The Georgy Girl cast re-enacts The Seekers’ appearance at the Myer Music Bowl. Photo: Jeff Busby
The good news about Georgy Girl – The Seekers Musical is that the band’s music is as lovely as ever and the young quartet who revive it do a remarkable job of recreating the original four.
Unfortunately a great tribute band does not a successful musical make. While Georgy Girl is an enjoyable enough evening of listening to Seekers songs, it is a long way from the integration of story, music and emotion which makes good musical theatre work.
The book for the show was written by Patrick Edgeworth, brother of Ron Edgeworth, who was married to Seekers star Judith Durham. By all accounts the couple had a deeply loving marriage, which ended tragically when Ron Edgeworth died prematurely of motor neurone disease aged 56.
On a personal level it is thoroughly understandable that Patrick Edgeworth would want to use the show to honour his brother and to emphasise the life Ron and Judith shared. But, from the point of view of the audience, it is a great pity that someone with a degree of detachment did not take the project in hand and point out that in doing so he failed to realise the emotional potential of The Seekers’ story.
Georgy Girl puts Ron Edgeworth front and centre, a jack-in-the-box Greek chorus who pops up irritatingly often with occasionally humorous but often inane and unnecessary text linkage and comment. Unfortunate enough in the first half of the show, the technique becomes downright unbearable after interval when Edgeworth actually enters the story and constantly breaks the cardinal rule of show-don’t-tell, providing a recitation of events without theatrical impact or emotional content.
The Edgeworth character is designed to help the audience traverse the difficulties of covering 50 years and being true to the story of performers who are still alive and needed to approve the script. But there are so many more theatrically compelling ways of achieving the same goals – especially given the set’s effective use of projection photography, which allow newspaper cuttings and original footage to interact with the live players.
The real thing in 1967
Director Gary Young, maybe oversensitive to the personal connections, gives a poor script free rein and fails to inject sufficient drama. There are some effective moments: when the Seekers first arrive in London, a dance sequence contrasts the old England bowler hatted briefcase brigade with the Carnaby Street crowd in a scene that almost makes us feel that we are watching a real musical. Shaun Gurton’s simple set is effectively used in another scene when a set of steps is spun around to simulate the whirlwind touring that exhausted Durham – but the impact is damaged because Edgeworth pops up again ​supported by stereotyped cameos of Irish dancers and Californian beach boys. Similarly repeated cheap jokes about Durham’s concerns over her looks, and Keith Potger’s womanising form an embarrassing refrain which almost drowns out some of the better lines in the show.
This is by no means an unsalvageable musical. The songs are as appealing today as they were 50 years ago and they are integrated well into the story. The four leads are absolute winners, reproducing not only the​ warmth and tone of the quartet’s voices but also the gestures and feel of The Seekers with almost uncanny verisimilitude. Pippa Grandison as Judith is utterly convincing both dramatically and as the lead singer of the group. There is less focus on Glaston Toft as Athol Guy, Mike McLeish as Bruce Woodley and Phillip Lowe as Keith Potger, but all produce appealing characters and the voices to remind us why we (or our parents) loved The Seekers.
On Opening Night the best moment was the final curtain call when the real Seekers, now in their 70s, came on stage beside their stage avatars. Unfortunately other audiences won’t get to enjoy the resonances of that life-meets-art encounter.
True Seekers’ fans will want to see the show just for the chance to relive their salad days, including enjoying some excellent nostalgic costumes by Isaac Lummis. For the rest, there a lot of work to do before Georgy Girl really tells The Seekers’ story.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Georgy Girl – The Seekers Musical
Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne
22 December 2015 to 20 ​March 2016
www.ticketek.com.au
State Theatre, Sydney
2 April to 1 May 2016
http://www.ticketmaster.com.
