotten musicals that rarely, if ever, get an Australian
production. (And thank the same gods for Theatreworks's continuing support of
Magnormos.)
Gemma-Ashley Kaplan
(Amber) and Samantha Morley (Harriet) lead the strong cast. Gemma-Ashley (yet
another glorious WAAPA graduate) created the role of Clara in the original and
New York productions and let's hope we see her as Harriet and finally Agatha
over the next 30 or so years. Emma Jones is our young Clara and her Act II
climax song proves that we'll also be seeing much more her on our stages.
Shaun Kingma's solid
direction creates mood and melancholy, but sometimes let melodrama get in the
way of the drama, and played the end from the start. I didn't know the story,
but knew from the beginning what the outcome was. I'd love to see it break our
hearts even more by offering more hope.
The Hatpin will
continue to develop with each production and it shouldn't be too long until a
main-stage company grabs it (MTC, I'm looking at you). It's not quite perfect
yet, but no show can be until it's had more wonderful productions like this. (My
concern is the title; no matter how well it suits, it answers too many
narrative questions. And Horace
doesn't have the same ring...)
But don't wait for a
commercial production, see the The Hatpin
while it's still so intimate that you feel like you're freezing on the cobbled
streets with Amber and her baby, and if we keep supporting Magnormos, their
OzMade program could become the southern version of the NYMF and we'll see more
beautiful and powerful musicals like this created in Australia.
This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com
