Creating New Songs for Our World

Coral Drouyn talks to the creatives of Songs for A New World which opens at Chapel off Chapel on June 2^nd for a limited season.

Blue Saint Productions burst onto the Music Theatre scene less than two years ago with an exquisitely crafted original boutique musical called Guilty Pleasures. Last year they followed it with the award winning Violet, and now they bring us the gift of Jason Robert Brown’s Songs for A New World. Music Theatre aficionados know and love the musical, but it is a calculated risk for a company named for the Producers’ favourite footy teams….yes, it’s true. The producers who formed Blue Saint – both award winning Music Theatre performers themselves – named the company after their favourite Footy teams.

“And just by coincidence,” Joshua Robson tells me, “The Saints are playing the Blues on our last night at Chapel.”

“And we’ll miss the game,” Damien Bermingham adds.

All frivolity aside, these two seasoned performers take their recent transition to producing very seriously.

“I don’t want to sound pretentious,” Damien says, “but if we had a mission statement it would be to expand the horizons of the General Public.”

“That does sound a bit pretentious,” Josh adds ruefully, “but we just want people to have a chance to see the smaller musicals which often have exquisite music – and “Songs” is one - that are never going to get mainstage productions because they’re not meant for big ensembles and flash productions - so the chances are the public has little chance to see some of the most special Music Theatre in decades.

Those within the business, or Musical Theatre tragics like myself, know Brown’s work well – though his successes have mostly been Off Broadway. Still, with Tony Awards for Parade and Bridges of Madison County, and other shows like The Last Five Years and the highly enjoyable 13 to his name, it’s surprising that someone actually asked me this week “Jason Who?”

And that’s why companies like Blue Saint are so important.

“We are presenting professional productions with seasoned performers to as many people as we can get through the doors. It’s about sharing the music,” Josh says.

“Sure we could do Grease,” Damien adds, “but really, who wants to see another production of that?”

The plan is simple but daunting, target a great cast, find an innovative director who shares the same vision, and produce something that is new and fresh for an audience that hasn’t seen a professional production of the show before.

The cast is stunning – all having recently graced major productions, all with sensational voices.  Teagan Wouters is coming straight from working with Anthony Warlow in Fiddler On The Roof; John O’Hara – who made his reputation in Cats and Wicked and is one of the most respected performers in the business - brings his wonderful voice to Brown’s songs; Natalie O’Donnell recently wowed Sydney audiences at The Hayes in Next to Normal (she’s the definitive Diana) and Linden Furnell is a newcomer already building a big reputation after playing Roger in Rent.

But the producers knew how important it was to have a director who wasn’t stifled by tradition, or afraid to push the production to its limits.

Luke Joslin has the added advantage of having been an actor (winning both a Helpmann and a Green Room awards).

“It helps so much when you’ve been in their place and you know exactly what you need in the performance,” he says.

“We had seen his production of Annie, and it was completely fresh, with elements no-one had ever tackled before,” Josh says.

Annie was a watershed, Luke explains.

“I always thought Annie was a dark story with a light at the end of the tunnel. Poor kids being mistreated in an orphanage, and Annie hanging in and believing something good will come “Tomorrow”.  It’s really not about happy snappy moments. So I explored that dark side.”

“Is that what he brings to directing?” I ask. “A different perspective?”

“Not just for the sake of it.” Luke answers, “but I like to dig deep, to find out what’s hiding from us. I’m all about Simplicity, Veracity and Clarity – and this show is quite abstract so I’m lucky to have a cast with great talent and integrity.”

The show has no throughline, it’s a series of exquisite moments frozen in time.

Brown transports his audience from the deck of a 1492 Spanish sailing ship to a ledge 57 stories above Fifth Avenue to meet a startling array of characters ranging from a young man who has determined that basketball is his ticket out of the ghetto to a woman whose dream of marrying rich nabs her the man of her dreams and a soul-less marriage.

“This is theatre that rises above the music theatre genre, as we know it. An abstract musical with enormous vocal demand, Songs For a New World is a sequence of mini vignettes that snap shot the crossroads of life.” Luke explains.

It’s also a labour of love from everyone concerned, and a gift to us, the audience.

Songs for a New World runs from June 2^nd- June 12^{th, 2016} at Chapel off Chapel.

Image (from top): (left to right) - Linden Furnell, Teagan Wouters, John O'Hara and Natalie O'Donnell; Linden Furnell and Teagan Wouters, and Luke Joslin.