While Australia punches well above its weight when it comes to performers, there have been comparatively few locally written and developed shows that have become successful. This may be changing. Over the past 18 months (since the start of 2022) there have been at least thirteen Australian musicals that been either produced (including presentations of public development showcase readings) or announced.
Not all of these will become successful (realistically, only a few - or fewer - will), but the amount of work in development reaching point where it can be presented to the public (either in showcase or full form) is encouraging.
Australian musicals that have had a showing since 2022 include:
- Moulin Rouge
- Midnight - the Cinderella Musical
- Bananaland
- Bloom
- The Dismissal
- Driftwood
- Rabbits on a Red Planet
- The Lucky Country
- Metropolis
- Show People
- Mount Hopeless
- Work of Art
- Dubbo Championship Wrestling
- The Deb
- Songs of the Unseen
- Wonderfully Terrible Things
- Roller Coaster
- Forgetting Tim Minchin
- The Hero Leaves One Tooth
- The Marvellous Elephant Man
- Villainy
- My Brilliant Career
If you know of more, please chime in.
More details in the posts below.
Note: this post is about musicals written (or otherwise created by) Australians. It is not about international musicals produced in Australia, such as Australian productions of Hamilton, Wicked, Mamma Mia, Into the Woods, The Great Comet etc.
Villainy - a new Australian musical by Craig Christie premieres in Melbourne on 2 November.