Dean’s Brilliant Career

Director and writer Dean Bryant has been appointed to lead Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre just as his hit musical My Brilliant Career returns for a four-city east coast tour.  David Spicer spoke to the creative who has his fingers in so many pies.

Image above: Dean Bryant. Photographer: Ron Whitfield

When I caught up with Dean Bryant it was his second day on the job as Artistic Director at the Malthouse Theatre, having just completed directing a new Eddie Perfect musical Tivoli Lovely at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Whilst WAAPA has almost unlimited casting and costume resources for its student productions,  Bryant was heading back to lead a company which typically stages one handers or small cast plays.

Image: Tivoli Lovely, Photographer: Stephen Heath

So, had he sacked anyone on his first day in power? 

“Yes, I absolutely threw my weight around. At least I spent most of my day just trying to log onto the internet,” he joked. 

At first blush Dean Bryant taking the reins of Melbourne’s second largest theatre, originally established as being solely for Australian plays, and of late producing gritty, challenging new works, appears at odds with his forays into commercial musical theatre. 

“I don't disagree at all. I think that's a really good way of looking at it. But I think where the sweet spot is, is that I would probably redefine commercial theatre as audience engaged.”

Recently Bryant directed the musical Dear Evan Hansen and new Australian musical Bloom.

“The work that I've tended to do for Melbourne Theatre Company, for the Hayes Theatre, and the Sydney Theatre Company is still quite risky, adventurous work, but it's work that's always interested in what's the widest audience we can get to.

“I would say all I'm really doing is bringing that kind of lens of wide audiences into the adventurous work that Malthouse has done and will continue to do.”

What is the type of work that he would like to see more of at the theatre? He nominated the one woman play Wake in Fright, originally staged by the company in 2019, as the perfect example of Malthouse in a sweet spot.

Image: Zahra Nwman in Wake in Fright (2019). Photographer: Pia Johnson

“Taking a piece that is known culturally but hasn't been looked at since the film decades ago. By looking at what it is culturally saying about Australia, through a female actor who's taking on all of the roles, it became a funny, scary, visceral experience that was Malthouse at its best.

“I find a lot of the irreverent work that's been staged across the tenure of the last four Artistic Directors is where Malthouse has been firing on all cylinders. That back and forth with the audiences is pretty exciting.”

Wake in Fright has a return season in Sydney in 2026.

I pondered whether Bryant might feel constrained by being tied to one theatre company after freelancing for so many years?

Not so he said. 

“Even next year, I'm directing at the Sydney Theatre Company (A Normal Heart) and Pinchgut (The First Murder).”

And of course, his biggest hit, My Brilliant Career, is being revived by the MTC and touring to Sydney, Canberra and Wollongong.

I recall hearing Dean interviewed on the radio about the project after it had a tryout at Monash University and it felt like it might have the trajectory of many Australian musicals: that is, a very promising first outing but never heard of again.

Image: Kala Gare in My Brilliant Career. Photographer: Pia Johnson.

Something changed to take it to the next level. 

“Unlike almost everyone else in the world, I think we got lucky with Covid hitting when it did. Whilst we had a sensational development season at Monash and we did a cast recording that people responded to, suddenly we had a lot of time to work on it.

“I felt very strongly that it needed a more specific female voice on it, and Sheridan Harbridge was a good friend of mine, and I chatted to her about it.

“She recommended the musical become a bit more chaotic, a bit naughty and a bit wilder. I loved her voice, as a writer, when she came on board.

Image: Kala Gare in My Brilliant Career. Photographer: Pia Johnson.

“I got a little bit more funding to do another week's workshop on it. We'd always positioned it as the idea that Sybylla was a girl in her bedroom writing out her heart on her piano. And I'm like, well, maybe we should make this a little more literal and have the cast as her band.  And they can just do anything. They can bring her story to life. They can play the story. It'll become like a holistic musical kind of experience, because our version of it is so music driven.

“So, we tried the idea of Sybylla as the rock star and actors being musicians, to see if this was even feasible. At that workshop, the company all got a taste of the new energy of it, and the MTC immediately picked it up.”

Waiting to develop the musical into a more dynamic piece of drama did the trick. Audience reaction was electric, the Melbourne Theatre Company extended their original season and now it is heading around the country.

Image: My Brilliant Career cast. Photographer: Pia Johnson.

Dean admits that Sheridan’s injection of new energy was the Kentucky Fried Chicken secret herb and spice ingredient (my words not his).

“I think the version that we first made essentially has the same score.  There's only one new song and we cut four or five.

“I do think it was the injection of that shared sensibility into the tone of Sybylla, and the thrilling virtuosity of an active musician production (that proved to be) fantastic.”

The injection of a third person’s ideas might be seen as especially fortuitous when the composer Matthew Frank and Dean Bryant are literally living in each other’s pockets as partners of 28 years. 

There are almost no examples to compare them to. What is it like being a real-life example of the movie romance Music and Lyrics. 

“We are a calm, stable couple, and we're very appreciative of each other's talents. We love the work we've done together and talking about it. It's the only time we ever argue. It's not a fraught process, but we both go into writing going, at some point there's going to be arguments, which is funny, because we don't argue with anyone else in the creative process.”

Do they switch off at home after work?

“Oh, like instantly.  Matthew has an incredibly even temperament. He can just leave the piano room, because we have a music room at home in our apartment, and just be like, ‘What do you want to do for dinner?’ ‘What do you want to watch?’ I just can let it go too.”

The couple met as students at WAAPA and their first musical together was Prodigal, which had its World Premiere in 2000 before scoring a season Off Broadway.

Their brilliant careers will continue but they might not have as much time to write new musicals with Dean’s new day job.

My Brilliant Career 

MTC - 23 January - 28 February. 

Canberra - 7 to 15 March

Sydney - 21 March to 26 April

Wollongong - 8 to 17 May

Click here to read our review of My Brilliant Career