Grassroots View Of Musical Theatre

The Age

Thursday July 3, 2008

Robin Usher

Director Aaron Joyner may lack megabucks, but he has a wealth of passion for musicals, writes Robin Usher.

MUSICALS are big business, as any examination of the multimillion-dollar box office returns for such shows as The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia and the Broadway blockbuster opening in Melbourne this month, Wicked, will prove.

But it is very different for anyone trying to mount a production without an international backer. "Musical theatre is a difficult area," director Aaron Joyner says. "It's widely seen as a commercial art form."

Joyner knows the reality is very different. The company he founded in 2002, Magnormous, depends on trivia-quiz-style fund-raising rather than $1 million cheques from corporations.

It concentrates on Australian and lesser-known American works to try to develop the genre from the grassroots.

"It's definitely not commercial when you focus on new and unknown works," he says. "The artists do it as a co-operative, and that only provides a token stipend, even though every show has made money."

He says neither Arts Victoria nor the Australia Council appears equipped to fund the development of new musicals.

Joyner is directing rehearsals ahead of this week's Australian premiere of The Thing About Men by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts, who also wrote the long-running off-Broadway hit I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.

The new work is about a menage a trois between a couple (played by Christopher Parker and Laura Fitzpatrick) and her lover (Liam Pedersen). The 10-day season at St Kilda's Theatreworks will coincide with the end of its predecessor's 12-year presence on Broadway.

The extended season is one of various changes Joyner is introducing this year. "We've grown slowly over the past five years, but the demand is there now for a longer run. We will also be using microphones for the first time."

He says Magnormous has earned the respect of the musical-theatre industry, and the time is right to raise its profile. "We are a bit of a hidden treasure at the moment."

Joyner, 30, became interested in musicals after discovering The Phantom of the Opera on his cassette Walkman, even though he says that style of musical is the antithesis of his interests now.

His devotion to the art form was confirmed when he was about 12 and discovered the work of Stephen Sondheim. "It was like finding God all over again," he says.

He studied performing arts at Monash and staged his own work there. In 2000, he founded australianmusicals.com to centralise information on such shows.

The first Magnormous production was Joyner's adaptation of Working by Stephen Schwartz, who also wrote the music for Wicked. He met the composer when he was in Melbourne earlier this year and discussed the development of music theatre.

"It is very different in the US. There seems to be a big fear of developing new work in Australia, but Stephen expects to be rewriting right up to opening night after working through six or seven out-of-town try-outs. We just don't have that sort of development in Australia," he says.

He hopes the home-grown musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert will be a success in London when it opens there next year, because that would encourage overseas producers to trust the Australian product.

"It's the best key in the lock we've had overseas for ages."

Joyner is also planning a workshop of a new work by David Mitchell and Melvyn Morrow, writers of Shout and Dusty, as well as this year's concert showcase OzMade Musicals in November.

He is too busy to continue with his own writing career at present.

"My focus is on making sure that what has already been written in this country stays alive. There is no need for another out-of-work writer."

The Thing About Men opens at Theatreworks, 14 Acland Street, St Kilda, tonight and runs until July 12. Go to magtix.com or ring 9352 0232.

© 2008 The Age

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