MUSE Repertory Season 2014

This year, the University of Sydney Musical Theatre Ensemble embarks on an ambitious season of firsts. Playing for two weeks at the King Street Theatre, the society will present Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle and the Australian debut of Schmidt and Jones’ 110 in the Shade from 15th-25th October, 2014.

When Anyone Can Whistle premiered on Broadway in 1964, it ran for nine shows and was then dumped. It was years ahead of its time. MUSE believes that this cult favourite’s time has finally come. Anyone Can Whistle is wickedly sharp, deliberately pointed and can be considered the blueprint for Sondheim’s creative legacy.

This town needs a miracle. Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper’s solution? Wheel in a water-spouting miracle rock and watch the residents flock to see the spectacle. Yet when Nurse Fay Apple brings her patients from the local mental asylum to cure themselves, madness ensues as Fay threatens to blow the Mayoress’ cover. In the chaos, the Cookies and residents are mixed up and Fay refuses to discern who is who. Enter Doctor Hapgood, who, in a flurry of wit and song sweeps the throughly confused town and Nurse Fay Apple off their feet. But is Hapgood really who he says he is, can Fay let go of her inhibitions and let herself fall in love and will the pair be able to separate the Cookies from the Pilgrims before the Mayoress ruins the town once again?

The production team includes Co-Director Alexander Andrews, Co-Director and Vocal Director Olivia Aleksoski, Music Director Doug Emery, Choreographer Louise Flynn and Producer Charlotte Moore.

Cast

Cora - Dani El-Rassi

Fay - Sarah Gaul

Hapgood - Curtis Goding

Schub - Jordan Shea

Cooley - William Wally Allington

Magruder - India Cordony

Detmold - Oliver Harris

Mrs Schroeder - Natasha Stanton

Baby Joan - Anna Colless

Osgood - Noemi Mendez

June - Bronwyn Hicks

Narrator - Rachel Dalleywater

Man 1/George - Gavin Brown

Man 2/John - Aidan Kane

Man 3/Ballerina - Georgina Spong

Man 4 - William Cook

Martin - Ben Kelly

Drunk Nurse - Mamie Gibson

Telegraph Girl - Genevieve de Souza

Texas, 1930. Everyone is longing for rain, and Lizzie Curry is looking for love. Her wit, intelligence and skills can't make up for the fact that she can't find someone who sees the beauty and longing she holds inside. Even the town sheriff, for whom she harbors a secret yearning, won't take a chance. However, when a charismatic rainmaker named Starbuck enters the town and her family's life, everyone’s world is turned upside down. 110 in the Shade is a beautiful tale of trust and choice and the search for the right man.

Jonathan Rush will direct, with vocal and band directors Lisa-Marie Long and Oliver Cameron and producer Mark Somerville. With a score by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, the duo behind 'The Fantasticks', 110 in the Shade is adapted from N. Richard Nash’s hit play 'The Rainmaker'. After a critically acclaimed revival on Broadway with Audra McDonald in 2007, 110 in the Shade has re-emerged from the history books.

Cast

Lizzie - Bridget Haberecht

Starbuck - Dominic Scarf

File - Isaac Carroll

H.C.- Robert Boddington

Noah - Jack Andrew-Kabilafkas

Jimmy - Harry Flitcroft

Snookie - Jane Hughes

Chorus - Joshua Choo, Uma Dobia, Gabby Florek, Emily Greenberg, Jacinta Gregory, Rose McClelland, Davis Murphy, Alexander Norden, Zara Stanton, Daniel Verschuer