Review: Another Opening, Another Show

Another Opening, Another Show
Manilla Street Productions
4 March 2010
Chapel Off Chapel

Sometimes we complain because Australia doesn’t have local productions of all the big Broadway shows. I think we should be very grateful of this. For all the money and talent and eager audiences out there, no one deserves to sit through Carrie or Dance of the Vampires.

Another Opening, Another Show celebrates those shows that should never have made it to Broadway and flopped spectacularly.

The idea of a selection of crap numbers from crap shows is quite terrifying, but Manilla Street Productions have created a surprising compelling hit from these rejects.

Developed with a delicate balance of humour, love and understanding, Another Opening, Another Show presents some of the worst musical theatre in the best possible way.

Simon Gleeson (WAAPA graduate becoming a well known face on UK TV and stage), Rosemarie Harris (WAAPA graduate who I loved in Shane Warne: The Musical), Danielle Matthews (recent VCA graduate and winner of the inaugural Rob Guest Endowment scholarship) and James Millar (WAAPA graduate who wrote the book and lyrics for The Hatpin) share stories and sing songs from the great flops.

Some numbers prove why the shows failed, but (we hope) there are no real Bialystock and Blooms out there. All duds were created because enough people thought that they were wonderful shows (after all Andrew Lloyd Webber made us love trains, roller skates and spandex - well I enjoyed Starlight Express) or they believed that masterpieces can be re-created (it’s no wonder that Boubil and Schonberg were allowed The Pirate Queen).

Another Opening, Another Show works so well because, after the fun of the introductions, the numbers are presented without satire and with the passion and emotion that the writers and composers intended. Great performers can make plastic shine like a diamond. Harris transforms the atrocious lyrics of “Diary of a Homecoming Queen” (from Is There Life After High School?) into a heart-breaking torch song and the quartet made me almost believe that Assassins deserves another go. (No it doesn’t. Sondheim, I love you like I love Shakespeare, but what were you thinking?)

There is plenty of time to laugh though, and musical director and accompanist-extraordinaire Vicky Jacobs almost steals the show with her selection of the worst of the worst. May I never hear another syllable from Annie Warbucks. Yes, there was a sequel to Annie and we can thank discerning audeinces that we never had to see it.

Another Opening, Another Show only has five performances at Chapel Off Chapel, so you have until Sunday to see it. It’s the sort of work that will come back, but this cast are wonderful and if it doesn’t make it to Broadway, you can boast that you were among the hundreds who saw it.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Shane Warne: The Musical

Shane Warne: The Musical
Token Events and TrafficLight
11 December 2008
Athenaeum Theatre

I didn’t care for or about Shane Warne before the musical, and I still don’t, but Eddie Perfect can SMS me any time.

Perfect wrote this great Aussie musical and stars as its fallen hero. Being as Aussie as beetroot on a burger, Shane Warne: The Musical might not make a Broadway away tour, and it’s no good taking it to the West End, cos the poms will just whinge about it – but every Australian state, city and medium-sized country town deserves a leg of the tour.

We all know Warnie – he’s either the greatest spin bowler Australia’s yet to produce (don’t worry if you’re cricket illiterate, there’s a scene that explains that stuff) or he’s that twat who cheated on his missus, couldn’t give up smoking and was tempted by Indian bribes. Shane eventually grasps that these two parts of himself are connected, and is forced to accept, “I’ll never be captain, so I guess that’s that then”. He helped bring back the ashes, but his personal life ruined any chance he had of being a real hero.

Warnie’s the archetypal anti-hero, with his larrikin faults and inability to say no to temptation.  If Perfect and Co had pulverised him, it wouldn’t be fair to Shane; if they’d ignored his foibles, it wouldn’t be fair to us. Shane Warne: The Musical keeps hitting sixes with a remarkable balance of satire and celebration.

And, to be fair, it also takes the piss out of musical theatre, with numbers reminiscent of stage and screen favourites from Fame to Godspell to Sweeney Todd (it was “fucking beautiful” ) – and who knew AIS was even more fan to dance-spell than YMCA.

Warnie in song works so well because ultimately the jokes on us. Perfect makes us look at ourselves and how we all supported and created the spin around the spin. As the marketing chorus sing, “Everyone’s a little bit like Shane”. We can’t blame him for being just like us.

With a such an impressive creative team around Perfect – director Neil Armfield (demi-god of Australian directing), dramaturge Casey Benneto (Keating), choreographer Gideon Obarzanek (Chunky Move) and designer Brian Thomson (shows too numerous to mention, but this the design is reminiscent of his original Rocky Horror set) –  it would have been disappointing if Shane Warne: The Musical wasn’t this good. It proves that sometimes it’s a damn good idea to let those arty-farty types loose on a commercial show.

Perfect lives up to his name as Warne and it’s going to be interesting to see what happens when he’s had enough, as the show is very dependent on his appeal. The rest of the on-stage team are bonza, with Rosemarie Harris a standout as Simone.

Shane Warne: The Musical will become as legendary as its namesake. It’s not a celebration of Warne the cricketer or a gut-punch to Shane the man. It lets you laugh at him, laugh with him and ultimately cack yourself because his ridiculous, media-controlled, fame-driven life led to a Melbourne-based cabaret performer writing a musical all about it.


A note for patrons more used to stadiums
Last night there were a number of Warnie fans in the audience who didn’t get the concept of live theatre. It’s not like the MCG. Getting up in the middle of the first half (or “act”) and coming back into the theatre with beer for your mates isn’t acceptable “theatre” behaviour – and it just encouraged other blokes to do the same. Please wait for half time (or “interval”) and don’t do it again in the second half. Or, at least, come back with enough beers for the people sitting near you!



 This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com