Songbook

With yet another Home Grown theatrical event this Sunday 13^th March, it’s hard to keep up with the Dynamic Duo of Hedger and Nicholson – and yet last Sunday, a first in the Song Book Series, was a musical theatre treat worth writing about.

Craig Christie, most famous for Eurobeat, has created an astonishing amount of musicals, but many of them have been for schools and children. Those songs are  accessible and catchy, but derivative, many sounding like candidates for The Wiggles or, more correctly Hi-Five. However, with an astonishing wealth of Musical Theatre talent to sing them, each one becomes appealing in its own right.

Some of the cast, like the incomparable Francesca Arena, have a long- standing relationship with Christie’s music, others are new to this composer. Artists like Cameron MacDonald, who could sing a Metro timetable and still beguile us, and Michelle Brasier, as funny as she is vocally talented, nailed their numbers with great vocals and a whimsical approach.  Cam MacDonald even wore shorts – which added an extra dimension to the witty “Different”, from a teenage musical Rev It Up.  Francesca Arena was wonderfully witty in “I Need Chocolate” (a number from Christie’s musical based on nurses, Hey Florence) and poignant in her handling of “Trees” – from Jump To It. Every entrance showed why she stopped the show in In The Heights last year (I do hope she is reprising that role tonight). She is a formidable talent. The stand out song for me was “Green”, from Christie’s musical Water Into Wine, about the settlement of Mildura by women. Olivia Charalambous, Zoy Frangos (definitely a star in the making), Kristen Kream and the very talented Lisa-Marie Parker, moved the audience to tears with beautiful harmonies in this poignant song.

But the highlight of the night had to be Christie himself. A born showman (who wouldn’t have wanted to be a kid in his classroom when he was teaching?), Craig gave a short Q and A with MC Troy Sussman (himself no mean singer) and then sang the hysterical and slightly blue “Main Course Mama” from his musical The Food of Love. With a voice nowhere near the quality of the main cast, he nevertheless nailed every nuance, every gag, and knocked his offering out of Chapel off Chapel all the way down to the Yarra.

Despite the poor synthesised backing on several of the early numbers, Nick Hedger’s accompaniment on piano was impeccable. Kudos to Jason Bovaird for his subtle lighting design on the velvet tabs that served as a backdrop – and to the other artists – Joel Granger, Tegan Wouters, Baylie Carson, Chelsea Gibb, Heather Manley, Drew Weston, Brent Trotter, Matt Heyward, Kellie Rode, Meg Hoult and Jacqui Hoy. The amount of talent on show was just staggering.

One small niggle – since the refurbishments at Chapel off Chapel, and delightful they are, the audience can hear every word - and especially laughter- from The Loft’s dressing room. It’s very disconcerting and artists are going to have to be mouse-like off stage. But even ‘Noises Off’ couldn’t dull what was an evening full of great harmonies and vocal sparkle.

There’s another Home Grown this Sunday – with multiple composers – and it’s the perfect way to spend a Sunday evening.

Coral Drouyn