Yes, that’s not a typo in the headline. The Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) is indeed giving us a version of Stella Miles Franklin’s landmark and ever relevant novel… in song. Whether we actually needed a musical version of My Brilliant Career is a question to muse upon, although it does seem to be a popular concept – taking stories that have been hugely successful in one format and adding music. Of course, this has not always been an unmitigated triumph, as a brief scroll through this entertaining site quickly attests.
With My Brilliant Career, though, perhaps the motivation is all about doubling down on an understandable desire to make the text not just accessible but positively aimed at a younger audience. The MTC’s core subscriber base could be fairly well relied upon to roll out for a traditional staging of such a cracking and quintessentially Australian story, but getting those younger audiences engaged is an ongoing challenge. And, it has to be said, if this rollicking production doesn’t do the trick, it’s hard to know what will.
With a book by Sheridan Harbridge, book and lyrics by Dean Bryant, music by Mathew Frank and direction by the MTC’s Artistic Director Anne-Louise Sarks, this is an exemplary exercise in multi-tasking, multi-skilled theatre-making. Just as those behind the scenes creatives tend to boast several strings to their bows (Harbridge is an actor, writer and director, Sarks a writer and director, for example), the cast are the last word in triple or even quadruple threats.
Performers who can act, sing and dance are impressive enough, but when you get one who appears to be doing all three of those things… while also playing the cello, well, that’s really something else. Take a bow, Cameron Bajraktarevic-Hayward (making his MTC debut no less). He accomplishes this by the use of a large strap, by the way, so he doesn’t need to sit to bow the instrument.
The crux of My Brilliant Career, as its headstrong heroine Sybylla Melvyn repeatedly tells us, is that it is not a romance. It is a tale about the place of women and their right to agency and to determine their own fates. Written at the turn of the last century, in a time when marriage was the only respectable option, but also when feminist pioneers like Vida Goldstein were beckoning Franklin to travel overseas and learn about the suffrage movement, My Brilliant Career tells the partly autobiographical story of a young woman who knows both poverty and privilege (mostly the former) and has the opportunity to take a conventional path as a wife and mother, but wants something more for herself.
We may be well aware that Franklin’s sequel to the original novel was the less inspirational title My Career Goes Bung, but that doesn’t mitigate the delicious audacity of her debut.
Accordingly, this is a production steeped in audacity. It’s big and bold, not in setting or production values (which are simple and very effective), but in the adaptation and, particularly, the performances. Though there are familiar, almost verbatim, passages peppered throughout, much of the dialogue has a modern touch, with salty contemporary language in abundance. There is even one very judicious use of the f-word. How you feel about this may be subjective, suffice to say, on opening night, it was received with the appropriate guffaws. It’s all in the timing.
It’s tricky to talk about the choreography without knowing where Amy Campbell’s work ends and Sarks’ takes over. But throughout this is a beautifully directed production – Sarks keeps it tight and precise and rattling along. The second half perhaps has a couple of longueurs, but that’s partly the structure of the story and partly the inevitable consequence of adding music to what is already a lengthy yarn.
When it does threaten to lag, however, there is always the presence of Kala Gare to re-inject the requisite energy. Book, stage play or piece of musical theatre, you can’t even begin to consider My Brilliant Career without a focus on Sybylla. As she tells us from the get-go, she will be forefront and centre throughout. After all, she “makes no apologies for being egotistical”. While the shadow of the great Judy Davis naturally loiters behind the shoulders of any contemporary Sybylla, thanks to her career breakthrough performance in Gillian Armstrong’s 1979 film, Gare plays the role as if she’d just invented it. This is the boldest, brashest Sybylla imaginable – a Charli XCX rendition with the brat dialled up to the max.
She’s a rocker, with a commanding singing voice, and a petulant child with her tongue perpetually sticking out and her skirts hitched above the knee. Her comic timing is impeccable and her fourth wall breaking assured.
It’s an exuberant performance that says, ‘I’ve been given this brilliant opportunity and I’m going to wring every last drop from it’. Surrounding and supporting her is an ensemble full of the aforementioned triple threats playing multiple roles. Apart from Bajraktarevic-Hayward’s terrific Frank Hawden (which is of course a gift of a role for anyone with even a skerrick of comedic talent), it seems unfair to single out any of the ensemble, as there’s not a dud among them.
There is some especially lovely and clear singing from Christina O’Neill, however, while Raj Labade is a suitably charming and sturdy presence as Sybylla’s great… er, mate … Harry Beecham.
Read: Theatre review: The Inheritance, Seymour Centre
It did seem as something went awry in the dance scene on opening night, as it looked very much as if when Sybylla took to Harry with the riding crop she actually made contact, with Labade apparently sporting a red mark on his upper cheek for the remainder of the show. Or perhaps that was merely excellent work from the make-up department?
Despite the rambunctious and accomplished performances of the musical numbers, the songs themselves were a little hit and miss for this reviewer. So I’m still not completely convinced that the world needed a musical version of My Brilliant Career. But if we do have to have one, it really would be hard to top this.
My Brilliant Career, based on the novel by Miles Franklin
Produced by Melbourne Theatre Company, Southbank Theatre, The Sumner
Book by Sheridan Harbridge and Dean Bryant
Music by Mathew Frank
Lyrics by Dean Bryant
Director: Anne-Louise Sarks
Musical Director: Victoria Falconer
Choreographer: Amy Campbell
Set & Costume Designer: Marg Horwell
Lighting Designer: Matt Scott
Orchestrator / Vocal Arranger: James Simpson
Sound Designer: Joy Weng
Assistant Director :Miranda Middleton
Assistant Musical Director: Drew Livingston
Assistant Set & Costume Designer: Savanna Wegman
Voice & Dialect Coach: Matt Furlani
Track Producer (‘Make A Success’): Jarrad Payne
Specialist for Whip Cracking/Blanket Throw: Nicci Wilks
Cast: Cameron Bajraktarevic-Hayward, Lincoln Elliott, Victoria Falconer, Kala Gare, Raj Labade, Drew Livingston, HaNy Lee, Ana Mitsikas, Christina O’Neill, Jarrad Payne
My Brilliant Career will be performed at the Sumner Theatre in Melbourne until 18 December 2024.
