Scientology: The Musical

With a very famous Broadway musical which comedically focuses on a ‘particular’ religion now on stage all over the world, it was topical to go and see what this ‘Scientology’ thing is all about. Scientology: The Musical, playing at the somewhat run-down venue of ‘The Warehouse at The Producers’, is a good satirical look at a religion many of us only associate with aliens and Tom Cruise.

Scientology the Musicalbrings the audience into the secretive life of the Scientologist and the teachings of L Ron Hubbard. For those with little basic understanding of this man and the beliefs of this group, the show would be a little confusing. The players in this piece, written by George Glass and created by the clever Adelaide troupe that performed Abbott! The Musical, have their tongues firmly in their cheeks. The storytelling of the induction of a new Scientology recruit is interwoven with pop rock style music. There were, on opening night, some issues with sound mixing, but presumably as the run progresses these wrinkles will be well and truly ironed out.

The audience was enthusiastic about the gags and the exposé of the secrets of this unusual religion. A favourite part of mine was the Scientologists trying to justify whether or not it is a religion - very funny.

The talented cast of six not only sing and act but many play multiple instruments. Lisa Harper Campbell played George Glass. Her clarity of diction and acting was excellent. Pud Hamilton as Brad carried much of the storytelling and was very funny as the lead ‘teacher’, as he grappled with explaining some of the dubious logic. Dan Murnane and Nic Conway were also excellent as Perry Coworker and Susan Munt, carefully embedding their psychological techniques upon the innocent and confused George. Henry Gazzola rounded out the cast, mainly playing a musical role.

A highlight for me was the metaphorical ‘climbing inside’ the suitcase containing the Operating Level 3 Thetan truths - highlighting how followers must ‘give their all’. The finale where we meet Xemu, the alien on whom the whole religion is based, and the reason why we earthlings deal daily with Thetans (whose souls are attached to ours) was very clever. The premise comes from the once guarded information that we suffer because the Thetans were destroyed by volcanoes 75 million years ago. This was shocking - mainly in the fact that this is considered to be truth! Google it!

I enjoyed this night of theatre despite the fact that this was not the greatest venue for this clever show.

Shelley Hampton

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