Theatre Australia

your portal for australian theatre

Input on American Musical in Australia

Sun, 20 July 2003, 11:23 pm
Walter Plinge4 posts in thread
Hi folks,

I'm curious how Australian audiences might react to an original show called, "Viva Los Alamos...a-Theatrical-Parody-Purporting-to-be-a-Previously-Unreleased-Film-Starring-the-Late-Great-King-of-Rock-and-Roll-Unlicensed-by-or-in-Any-Way-Afilliated-with-his-Estate...in 3-D" We staged it in Atlanta, GA twice and in New York for the NYC Fringe Festival 2000. The title is self explanatory but it goes beyong just an Elvis movie parody with the premise that the audience is watching a screening that is going horribly wrong. The film breaks, foreign language versions are added in - one scene was reshot so the audience is given a choice between the young and old Elvis - all this along with about a dozen songs. It's been compared to Rocky Horror and during its fringe run was noted favorably in Time Out, the Village Voice, and the New York Times.

At any rate, I'm wondering if the pop culture and 50's cold war references would translate to an Australian audience and if anyone had any suggestions about potential commercial or non-profit producers who might be interested.

Thanks for any assistance you can offer...

VivaOz@sensurroundstagings.com

Re: Input on American Musical in Australia

Fri, 25 July 2003, 08:08 am
In agreement with Craig. Many productions have been effectively brought across with little or no translation what-so-ever and successfully so.

On good example I can think of was a production of Grease starring some Aussie Actor whom (I am embarressed to say) I have forgotten the name of. While they did add a few extra gags, some Ozzie and some generic, the basic story was left intact and everyone loved it.

All right, Grease is quite well known, but does that make a difference?

Jeff "Americanised" Watkins

[%sig%]

Thread (4 posts)

← Back to Musicals and Opera