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Post by Talissa on Aug 5, 2004 12:44:21 GMT 11
Join musical theatre experts Gale Edwards (director of The Boy From Oz and Eureka), Simon Gallaher (producer of Eureka), Anthony Crowley (writer of The Journey Girl), Paul Keelan and Gary Young (creators of Sideshow Alley), as they discuss the past, present and future of the Australian musical.
Don't forget to visit the current exhibition in the George Adams Gallery, Making a Song and Dance, which celebrates musicals conceived, written and produced by Australians.
Fairfax Studio Foyer, 15 August at 2pm
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Post by nadine on Aug 5, 2004 19:45:15 GMT 11
If anyone goes to this please let us know what they say - especially about Sideshow Alley which is getting launched by the Playbox later this year - I'm curious to see if they've gotten a cast yet *sigh*
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Post by Talissa on Aug 6, 2004 8:38:31 GMT 11
I intend to be there, since I'm almost certain I don't have rehearsal or work, so I'll definitely report back.
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Post by Talissa on Aug 15, 2004 17:36:08 GMT 11
These are pretty much the notes I scrawled during the talk, put into more substance in places, so excuse disjointedness.
Eureka rehearsals begin tomorrow.
In response to a question about how to decide what to express in music, Gale Edwards made a comment that when Peter Lalor’s up on his hill, waving that blue flag, he’s singing, and if he wasn’t singing 150 years ago, he’s going to have been now.
Also on Eureka, Gale spoke about how since they first started working with it, about twelve months ago, they’ve removed twelve songs, added fifteen, reworked characters, dropped characters and in general rearranged the plot.
Adam Murphy sang “With the Eyes of a Child,” from Sideshow Alley. He sounded wonderful, and it was a brilliant song.
Carrie Barr sang “My Anzac Boy,” from the one-woman musical Gary Young and Paul Keelan are currently working on, A Woman’s Eyes.
Speaking about Sideshow Alley, I was dismayed to hear Gale Edwards say “cancelled” rather than “postponed,” but Gary and Paul were more optimistic, and the audience was very supporting with regards to Sideshow Alley. Paul (I think it was Paul) did mention that he’d love to see Sideshow Alley play at Fairfax, so I hope that comes to pass.
The Boy From Oz was also mentioned, especially the move to Broadway. Gale mentioned that none of the original Australian creative team was invited over to Broadway, even though it was in their contracts that they would. She wasn’t at all happy about that, understandably. She did say that, regardless of the show’s actual merit, they did make a brilliant decision in casting Hugh Jackman, with his popularity, and she would pay to see Hugh read the phone book.
In general talk about musical theatre, Gale also mentioned the “hamburger musicals” that Cam Mack has created, musicals almost as common world-wide as McDonald’s (and often with about the same amount of merit). She spoke of how musicals like Les Mis and Cats, where the one production has been running for ridiculous amounts of time, get tired, and how it isn’t natural for musicals to run that long.
Specifically with regard to Australian musicals, the panel outlined just how hard it is to get musicals seen, especially here. They said that 90% of musicals go down the drain (that was in general, I think, so the Australian statistic would be depressingly higher, especially considering the fact that there were 144 musicals up for the 2002 Pratt Prize, and right now even the winner is having difficulty getting itself seen), and the fact that critics here simply aren’t used to reviewing original Australian works isn’t helping.
There was a lot of talk of the need for the theatre community of Australia to band together and make itself heard, rather than just complaining in small groups among themselves.
As for the exhibition upstairs in the George Adams Gallery, it's definitely worth having a look. There's a lot of interesting memorabilia from both older and more recent Australian musicals. There are a couple of costumes, many photos, reviews, and various other bits and pieces. There are some good pictures from the Sideshow Alley workshop, and a rehearsal picture with Simon Gleeson, Chris Tomkinson, Ian Stenlake and James Millar. Poor Simon looks so short compared to the rest! Well, not too much so, but noticeably. Ian looks fantastic, though. He's definitely going to be able to pull off the leader role.
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Post by nadine on Aug 15, 2004 18:41:50 GMT 11
Thanks for the shout-out regarding those pics in the Gallery shall check them out when I see Carousel this week.
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Post by Sally on Aug 16, 2004 20:19:36 GMT 11
Thanks for the shout-out regarding those pics in the Gallery shall check them out when I see Carousel this week. Ditto here  Oh and which performance are you off to? |
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Post by nadine on Aug 16, 2004 22:43:00 GMT 11
Ditto here Oh and which performance are you off to? I'm going to the Friday night show |
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Post by Sally on Aug 18, 2004 21:08:23 GMT 11
I'm going to the Friday night show Different days again! Now when are you seeing AGYG if you're seeing it?  |
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Post by nadine on Aug 18, 2004 23:35:18 GMT 11
Different days again! Now when are you seeing AGYG if you're seeing it? Saturday Night performance |
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Post by Talissa on Aug 19, 2004 7:40:07 GMT 11
Bah, and here I am seeing Carousel on Saturnight (It was going to be Saturmatinee, but work arose) and AGYG on Saturmatinee (because frankly, with Pirates on at that point, I have no choice in the matter)
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Post by Sally on Aug 19, 2004 13:55:20 GMT 11
And here I am seeing AGYG on the Friday night! ;D This is all quite funny, you think with so few performances we'd somehow all get coordinated |
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