Monopoly: The Unauthorised Musical Premieres in Perth
Something unusual is happening in sleepy Perth, WA: within the space of a month, 3 new original musicals are being debuted. Alongside WAAPA's Tivoli Lovely and Rod Christian's Mates: A New Musical premieres the quirky Monopoly: The Unauthorised Musical, the brainchild of Perth creatives Jasper Cruden and Ian Tassicker under the banner of their new production company: Roundhouse Theatrical Co.
This 2-act, highly technical show is a reimagining of Jasper's 2021 WAAPA music composition graduating concert: a 45-minute piece by the same name. 'Some would say we're crazy to stage a full-length original musical with a live band as our first ever production, and to tell you the truth they're probably right', he said, 'but at least we've had the original show to act as our foundation'.
That show, which ran for a single night at WAAPA's Roundhouse Theatre, had more of a pantomime air and the plot, which centred on a group of player tokens from the board game 'Monopoly' (Car, Boot, Scottish Terrier, Iron) attempting to bring an explosive end to the rule of a tyrannical Mrs. Monopoly, largely existed to tie the songs together. The new, expanded script aims to add more story and character moments while keeping the silly and irreverent spirit of the original.
Writer Ian Tassicker explains: 'The 2021 show was very well received and showed a lot of potential, but I always felt if it was going to have legs it needed to have some depth alongside the farce and gags. The challenge lay in keeping the silly soul of the show intact while avoiding copyright concerns and making everything grander'.
With a runtime of just under 2 hours packing in 13 original full-length songs (along with underscoring/soundtracking), the show is snappy and musically rich, covering a large variety of genres. 'This show moves quickly', Tassicker says. 'As someone who primarily works as a pit musician, I'm acutely aware of the moments where it feels like not much is happening on stage. Channeling that, I set out to write a show that felt like it respected the audience's time while still telling a complete story, and I'm confident that we've succeeded in that'.
The premiere of Monopoly: The Unauthorised Musical runs for a limited season from 30th Oct - Nov 8th. Limited tickets are still available.