‘Go big or go home’: Melbourne musical Midnight reimagines Disney damsel
With a wonderful cast, a wonderland of songs and a fairy dust sprinkle of distinctly Australian humour, Melbourne musical Midnight deserves to keep dreaming big.
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Midnight is a homegrown Cinderella-based musical wishing for a happily ever after.
It certainly delivers feel-good and fulfilment across 2½ hours on stage. But Midnight has its ambitions set beyond Melbourne’s Comedy Theatre, where it premiered on Sunday. This Melbourne-made spectacle is aiming for Broadway.
Indeed, as leading lady Ella, played by Brianna Bishop, sings her wishlist-of-dreams in the anthemic Why Can’t I?, the question for Midnight’s creators has to be, “Why can’t we?”
There’s a lot to like about Midnight, and it mainly comes down to the wonderful cast, and a wonderland of songs, co-written by Anthony Constanzo and John Foreman, with one showstopping contribution from Kate Miller-Heidke.
The show stars Shane Jacobson as The King, Thomas McGuane as The Prince, Verity Hunt-Ballard as the villainous Madame Bellington, Lucy Durack as a fairy godmother figure Ms Madrina, and Matt Lee doubling down on the comedy, as royal assistant Andre and cuddly confidant Mr Abernathy.
Midnight’s songs, especially Jacobson’s playful Being The King, Bishop’s haunting read of Miller-Heidke’s Without You, Durack’s tender lovin’ vocal on Without You, Hunt-Ballard’s melodramatic My Time, and Lee’s tap dance frenzy in I’m Stuffed, were highlights.
Bishop, in total command of the powerhouse songs given to her, is a marvellously feisty Ella.
His Royal Handsomeness McGuane brings complexity, not cliches, to his prince.
It’s also a joy watching leading ladies Durack and Hunt-Ballard shine in ensemble roles.
“I had to bring my full performance,” the shifty Madame Bellington bellows at one point.
It proves to be the one thing she doesn’t lie about.
Midnight tackles themes of privilege, inequality and self-truth earnestly and with a fairy dust sprinkle of distinctly Australian humour. There are also plot twists and double crossings aplenty.
As it settles, finds its groove and evolves, Midnight deserves to keep dreaming big.
The show’s producer, Spencer McLaren, along with co-writer-director Dean Murphy, said the idea of doing a musical and putting it on for seven days at Chapel Off Chapel wasn’t the sum of their ambitions.
“The Cinderella brand cries out for certain expectations,” Mc Laren said.
“You expect a spectacle. So that forced our hand with scale. You’ve got to go for it. Hopefully, audiences will lift us up, and help us get to Broadway.”
It is, even in a sparkly world of make-believe and wishing upon a star, a very lofty goal. But the star power, belief and commitment attached to this homemade musical aims to give it a bloody good shot.
Midnight began in 2016. Murphy’s daughter, then aged three, was watching Cinderella on TV.
“It was an animated version,” Murphy says. “Cinderella was sitting around waiting for all her woes to be fixed by a prince. She was miserable. I hated that my daughter was watching this.”
He called McLaren. “We need to update Cinderella,” Murphy told him on the phone.
“She’s sitting around like a damsel in distress. I want her to be someone my daughter would be proud of; someone strong, passionate, funny. And if she falls in love, Cinderella does it on her terms.”
McLaren agreed. Soon after, McLaren, Murphy, co-writer-director Pip Mushin, choreographer Kelly Aykers, composers John Foreman and Anthony Costanzo, and a few actors, met for two weeks of ideas workshops.
“It was the early bones,” McLaren says. “Some songs have stayed, some are completely gone. Some ideas are still here, and we ditched others.”
Midnight is a variation on the Cinderella story. The leading lady, Ella, is a feisty heroine who doesn’t need a Prince Charming to thrive. When a prince does enter the frame, Ella’s spirited ways challenge his rigid ideologies.
“Generally, you get a script, then they send the songs across. But this time, it’s come in as it’s come in,” Aykers says.
“The story of Ella has grown a lot since the first workshop. That essence of a strong, independent woman not being told what to do by the kingdom, but wanting to help people; that voice was there seven years ago. But it’s flourished.
“There’s a lot more comedy, too. Back then, it was a fable with a message. Now, it’s a musical theatre piece with jokes flying everywhere.”
With McLaren (West Side Story), Murphy (Charlie and Boots), and Craig Donnell (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) as producers, Aykers (Wizard Of Oz) handling choreography, and Foreman and Costanzo writing songs, others – including all-important investors – were lured to the project.
Producers would not divulge numbers, but Midnight is working with a “multimillion-dollar” budget.
Seven years after the first workshops, Midnight features a who’s who of local musical theatre – Shane Jacobson (Hairspray), Lucy Durack (Wicked), Thomas McGuane (Frozen), Matt Lee (Mary Poppins), Brianna Bishop (Hairspray), and Verity Hunt-Ballard (Mary Poppins).
“It feels how a new work should; exciting, a little overwhelming, and inspiring,” Hunt-Ballard says during a rehearsal break.
“I’m lucky enough to have done shows plonked in from the West End or Broadway, but it’s a different discipline creating new work. It’s collaborative, and you feel valued in other ways.
“That said, it’s quite a skill to know when to contribute or shut up,” she adds, laughing.
Hunt-Ballard knows all about epic productions, having played Mary Poppins in a 2010 stage production. She says Midnight is grand scale escapism.
“The opening number explodes on stage,” she says wide-eyed, “and it just doesn’t stop.”
Foreman, a musical director who shot to national fame on Good Morning Australia and Australian Idol, says he reached for different skill sets to write a Broadway-style piece, from scratch.
“I’ve never been the king of a fairytale kingdom, nor have I been locked up in an attic, or made decisions whether or not to go to a ball,” Foreman says. “You have to put yourself in the headspace of a character at that particular point in the show.”
Foreman and Costanzo always returned to the same questions to guide their songwriting through the piece: What does the character know; what don’t they know; what does the audience know that they don’t know; what would they be feeling at this point in the show; what are the lyrics – and music – to tell that story?
“It does involve a level of amateur psychology,” Foreman says, laughing. “The whole point of musical theatre is to make an audience laugh, or cry, to feel something, and take them on a journey. In order to that, you need an insight into the human condition.”
Foreman says the material, including a song by Kate Miller-Heidke written specifically for Midnight, has familiar Broadway touchstones – from sadness (Without You), to soaring (Fly Away) to self-assured (Why Can’t I).
“Anthony and I have similar taste in musicals, and that’s reflected in the sonic palette of the show. There’s a big showbiz dance moment, a big ballad, and a big all-encompassing opener. We’re giving the audience what they want.”
Shane Jacobson’s last theatre role was the quietly-spoken Edna Turnblad in Hairspray.
Hairspray wrapped in April, giving Jacobson just enough time to switch from Edna’s frock to frumpy finery for his role as The King in Midnight.
“When you read a project, it’s a vibe,” Jacobson says. “But it’s not a fact, it’s a vibe.”
He adds: “We’ve built this thing like Lego; one block at a time. Sometimes the blocks you’re working with won’t be the colours you use on the day, some blocks won’t be the right shape. It really is a slow build.”
Jacobson believes firmly in the story and the songs. But he is keenly aware Midnight is a work that hasn’t been done before – ever, anywhere.
“Everyone has a reason to ask, ‘Ooh, how will that go?’ I do feel the eyes of my entertainment comrades on us, and the audience,” Jacobson says.
He sees parallels in Midnight’s path to the stage and his breakthrough film, Kenny, in which Jacobson played a portaloo worker.
“If we didn’t say, ‘Let’s have a go at making a movie about a guy who sets up toilets, with an unknown actor, and a first time feature director (Jacobson’s brother Clayton) … if we didn’t make that call, I wouldn’t be here today,” Jacobson says.
“Every now and then, someone has to try and jump the canyon.
“It is the first time for a Melbourne-born, Broadway-style musical. Some will say it’s daring and brave, to which I reply, ‘Yes, and good on them.’ I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
Aykers is at a studio in South Melbourne with cast and crew to tweak moves for Midnight. It’s a three-and-a-half week rehearsal window, and opening night is little over a month away.
“It’s a tight schedule because it’s a full-scale musical,” she says. “It’s layers and layers of corry (choreography). And because it’s newly composed, they’re adding things all the time. Then my creative mind goes, ‘I need to add this, I need to do that.’
“I’m at that phase now where the brain is not turning off. I see new avenues, then I look at the time of our rehearsal period, and I need to rein it in.” She sighs, then smiles.
“If we had another six weeks of rehearsal we could be really elaborate. But we have to move fast. I have trust in what I do, and I don’t second guess myself. The music is there, the actors are in front of me, and we just do it.”
Aykers adds casually: “I work better under pressure.”
Foreman agrees. “Midnight is very ambitious, there’s a lot at stake and we’re all cognisant of those high stakes. Under normal circumstances you’d have a six week out-of-town tryout somewhere, but in the current environment that’s not realistic.
“We’re trying to get the show as tight and exciting as it can be,” Foreman says.
“I’m fascinated to know how it lands with the audience.”
Asked about staying the course for seven years to get their musical to the stage, McLaren and Murphy cite the team as their greatest inspiration. They’ve just come back from watching Durack, Jacobson and Lee nail a scene in rehearsal, and they couldn’t be prouder.
“We had to pitch this show to them, and rightly so,” McLaren says.
“To see them now taking ownership of this – and realise we weren’t lying, that we’re delivering the goods – is really something.
“They took a leap of faith with us. They’re enjoying it and making it family,” McLaren says. “It’s the heartbeat of this show.”
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