TGM ...The Musical

by embee Tue 30 Oct 2007, 01:50

Producers bowled over by Shane Warne musical

Article from: TGM ...The Musical H14_theaustralian

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Michael Bodey

October 30, 2007 08:18am

COMEDY producer Token Events has beaten the biggest theatrical producers and theatre companies to develop and produce Shane Warne: The Musical.
Eddie Perfect's loving homage features a power ballad about beer, a Bollywood parody featuring the Indian bookie, a thrash metal tribute to diet pills called Hush Little Shane and the song What an SM-ess I Am In.

It is believed a number of subsidised theatre companies and commercial producers bid for comedy cabaret artist Perfect's show after he showcased a work in progress at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in July.

Sydney's Company B and The Sydney Opera House are understood to have been key among them.

All were keen to replicate the success of Casey Bennetto's Keating! The Musical. That show has sold out four seasons and been a major financial boon for Company B.

Perfect played former Liberal leader John Hewson in the satire on the former Labor prime minister's career. More than 115,500 people have seen Keating! since Company B began producing it last year. It has another Sydney season in November and will begin an Australian tour in January.

Perfect's decision to side with Kevin Whyte's Token Events will surprise theatrical circles, although Token has had much success touring comedy acts including Rove McManus, Lano and Woodley, Judith Lucy and Dave Hughes. Sales for Token's upcoming live tour of ABC TV's Spicks and Spicks are already in the tens of thousands.

"Shane Warne: The Musical has been an unusual show from the start, a kind of left field idea," Perfect said.

"It's great to team up with Kevin Whyte and Token Events ... We want to make music theatre for a new audience and do justice to what I think is a remarkable story and an incredible life."

Perfect's rendering of Warne's life is said to be surprisingly sympathetic, with its moral perspective viewed through the eyes of his long-suffering ex-wife, Simone. Its rough cut won universally positive reviews in July.

The show is expected to premiere next year, with an English tour a distant but likely prospect.
The Australian