Stalker: The Musical

Imagine a place where the word “love” doesn't exist. Where people believe they'll be hurt if they touch each other; where the only form of intimacy is watching others do mundane tasks such as calculating taxes or playing solitary games.

That's the premise for Stalker: The Musical, written by three Australians for the New York International Fringe Festival a few years ago and now making its Australian premiere. The title is provocative but the stalking here is a boring substitute for love. In this town, the mayor has taught - or indeed ordered - residents to look rather than touch. But a stranger arriving from elsewhere gives a young couple encouragement to pursue their feelings - and break taboos.

The show is staged by RPG Productions, an independent company behind an incredibly good production of the musical Big Fish at Sydney's Hayes Theatre in 2017. Now it’s using Depot Theatre, which has also staged very good productions, including Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along with an extremely talented young cast earlier this year.

Stalker: The Musical showed such promise, once again bringing together an energetic, passionate young cast. This is an original piece that an Australian creative team has worked on for years and no doubt will continue to refine. They deserve encouragement and praise for their efforts. But unfortunately the show misses the mark.

There are some beautiful melodies from composer Andy Peterson, most notably the song “Flavour of the Week”, where an ice-cream seller draws parallels with fleeting love - or in this case, stalking. “Crack in the Wall” is also sweet and lyrical, sung with a beautiful tone by Emma Taviani, one of the best in the cast (playing Ava).

But otherwise, the numbers are not memorable. When a nice tune begins, it disappears too quickly and many of the songs are simple ditties with little impact. The choreography is also basic and lacks emotive connection with the music.

Kaleigh Wilkie-Smith’s direction keeps the pace up but the cast members are too often occupied with moving the set around unnecessarily. They need more clarity but they’re also working with a script that needs work. The show is not funny enough, coming across a little weird rather than satirical. The best moments are when the actors don’t take themselves seriously, such as an aircraft-noise gag inspired by the planes flying over the theatre.

We need to see more musicals and theatre written by Australians and there is potential here that should be developed. Some of the less successful scenes should be cut, others reworked and the more beautiful melodies teased out. A lot of the singing is strong, with well-executed harmonies and the final number is impactful. But unfortunately this show needs more work.

Peter Gotting

Photographer: Grant Leslie.