music direction
a (small) selection
Voyagers - Mackenzie-Spencer & Strano
We finally had our first reading of Voyagers by Andrew Strano & Loclan Mackenzie-Spencer in November 2021 at the LaMama Courthouse, after two years of delayed shows and online dramaturging.
Hopefully only a first showing of many, as theatre critic Cameron Woodhead noted, it’s a sensitive, nuanced, emotional journey of an Australian family through the grieving process.
Many thanks to the cast - John Wood, Bek Schilling, Daniel Cosgrove, Penny Larkins, Bianca Baykara - and director Casey Gould & AD Sarah Frencham, as well as the incredible designers, producers, and team.
Another reivew: here.
Photo by Darren Gill of cast (in order in text to the left)
It's me! Playing the Steinway grand at the Drum Theatre in Dandenong while on tour with Just a Couple of Song and Dance Men in 2018.
Just a couple of song & dance Men - JTM Productions
Presented by JTM Productions in 2018, Just A Couple of Song & Dance Men is a journey into the golden age of dance in Hollywood movie musicals. Sharing its name with the 1975 vinyl album by Fred Astaire and Bing Cosby, Just a Couple of Song and Dance Men brings together the exciting dance routines and fabulous songs of legendary performers in one glorious stage production. Following the famous and immortalised male dancers of the Hollywood movie musicals like Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bing Crosby, Donald O’Connor, Frank Sinatra and many more , the show will captivate you with their lives, their songs and their dancing … particularly their dancing.Including some of the most memorable music ever written such as: The Way You Look Tonight, Pennies From Heaven, Be A Clown, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Blue Skies, Well Did You Evah, That’s Entertainment, You’re the Top, Make Em Laugh and many more.
Company - Watch This Productions
Presented by Watch This Productions, I was lucky enough to be a part of the original season at fortyfivedownstairs (2016), as well as the Victorian tour (2017).
Two absolutely wonderful casts - with a lot of overlap - featuring the likes of Johanna Allen, Bianca Baykara, Amy Berrisford, Sally Bourne, Nathan Carter, Gillian Cosgriff, Elise Delia Brennan, Chloe Elisabeth, Bronte Florian, Mark Dickinson, Nelson Gardiner, Andrew Kroenert, Madeleine Mackenzie, Nicole Melloy, John O’Hara, Tim Paige, Nick Simpson-Deeks, Sonya Suares, and Carina Waye.
Directed by Kat Henry and produced by power-house Sonya Suares and her incredible team.
Godspell - Australian Shakespeare Company & ROOM8
This incredibly special production of Godspell was directed by Glenn Elston and had a cast of four, supported by a band of four. Elston’s exceptional direction created a space where everyone could play, and so many elements were ad-libbed, devised, and the music was entirely rearranged by myself, and my band of boys from the bush. Everyone on stage was totally involved the whole time - band members performing a pantomime version of ‘the prodigal son’ parable for example, and I got to sing lead for the ACDC-inspired version of Bless the Lord.
The first Victorian tour was in 2016, with a season at the Sydney Opera House in 2017, and another at the Melbourne Arts Centre in 2017 - plus a few lovely intimate shows in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens in between.
Cast members included Mark Dickinson (Judas/John the Baptist), Louisa Fitzhardinge (ensemble) Lucy Gransbury (ensemble), Bonnie Anderson (ensemble) and Christopher Southall (Jesus).
Even a special appearance by Colleen Hewett during our Melbourne Arts Centre season!
The Songs Of… Series - Flourish Productions
From 2014-2017 I was lucky enough to work in an on-going music director role with Flourish Productions, helmed by Catherine Langley.
This lovely company wanted to champion composers by showing evenings of their work, celebrating their legacy within musical theatre, and I was fortunate to be able to share the music of Alan Menken, Cy Coleman and our very own Matthew Lee Robinson across the years.
The Songs of Alan Menken had a wonderful life that kept selling out every time we put it on! With classic hits such as ‘Zero to Hero’ from Hercules, ‘Around the Riverbend’ from Pocahontas, and ‘Out There’ from Hunchback of Notreback as examples of Menken’s work, this show delighted people of all ages - we even included an encore of ‘Under the Sea’ from the Little Mermaid where audience members got to hold puppet fish and blow bubbles for us! But it also gave us the opportunity to showcase lesser known works such as ‘I Wanna Be a Rockette’.
Directed by Matthew Lockitt, our first season was at The Toff in Town, the second at Chapel Off Chapel, and our last at MTC’s Lawler Theatre.
Our glorious cast, minus Seth Drury, who joined us for our Lawler Theatre season.
Cy by Cy by Cy: The Songs of Cy Coleman was a sleek, much more gritty, much more adult presentation than the Alan Menken one, as you can imagine! Much like our Menken show, we aimed to give the audience some of Coleman’s greatest hits, as well as show them some jewels they may never have come across before.
We featured songs from shows such as Barnum, City of Angels, and Sweet Charity, but also from The Life, and On the 20th Century. It also featured a haunting, pared-back version of ‘My Funny Valentine’ by Henry Brett. Coleman’s dense harmonisation and use of chromatic intervals was a challenge, to be sure, but one that our incredibly talented cast rose to with aplomb.
Directed by the incredible Scott Hendry, this production was at Bennetts Lane Jazz Club in Melbourne, featuring incredible performers: Henry Brett, Meg Hoult, Hollie James, Luigi Lucente, Nicole Melloy, and Stephen Wheat.
Sing on Through Tomorrow: The Songs of Matthew Lee Robinson was presented at the Melbourne Cabaret Festival, this show was especially close to my heart, in that it gave me an opportunity to walk my talk and champion a fellow Aussie’s body of work! Matthew Lee Robinson now lives in New York and was a recent recipient of the Australia Council’s Fellowship of the Arts. He’s been spending the last few years developing his incredible piece Atlantis, as well as writing for many productions (such as a tour of The Magic School Bus!), as well as coaching, acting and singing.
With direction by Stephen Wheat, we got to premiere this beautiful work in Melbourne with a full band, and Matthew came along with his whole family! A beautiful opportunity to celebrate his achievements thus far. And our cast were simply divine.
