New and upcoming musicals in Melbourne

Update 23/03/20: Six the Musical's Melbourne season has been postponed to help stop the spread of Covid-19. Ticketholders will be contacted. This is a review of the Sydney Opera House season of Six the Musical. The show has its Melbourne premiere in April 2020. If every girl group of the ‘90s and early 2000s were as charismatic and sang as well as the Australian cast of Six, the history of pop music would be drastically different. The six women leading this frequently funny and ferocious pop musical from UK writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss are magnificently talented and a step above most of the popstars they draw inspiration from. But it’s that style of pop that’s the driving force of Six, which brings all of Henry VIII’s wives to the stage in a singing competition to decide who had the worst time with the Tudor king. The pop queens intend to ask their audience to vote for their fave. First up is Catherine of Aragon (Chloe Zuel), who was almost forced into a nunnery when the king’s attentions turned to Anne Boleyn (Kala Gare). It’s a tough story, but Boleyn, who lost her head in her marriage, must’ve surely had it worse, right? Well, what about Jane Seymour (Loren Hunter) who declares herself the only queen he truly loved, but who tragically died at 28, just two weeks after the birth of her child? Then there’s Anne of Cleves (Kiana Daniele) who never quite measured up to the king’s expectations and found herself living in her own castle, Katherine Howard (Courtney Monsma),

Legendary songwriter Jim Steinman is best known for writing Meat Loaf's biggest hits, including every track on his best-selling album Bat Out of Hell, but for his entire life Steinman has been working on various iterations of a musical based around his own songs. Bat Out of Hell is the most recent and most successful of his stage endeavours and features songs from all three Bat Out of Hell albums, including 'You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth', 'Bat Out of Hell', 'I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)', 'Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad', and 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now'. After successful seasons in London and New York, the musical will have its Australian premiere as a large-scale arena rock musical. You can expect plenty of spectacle, with a dazzling light show, special effects and plenty of fire. The post-apocalyptic musical is a loose retelling of Peter Pan, set in a futuristic city which used to be known as Manhattan. The forever young Strat, the leader of 'The Lost', falls in love with Raven, the daughter of a tyrannical leader. Bat Out of Hell will have its Australian premiere in Sydney before coming to Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena on June 11. Tickets go on sale December 6 at noon.

In 1990, Jimmy Chi's musical about a runaway teenage Aboriginal boy on a wild and eye-opening road trip became a surprise hit. Bran Nue Dae premiered as part of Perth Festival – which is rather appropriate given that its central character Willie is on a road trip through Western Australia – and won a bunch of prestigious awards before touring the country for three years. It was Australia's first Aboriginal musical, long before Jess Mauboy took The Sapphires to the world. Now it's returning for a 30th anniversary tour produced by a group of Australia's biggest opera companies (but don't worry, the rock and pop-inspired score isn't suddenly going to get an operatic bent). The new production will be directed by Andrew Ross, who was behind the original staging, with choreography by Bangarra dancer Tara Gower. Based loosely on Chi's own life, the musical was written his band, Kuckles. And unlike a lot of the Aboriginal stories that white audiences were demanding at the time, Bran Nue Dae is bright, uplifting and very, very funny – although it still touches on political and social issues. The musical was turned into a film in 2009 with a starry Australian cast, including Jess Mauboy, Ernie Dingo, Magda Szubanski, Dan Sultan, Deborah Mailman and Missy Higgins. The new Australian cast will be led by Marcus Corowa as Willie, with Ernie Dingo reprising his role from the movie.

Melbourne musical theatre fans have had to wait a long time to see the celebrated stage version of Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel Fun Home. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical back in 2015, but it won’t be until this year that we’ll finally get to see why this story of a young woman’s discovery of her own sexuality, and her difficult relationship with her funeral director father, has captured so many hearts and minds. Local musical theatre dynamo Dean Bryant (behind award-winning tours of Sweet Charity and Little Shop of Horrors) will direct a new production, starring Lisa McCune and Muriel’s Wedding the Musical’s original Muriel, Maggie McKenna. It’s an autobiographical work following Alison Bechdel, played by three actors from childhood to adulthood. Jeanine Tesori’s sweeping score and Lisa Kron’s book and lyrics have been lavished with praise – when it opened on the West End in 2017, Time Out London declared it the best new musical they’d seen since Hamilton – and the pair became the first female team to win the Tony for Best Original Score.

Update 20/03/20: In line with recent advice from the federal government, 9 to 5's Melbourne season has been postponed. Ticketholders will be contacted regarding refunds and will get first dibs on the best seats for the to-be-announced new dates.  In the meantime, you can watch the original 9 to 5 movie online on Amazon Prime Video. Dolly Parton's stage version of hit 1980 comedy 9 to 5 is coming to Melbourne's Her Majesty's Theatre from July 25 this year, after having its Australian premiere in Sydney. The musical features an entire score of Dolly songs, including the landmark title track '9 to 5', and follows the plot of the film pretty closely: workmates Doralee (played by Parton in the film), Violet (originally Lily Tomlin) and Judy (Jane Fonda) have been pushed to the edge by a narcissistic boss. So they hatch an elaborate plan to extract their revenge, and hilarity ensues. The book is by Patricia Resnick, who penned the film. The local version is led by a fabulous cast of musical theatre veterans and rising stars: Marina Prior plays Violet with Erin Clare as Doralee and Samantha Dodemaide as Judy. Caroline O'Connor plays Roz, an administrative assistant desperately in love with her boss. The show opened on Broadway in 2009 and wasn't an enormous hit. But when it was reimagined for London's West End last year, it became an immediate smash, scoring rave reviews and extending its run multiple times. That's the production Melbourne audiences will get to see.

Opera Australia has a long history of bringing classic musicals to local audiences, but generally they've been faithful and traditional productions (and in some cases literally 60-year-old productions). But Opera Australia is doing something a little different as part of its 2020 season: Fiddler on the Roof performed entirely in Yiddish. Don't worry, there'll still be English surtitles to guide you through, but this production goes for authenticity above all else. Directed by Oscar and Tony winner Joel Grey (still known best for playing the Emcee in Cabaret), it premiered in New York last year to rave reviews and is enjoyed a return season due to popular demand.  Casting is still to be confirmed for the Australian production, which will play Melbourne's Comedy Theatre from November 15.

Update 19/03/20: Come From Away has ended its season as of Sunday, March 15 due to government advice around the spread of COVID-19. If you have tickets for performances dated March 16 onwards you will be contacted to exchange your tickets for the encore season, or to receive a refund. Come From Away is returning to Melbourne for an encore season in February 2021. Presales for the encore season start Thursday, March 19 and general sales start Friday, March 20. When Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins premiered in 1990, George Bush Sr was in power and the Gulf War was underway. Audiences during war time weren’t really ready for a musical about the dark heart of the American dream, and it closed early. In 2004 it was remounted on Broadway and won four Tonys. Its time had come. Come from Away feels like the reverse: a musical that suits its time, is perhaps even flattered a little by it. It’s of course impossible to predict, but it seems unlikely that this show will play quite so well in 15 years. Something about its message, its attitude and its structure relies heavily on the audience’s willingness, even hunger, to receive it. We are living in dark times, and a show like this certainly hits the sweet spot. Does that necessarily make it a great show? Certainly, it tells a warm and reassuring tale about a community who rallies for people it doesn’t know, and in that regard it is a necessary and timely one. On the morning of September 11, 2001 a total of 38 planes carrying 6,579 passenge