Top cast for Musical of Musicals

A stellar cast has been assembled for the forthcoming Sydney production of Musical of Musicals – The Musical!.

The show is a fabulous five-part cabaret-style musical which honours and spoofs five writers and writing teams which have shaped the modern musical. It returns to Sydney following a short sell-out season in February 2009.

The production enters rehearsals this week and stars Avigail Herman, Belinda Wollaston, Andrew Bevis and Warwick Allsop.

In this hilarious satire of musical theatre, one story becomes five delightful musicals, each written in the distinctive style of a different master of the form: Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Kander & Ebb.

The plot is simple – June, an ingénue who can’t pay the rent, is threatened by her evil landlord. Will the handsome leading man come to her rescue? In an evening of variations on a theme, this basic plot is musicalised the way Rodgers & Hammerstein might have envisioned it, taking place in Kansas in August, complete with a “dream ballet”.

The story is then done in the style of Sondheim, featuring the landlord as a tortured, artistic genius who slashes the throats of his tenants in revenge because they don’t appreciate his art. When presented a la Herman, the story becomes a splashy star vehicle, and in the style of Lloyd Webber it’s a rock musical, with “borrowed” themes from Puccini. The story is re-told one last time in the style of Kander and Ebb, set in a Cabaret in Chicago.

The show is playing at the Parade Space, Parade Theatres, 215 Anzac Parade, Kensington from May 6?29.

Times Tuesday-Saturday 8pm, Wednesday and Saturday matinee 2pm

Ticket price $55 Adults/ $45 Concessions/ $48 Groups of 10 or more.