Margaret Fulton The Musical

Margaret Fulton, Australia’s original domestic goddess, broadened stodgy Western recipes in the 1960s and 70s by introducing an international influence simple enough to appeal to the least skilled bachelor and interesting enough to whet the appetite of the most practiced home cook. Based on her autobiography, Margaret Fulton The Musical celebrates the lady and her life. ThIs musical, infused with the colours, sounds and flavours of mid-century Australia and London, capture Margaret’s character and how she changed what we ate.

The performances were all strong and the performers were in great voice. Judy Hainsworth’s portrayal encapsulates all of Margaret’s classy style along with her pragmatic Australian earthiness, broad-minded but never crass. The supporting cast share several different roles from Margaret’s sex worker friend in late 1940s Sydney, her Scottish mother (in a mustard tam’o’shanter and a crochet shawl), a succession of loser husbands and one genuine love match (played with affection by Conor Ensor). We discover how she met hardship, betrayal and tragedy with a pragmatic good humour, soldiering on with an extraordinary inner strength.

On the night I saw it, the Queanbeyan River which is about 300m away from the theatre, was under threat of flooding after a day of torrential downpour and the opening night audience was definitely down. I wondered whether this was why the show felt a little lacklustre. The actors seemed to have difficulty adapting to The Q’s narrow stage, often singing in pools of darkness (to the point that my companion thought it was a preview and said it would improve after blocking). Whatever it was that was going on, it should improve later in the season.

While never quite reaching greatness, Yuri Worontschak’s songs were good, appropriately drawing from forties swing, fifties spiritual and blues, and the psychodelia of the sixties and seventies. Costuming and the set created a fabulous retro spectacle, and the choreography was simple but effective.

It’s hard for us to imagine now that as recently as the 1970s, the options for women’s employment were largely limited to cooking, cleaning, hairdressing and secretarial work. Margaret Fulton took one of those roles and made an international success of it, and this musical is the celebration she deserves. A few minor production quibbles aside, it was a good night out.

Cathy Bannister

Michele E. Hawkins also reviewed Margaret Fulton the Musical at The Q.

Margaret Fulton came to prominence as a cookery writer and demonstrator in the 1950s and ’60s, and was a household name by the time her enormously successful cookbook, The Margaret Fulton Cookbook, was published in 1968.  Many alive then will remember well how this book revolutionised home cooking and entirely changed the landscape of home cuisine, ushering in the era of the dinner party in ordinary households.

Margaret Fulton the Musical has two threads: Fulton’s professional life and rise to fame, and her personal life, which perhaps receives the greater exploration.  Margaret creates her own recipes for increasingly interesting dishes, and it’s this skill and her professionalism that (in ways not apparent in the musical) see her deepening influence on Australian homemakers (resulting in award of the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1983 and her inclusion in the list of 100 Australian Living Treasures by the National Trust of Australia in 1998).  On the personal front, the show depicts Margaret’s close relationship with her mother and amusing highlights of her three marriages.

The several costumes for Margaret Fulton evoked the 1960s, to an extent; and the occasional addition of aprons to other cast members’ otherwise nondescript outfits served to remind us of a time when every housewife wore one.  The set, too spartan to give an impression of anything beyond a rather plain home kitchen of the time, could perhaps have more concretely reflected Margaret’s personality.  Using a kitchen on one side and a table serving various functions on the other made it useable for home and work settings, but the kitchen itself could have been much more richly and aptly decorated, and the table could also have been put to better use with enlivening props.

Judy Hainsworth, as Margaret Fulton, and Jessica Kate Ryan, Zoë Harlen, Paige McKay, Conor Ensor, and Clancy Enchelmaier, in various roles, give solid performances throughout.  The musical numbers are by and large not memorable, but their arrangements are interesting, and the singing and dancing went without a hitch.  What the production perhaps fails to show are Margaret Fulton's deep fascination and love for food; how that fascination led to her career changes; her genuine positivity, her glass always more than half full; and above all her genuine humility and appreciation of her good fortune.

Michele E. Hawkins