News

Is there a secret to success for new Australian musicals?

With a new musical theatre production based on the life of Ned Kelly set to open this week, we look at the challenges of mounting new works of this nature.

19 May 2015 12:00

Richard Watts

Performing Arts

Hero image for ‘NED – A New Australian Musical’. Image: Supplied.

For every home grown work of musical theatre that receives critical or commercial acclaim, such as Mathew Frank and Dean Bryant’s Prodigal or Peter Fitzpatrick’s jukebox musical Flowerchildren – The Mamas and Papas Story, there’s several more commercial failures waiting in the wings. Some, like Manning Clark’s History of Australia The Musical make it to a mainstage season and are never seen again. Others, like Strange Bedfellows have an out of town tryout (in this instance, Albury) only to see future mainstage seasons cancelled.

Unlock this content?

Access this content and more

Join Now Login

Richard Watts

Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts