The boy from Bathurst following in Hugh Jackman’s footsteps
Australia’s Ainsley Melham is ‘Gene Kelly reincarnated’ says the Broadway director behind BOOP! The Musical.
If you enter Ainsley Melham’s dressing room in the depths of the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway, you are likely to find him chilling with colleagues over a cup of tea, savouring the sound of a fine record or two.
“There’s a lot of jazz music. People like Samara Joy and Paul Desmond,” Melham says, setting the scene.
“I have a really cool Barbra Streisand record from when she did a performance in Central Park, and it’s a live recording, so I have that in the collection at the moment. Somebody brought in the Carpenters the other day. It’s a really fun, eclectic mix.”
Melham has deliberately created an oasis of calm in the city that never sleeps, speaking to Review as he prepared to do something very few Australians have – originate a leading role in a Broadway musical. He achieved that distinction last weekend when BOOP! The Musical celebrated its opening night.
The adaptation merges the black-and-white cartoon world of Betty Boop from the 1930s with the colour and mayhem of modern day Manhattan. Melham plays Dwayne, a jazz musician who is Betty’s love interest. Naturally, a time machine and mistaken identity both play a pivotal role in the story. The production bridges the two timeframes with surprising and spectacular effects.
Jerry Mitchell is the director and choreographer of BOOP! Dwayne is a true triple threat – he acts, sings, and dances – and Mitchell says Melham stood out during the audition process on all three fronts.
“For me he is Gene Kelly reincarnated. He can do any step, any style. He’s got the timeless quality that works so well in this musical, because Dwayne is an old soul like Betty. It was just a perfect match.”
Sixteen-time Grammy Award winner David Foster has composed a jazz-inspired score with lyrics by Susan Birkenhead. During the show’s tryout season in Chicago in late 2023, Melham observed the songwriting process up close, when a new number was written for him and added to the show on the fly.
“David and Susan wrote it on a Saturday, Sunday. I learnt it on a Monday, we staged it on Tuesday, and then teched it on Wednesday, and then it was in on Thursday. So it was a five-day process, which is really insane, and I remember the feeling of being up there and just winging it.”
On the back of positive notices from Chicago, it was hoped that BOOP! would transfer to New York in 2024. The perpetual game of Jenga that is Broadway theatre availability delayed the process, and Melham decided to stay in the US while a home was found for the show. Previews began on March 11, and Melham says the early feedback has been heartening.
“The word on the street is that our show is a joy machine, which is a lovely little label to attach to the show, and it really seems like we are delivering on that front,” he says.
Melham first arrived in Manhattan in 2019 on a magic carpet ride by way of Bathurst, where he grew up. His parents ferried him to singing, dance and music lessons from a young age.
One of Melham’s high school teachers recognised his determination to succeed in the highly competitive world of show business. She encouraged him to pick a performer whom he admired, and track how their career had progressed. Melham chose Hugh Jackman, who had found early success with musicals before becoming a Hollywood star.
(Fittingly, Melham will join Jackman on a very short list of Australian performers who have originated a leading role in a Broadway musical. Jackman shone brightly as Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz, winning a Tony Award in the process. Tony Sheldon reprised his inimitable Bernadette in the Broadway production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Another performer who inspired Melham is Caroline O’Connor, who has created supporting lead roles on Broadway not once but twice – in A Christmas Story, and the stage adaptation of the animated musical Anastasia.)
Melham successfully auditioned for the respected musical theatre course at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), but his first gig after graduation surprised everyone, including himself. The children’s show Hi-5 was casting for replacement performers, and Melham figured he would give it a shot. Those early dance lessons have paid off handsomely.
“You had to tell this little minute-and-a-half story, as if you were telling a story to a kid. So I told this little story about Tip and Tap, these two characters, my tap shoes. And did a little dance to that, and that was my audition and I booked it.”
He was kept busy for the next three years filming television episodes, and performing live around the country, and throughout Southeast Asia. What felt like a “little detour” at the time allowed the young performer to develop his craft, grow his confidence, and determine the kind of roles he wanted to win. Shortly after finishing up with Hi-5, he booked the title role in the Australian premiere of the musical Aladdin, which opened in Sydney in 2016.
After two years on tour with that show, Melham wondered about the roles he might play next. He submitted his resignation and walked away from the magical land of Agrabah … or so he thought. Several months later came the call from Disney – they wanted him to reprise the role, in New York.
In 2019, Melham was able to savour his first bow on Broadway with his family in the audience.
“They were a little nervous about me going into the arts … and I’m sure every parent has that thought when a child says: ‘I want to be a musician or a performer or a singer’,” he says. “But yeah, it was cool to stand up there and be like: ‘Hey, Mum and Dad, I did it’.”
Aladdin is a physically demanding show that required Melham to hit the gym to build muscle, whereas the big production numbers of BOOP! have different athletic requirements.
“Swimming is just such a beautiful and easy way to warm up, and it’s great for your breathing as well, your lung capacity, and so that’s translating to the singing,” Melham says.
“So that’s how I’m fitting in the fitness these days. Although it does get a little hard in New York City when it’s the middle of winter and you’re trying to find a pool to swim.”
For the New York Aladdin contract, Disney provided Melham with an apartment and took care of his visa and union paperwork. This time around, as part of a team building a new show from scratch, Melham had to navigate the logistics for himself.
It’s a tough hill to climb, which explains why relatively few Australians are able to work on Broadway.
“You’re moving across the world and relocating your life, and then on top of that you’re trying to kickstart or reignite your career,” Melham reflects.
“You’ve spent 10 years in another country working your way up, but you come here and people don’t necessarily know who you are.”
Mitchell directed and choreographed the hit musical adaptation of Kinky Boots, one of numerous new works he has successfully shepherded to opening night. As he studied the Betty Boop universe during the development process, Mitchell realised that, while the character was beloved, she lacked agency, and a true love story.
“The thing about Ainsley is he makes you believe that this cartoon character who’s come to the real world is a real person,” Mitchell says.
“When you look at Betty through his eyes in the scenes, the way he looks at her, the way he accepts her, the way he falls in love with her, you do, too.”
Melham has formed a close bond with his co-star Jasmine Amy Rogers, who has created the role of Betty in the musical, and is earning early Tony awards buzz for her performance.
“Jasmine’s a powerhouse. It’s really unbelievable,” Melham says.
“This is her Broadway debut and she’s standing up against women in this season like Audra McDonald and Nicole Scherzinger and Megan Hilty … So much of Betty’s vivaciousness, bubbliness, the joy, the character’s laugh, all of that is Jasmine coming through the vehicle of Betty Boop.”
Melham is conscious of his position as an outsider who is translating a beloved American story for the stage, but has felt warmly welcomed by colleagues and audiences alike.
“I’m always saliently aware that I’m standing alongside a cast of Americans and I’m the only one that has to put on an accent. And it better be good because you can hear it straight away. Thankfully when I speak in my Australian accent at stage door, nine times out of 10 people are like: ‘What?’ They can’t believe that I’m not American, which means I’ve done my job.”
BOOP! The Musical is showing on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre, New York.
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