ATLANTIS RISING

Talented multi award winning composer, writer and actor Matthew Robinson talks to Coral Drouyn about this weekend’s concert version of his new musical Atlantis.

“I’m a very patient person, and I know how long it takes for things in this business to happen. The process can seem endless,” Matthew tells me as we chat about Sunday’s world premiere of Atlantis, in concert. “But I’m also very pro-active, I don’t wait around for things to happen. I do what I can to keep the fires burning with whoever is interested in my work, but I’m always planning ahead, looking for the next thing that excites me. What makes this project different is that the whole story of Atlantis has excited me since I was about eight years old… and it has so many themes which resonate to the world as it is now. It is an ageless story, and that meant that, musically, I could move forward and backward in time when composing. And there’s a deep spiritual core to the story that I instantly connected with.”

It’s not surprising that Matthew has moved so far on from his last hit musical Metro Street, an astonishing debut for him which garnered five Helpmann nominations and was instrumental in winning Matt the Pratt Prize for Musical Theatre, the UTAS Stephen Schwartz songwriting award, a Churchill Fellowship and, just recently, a $100,000 Arts Council Music Fellowship.

Matthew has his sights clearly set on Broadway, and he believes that Atlantis will be the first of his musicals to reach a world-wide audience. He’s not alone in that belief, for Atlantis has already had two workshopped readings in New York and garnered the interest of Disney executives and London and New York producers, but it’s not luck that has got him this far. Along with his monumental talent, Matthew is smart enough to understand that he has to be entrepreneurial to have a chance of Broadway success.

Matthew has always been a Stephen Schwartz fan; Pippin is his favourite Schwartz musical and he played the title role in Kookaburra’s production of the show. It seemed logical, in 2009, to send the composer an email, using a now defunct address that he found on the net. Schwartz agreed to look at Metro Street and give feedback.

“It was amazing,” Matt recalls. “He pinpointed all the areas that I knew had problems but hadn’t been able to fix. With just a few words and broad brush-strokes, he unlocked the closed door in my mind, and I could see what needed to be done.” Next, Matthew’s mother gave him a ticket to New York; the perfect opportunity to catch up with Schwartz in person. This time the composer gave the young acolyte several hours face to face and it was Schwartz’s turn to be amazed. “He was concerned that my “fixes” would just open up more holes and compound the problems.” Matthew recalls. “He was quite astonished that I’d taken all his advice and he was very excited by the project. He even said he was proud of the extra work I’d done. You can imagine how that felt.”

It made perfect sense when Matthew was awarded the Churchill Fellowship and had to choose a mentor that he would name Stephen Schwartz. “He’s introduced me to people, and there’s no doubt that he’s helped me enormously with understanding structure and placement of emotional beats. But I know that ultimately, no matter how many doors are opened, it is only the quality of the work itself that will allow me to enter and close the door behind me.”

Now, with the Australia Council Music Fellowship making travel more affordable and allowing Matt breathing space to work on Atlantis in New York, the dream of Broadway is one step closer. “It’s a BIG musical, a spectacle” Matt explains. “It’s going to cost a lot of money to mount, so I owe it to potential producers, as well as to myself, to keep honing it, keep improving.”

All of this is the stuff that biopics are made of, and a far cry from the 17 year old boy from Rockhampton in Queensland who flew to Perth to start his WAAPA Music Theatre course more than a dozen years ago now. “I was so green, it was embarrassing,” he says. “I arrived in my board shorts and thongs and I really thought Perth was the Big Smoke. It was New York to me. Everyone seemed so sophisticated, and I would watch fellow students, Lucy Durack was one, in awe, wondering if I actually belonged there. But I’ve always had faith in my talent. I think you have to, in order to keep going through the knock-backs. WAAPA really changed my life and it taught me that the older you get, the more you realise that the people who were there at the beginning are the ones you need with you when success beckons.”

Tomorrow night, Sunday Feb 23^rd, in two shows at Chapel off Chapel (6pm and 8.30pm), Matthew and a stellar cast, including Lucy Durack, Bert LaBonte and Gareth Keegan, will present the World Premiere of Atlantis in concert. This is not just a workshop, although of course Matthew will be taking note of reactions to everything, even in his role of Musical Director. This is our first chance to hear the score, and some of the scenes, of what may well be the next HUGE success on Broadway. But can we claim it as an Australian Musical? “ It takes an enormous team effort to get a show to Broadway or the West End,” Matthew explains. “In that respect it is International. But I’m Australian, and so is this amazing cast, and whatever happens in the future, the World Premiere is here. Australians will be the first to (hopefully) love it, and so yes….it’s Australian. Everything else is in the lap of the Gods.”

There are still some seats for the 8.30pm show on Sunday 23^rd February at Chapel off Chapel.

Rehearsal images: (top) Emily Langridge, Lucy Durack,  Matthew Robinson, Sophie Carter and Lisa-Marie Parker; (middle) L-R: Melissa Langton, Bert LaBonte, Kellie Rode, Gareth Keegan, Lucy Durack, Matthew Robinson (on keyboards) Anne Wood, Cameron MacDonald and Emily Langridge & (lower) Kellie Rode, Bert LaBonte, Gareth Keegan, Sophie Carter and Lucy Durack.

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