Paul bearer

Paul McDermott devotees take note: the caustic comic is off and running in his first theatre role, as seductive dream guy Darryl van Horne in the The Witches of Eastwick. The musical comedy, which also stars Marina Prior, leaves room for McDermott's improvisional skills should inspiration strike. See if he can conquer musical theatre - as he has stand-up comedy, radio and TV - during Witches of Eastwick's season at the Princess Theatre. Tickets are currently available up to September 6 from Ticketek, ranging from $53 to $88. - Herald Sun - Thursday 15/8/02

The Devil Inside

He has gone from shock comedy to musical theatre, but Paul McDermott is no sellout, he tells Sarah Hudson.

Paul McDermott is not happy with his lukewarm pot of tea. Sitting in a swanky Melbourne city cafe, the cranky star dips his hand into the pot, indicating his dissatisfaction.

"I shouldn't be able to do this, should I?" he shrieks, flickinf the tea about. "I hate people who make tepid tea."

The outburst - part performance, part sincere displeasure - quickly passes and he launches into a mild-mannered, serious analysis of religion.

This snapshot is quintessential McDermott.

The nasty host, quick-witted commentator and angelic singer of Good News Week is equally capable of being naughty yet nice, sugar with spice.

So it's no surprise the producers of The Witches of Eastwick, which transforms the book by John Updike and 1987 movie into a musical, thought he'd be ideal as that smooth personification of the Devil, Darryl van Horne.

Despite being raised a devout Catholic, McDermott admits the role - played by Jack Nicholson in the film - has always had his name on it.

"It's a role that suits me," he says. "I was told I was a demonic child from the outset with the voice of an angel and the mind of a devil."

In the musical Mcdermott locks horns with three single women - Marina Prior, Pippa Grandison and Angela Toohey - witches who, frustrated by the prissiness of the town of Eastwick, are seduced by their leading man.

It is a seduction, he admits, that has raised the odd puritan eyebrow.

"A number of people have been scared of the subtext of demonology, which I think is bizarre.

"Surely the extent of evil and fantasy in The Wizard of Oz should be an absolute shocker. There are two witches in that and one of them dies after a house falls on her."

But in typical McDermott fashion, he says the show is much more than just the devilish antics of three witches and Satan.

The serious social commentator kicks in and he describes The Witches of Eastwick as a critique on the individual.

"My interpretation of it would be there are many different ways of viewing life and personal freedom is sometimes grown at an extraordinary price and you can't be dictated to by the majority.

"I bring out in the women their innermost desires, their artistic nature. They not only find fulfilment in themselves but also in power."

If McDermott espouses personal freedom, he certainly practises what he preaches.

In accepting the role of van Horne in Witches he leaves himself open to accusations of selling out and going mainstream.

He is the first to admit he has never even seen, let alone performed, in a musical. He started out busking with the Doug Anthony All Stars, shocking and offending audiences. The All Stars later went on televison, then he became host of Good News Week.

"I'm not a big fan of musicals," he says. "My arts history is alternative comedy, fringe-based or extreme hard-core comedy - comedy with edge.

"But I was criticised for being mainstream with GNW and the All Stars were criticised when he did the Today show. And I never thought I'd do breakfast radio. It's just subjective opinion by people.

"I've always had this thing about musical theatre. I've never seen myself doing it and that's a bit silly, so I thought I'd give it a go."

He says the experience has been a sharp learning curve, requiring him to strengthen his voice and learn dance routines and all the tricks of the stage.

"They all do stretches and stuff and I could not get the warm-ups right. I'd be standing up the back like a goose.

"I have a dresser. I've never had someone dress me before. There's a whole different world there that I've never been a part of."

Fans will be happy to hear McDermott has been given a long leash in his role. He can ad lib when the mood's right. "There's scope for play" is all he will venture to say.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh, who created the show in the UK, has high hopes for his star, believing he can help kick-start an arts genre that most believe is ageing, if not dying.

"I've not thought of myself as the new hope, but it's kind of Cameron to say that," McDermott says. "You have to be able to reinvent the form and while this is not reinventing it, it does go down some intersting alleys and back streets.

"There's self-parody. It's a self-awar musical."

Like musical, like man: McDermott in self-aware mode (with a hint of self-parody) says Witches is just one new chapter in his varied and colourful career.

Next he plans to write and illustrate another book, titled The Girl Who Swallowed Bees. Then maybe he'll be a contemporary artist.

"I'm a perfectionist, but I'm a lousy perfectionist," he grumbles.

"I want to do something I won't succeed in, like being a plumber."

daas capital (they spelt it wrong!!!!)

Life after the doug anthony all stars It took 10 years, but in 1994 creative tension finally got to the Doug Anthony All Stars, the satirical comedy trio Paul McDermott, Tim Ferguson and Richard Fidler. We know what happened to McDermott, but where are Ferguson and Fidler?

Tim Ferguson

Ferguson's first post-DAAS gig was that rarest of Working Dog commodities, a failed project, Funky Squad. He followed that with the Channel 9 comedy game show Don't Forget Your Toothbursh. When that was axed he passed this time writing two novels, Left, Right and Centreand Madhouse and producing the Foxtel drama Shock Jock.

Richard Fidler

After hosting the successful first series of the ABC's Race Around the World, Fidler then hosted a 13-part pop science show Aftershock for the ABC. The show, which replaced the long-running Quantum was a flop, only attracting 100,000 or so viewers per episode. In March this year Fidler was appointed editorial manager in the comedy department of the ABC (the same department which tried to rid itself of Kath & Kim). - Herald Sun, 8 August 2002

Of Keychains and Show tunes

by Jo Roberts

John Dempsey gasps with joy. In the merchandise cabinet upstairs at Melbourne's Princess Theatre, he's spotted a keychain for the musical, The Witches of Eastwick. He can hardly contain himself as he explains the significance of this humble, albeit glittering prize.

"I have had the same keychain since I was 16 years old," says the37-year-old excitedly. "It's for Evita. And I always said I would neverchange that keychain until one of my shows had a keychain ... and now I can do it! It's like a dream for me! I can't tell you what a thrill that is."

He pauses to take it all in. "I've arrived!"

The New York writer arrived in Melbourne last week with composer Dana P.Rowe, 45, for the Australian premiere of their musical, The Witches ofEastwick, which opens on Friday night at the Princess Theatre.

Based on the John Updike novel and the 1987 film of the same name, the musical comedy premiered at London's Drury Lane Theatre in 2000, where it had 600 performances before moving to the Prince of Wales, for a similarly successful run. Other productions of Witches are opening in Tokyo and Moscow next year, and a New York production is on the cards. Yet only a few years ago, Dempsey and Rowe were virtually unknown. From obscurity to keychains.

It wasn't until British producer Cameron Mackintosh saw their musical, The Fix, in London in 1996 that their careers turned skywards.

Mackintosh, a multi-millionaire who owns seven London theatres and "a few" houses, is arguably the king of musicals, his success earning him a knighthood in 1996. In London, Cats just finished a 21-year-run. Les Miserables turns 18 in October and Phantom of the Opera has run 17 years. Miss Saigon just finished a 10-year run. As Dempsey and Rowe talk about Mackintosh, he sweeps in.

"Hello, hello, hello," he greets Dempsey and Rowe, having not seen them for several months. Mackintosh, a youthful 55-year-old, is a picture of tanned health. Healthier, he reveals, than many in the Witches cast, who have been struck down by flu.

"I've never known so many people to be (sick) during a show," he exclaims. "Never. Within 24 hours" - he makes an explosive sound - "It's hit Paul (McDermott), it's hit Geraldine (Turner) ... it's hit the little girl."

What little girl?

"That's her role. The Little Girl.

"We hope everyone will be back by opening night," he says. "We've got a long preview period, so it's better to have had it in the first week, as it were ... it's been an offstage nightmare."

Dempsey and Rowe can count their blessings. Although Mackintosh found much to like about The Fix, the British press didn't, thinking its premise - described by Dempsey as the rise of "the idiot son of a political dynasty" - too far-fetched, and soundly panned the show.

"You look at what's going on with George W. Bush now and it's tame," he laughs.

But when the reviews came out, the pair weren't laughing. The day after, Mackintosh took the devastated pair - "John and I were pretty low," admits Rowe - to lunch and asked them what their next plans were.

"I remember looking at him and going 'how stupid do you think I am? Why would I ever want to write another musical? Thank you for your vote of confidence, but I think I've had enough, thank you'," recalls Rowe. "And he said 'no, that's ridiculous, you have to'."

So what did Mackintosh see in The Fix that the critics couldn't?

"To be honest, they were original. It wasn't like anything else I'd seen," he says. "And not just terrific tunes, but great words. Most of the things I get, there are no words, or unbelievably awful, boring words. John has a particular view on life which has a sharp edge and is completely in my sense of humour. I went 'ooh! I really like this'. It's always been a problem, but it's worse now because there are less people doing it - people don't understand the craft of writing musicals."

Mackintosh later staged The Fix in Washington in 1997, where it was a success. With all three now feeling encouraged, Mackintosh gave Dempsey and Rowe a list of about 12 Warner Brothers movies that could be "musicalised". Of those listed, it was The Witches of Eastwick that caught the pair's eyes.

"We were looking for something that was comedic ... something that had a sense of magic to it ... it's very hard to find a property that has those things that works in musical terms," says Rowe. "It also afforded us an opportunity to have a fantastic leading man character and three leading ladies which, to my knowledge, hadn't even been done up to that point. The minute you get three women together, for me as a composer, it's just heaven, because I love the sound of women's voices together."

"And the idea of a small-town setting was very attractive," adds Dempsey. "There's nothing like gossipy townspeople to add some fun."

Dempsey says the Witches musical is "about a third the movie, a third the book, and a third our own sort of invention. It's probably truer to John Updike's vision than the movie. But in the book, they're already witches at the beginning. The smartest thing they did in the movie, which we had to use, was we got to follow the women on their journey, we got to see them discover their power."

And the audience gets to see this in spectacular fashion when Marina Prior, Pippa Grandison and Angela Toohey, on discovering their bewitching powers, soar up through the middle of the theatre. It looks magical, but is a precise, high-tech operation.

Mackintosh says it is, "not so much spectacular as enchanting, it makes people go 'oooh'. It's truly wonderful".

Rowe hasn't tired of the scene yet. "Whenever I'm in the audience and see it happen, I just become a kid again. I forget I wrote the show, the music, I just forget everything and enjoy."

Mackintosh is clear he wants to expand theatre audiences to attract younger people. The enormous success of Mamma Mia! proved that if the show is right, audiences of any age will come. He sees The Witches of Eastwick fitting a similar bill.

"There's been a lot written about the theatre not being cool and young people not wanting to go to theatre. The fact is, they do want to go to theatre, if it's something for them. They won't go for the sake of it."

One drawcard for younger audiences could be Paul McDermott, the golden-tonsilled comedian, former Doug Anthony All-Star and Good News Week host.

Mackintosh says he had "vaguely" heard of McDermott before his name was put forward.

"They sent me a tiny bit of video. I think it was bit of film in a concert or something, but he was a live animal. He had something special about him, but you couldn't tell from that what he would do in a show, and I think that's what's been a revelation for everybody - and for him. He didn't know really what the show was meant to be until he was standing in front of an audience here! But he smelt this was something he wanted to do."

Mackintosh says he is "completely different" from the two actors who played Van Horne in London.

"Paul McDermott is completely unique. He possessed the role. The original guy (Ian McShane) didn't quite make it his own ... Clark Peters was terrific in his own way, but he's not quite a star.

"What intrigued me was that (McDermott) was a star in his own world, which meant he was used to taking that kind of responsibility, playing to enormous houses and being able to be individual to a lot of people at the same time. He's like a demonic Pied Piper!"

The Witches of Eastwick is in preview and opens on Friday at the Princess Theatre. - The Age, 19 August 2002

Stricken cast has the devil to pay

Lightning strikes and thunder roars when Paul McDermott struts his stuff.

The sound effects, his wicked ways and the trademark scarlett clothing indicate he is the devil in disguise in the musical The Witches of Eastwick.

The musical comedy, which has its Australian premiere at the Princess Theatre on Friday, has enjoyed a successful season on London's West End.

But the show has already it a snag with flu-like sickness leaving some of the cast bedridden.

And major cast member Geraldine Turner was pulled from previews this week.

With no one left to play key character Felicia Gabriel after both Turner and her understudy became ill, producer Cameron Mackintosh was forced on Monday to fly in the star of the London Production.

Rosemart Ashe appeared in the show last night after just a few hours' rehearsal with McDermott and company, and she will remain until Turner is fit to return to the stage.

Singers Marina Prior, Angela Toohey and Pippa Grandison star in Witches as an ordinary trio with mystical powers.

But the tree wily women from the buttoned-up New England town of Eastwick don't know what they are in for when they wish for an amazing lover to walk into their lives.

McDermott takes to the stage as the devilish Darryl van Horne to treat the witches to some of his unique charm, and the small town gossip mill begins. - Herald Sun, 21 August 2002

Every witch way

Poking your nose into someone's business can mean trouble, writes Shaunagh O'Connor

It's easy to pick a nosy neighbour by the twitching venetians. But it's the way they hose down the path in order to observe the street that is such a dead give-away.

Now take this nosy parker, add a bad attitude and you have Geraldine Turner's character in The Witches of Eastwick.

A stalwart of Australian musical theatre, Turner, has battled weeks of "the Melbourne flu", she says, to play morals watchdog Felicia Gabriel in the musical comedy which opens on Friday.

Previews saw Turner miming a soundtrack for some of her songs as there was no one to replace her: her understudy came down with the same illness.

Show producer Cameron Mackintosh flew in actor Rosemart Ashe from London to take on the part of Felicia last night.

But Turner is determined to be in makeup and wig for opening night.

"I love her, I think she's terrific," Turner says of her character.

"It's never stated, but I guess the show's set in the late 1950's or early '60s in a small town in America, so the moralistic sttitude that Felicia has was prevalent then."

In the small New Englans town of Eastwick, Felicia is out to spoil the fun of three women who have magical powers.

"(At) the last house I owned with my husband in Sydney, there was a lady across the road who we would call Gladys Kravitz - that woman from Bewitched, the nosy neighbour from across the street.

"Every time we stepped outside the house she happened to be outside too. She knew everything that was going on in the street."

Turner sings and dances her way through Witches and has a key role in bringing the magic to the stage.

The witches are seduced by a devilish new resident in town, played by Paul McDermott, who awakens their magical powers.

Tricks include a flying sequence in which the women soar over the audience, a cello playing itself, pyrotechnics, thunder and lightening, and some gruesome scenes after the witches cast their spell over Felicia.

"I had to sign a confidentiality contract about the tricks, and I've had magic lessons," Turner says.

In part, it was the magical element that attracted the one-time child performer to the show.

"And I really like the fact we would be working with the writers and creating a new show because the show's quite different from the way it was in London (in its West End production). There are new bits of music and some new scenes."

Turner, known to audiences from the work as a caberat performer, on TV and in the movies Careful He Might Hear You and The Wogboy, has teamed again with Cameron Mackintosh, who was responsible for the English production of Witches.

Turner played Nancy in his 1983 Australian tour of Oliver!- a show he is bringing back to Melbourne in October.

Because the first Australian run of Witches is in Melbourne, Turner has had to leave her home and husband, conductor Brian Castles-Onion, in Sydney. But she's philosophical about the seperation.

"It's goof for a relationship because you look forward to seeing each other and times together are fantastic," Turner says.

"I can't imagine when people say, "I've never spent a night away from my husband". It's not a bad thing, it's just out of my realm of experience. I don't understand what that would be like." - Herald Sun, 21 August 2002

What a witch!

The cocktail party at Becco for The Witches of Eastwick play on Tuesday night was suppose to be an opportunity for producer Cameron Mackintosh to meet some Melbourne media.

Instead, it was also the introduction of actor Rosemary Ashe, who came from London (leaving her current role in Les Miserables to be performed by her undersudy) to replace Geraldine Turner, who has a respiratory illness.

No one knew what to make of Rosemary, who arrived in a weird get-up - a boxy jacket, tulip skirt, bouffant hair and false eyelashes.

Luckily, Cameron stepped in to explain that Rosemary was in costume, having just come from rehearsal.

Lawt night was opening night of the play, and Geraldine - who had missed only five shows in her entire career until this point - will have to wait in the wings until she gets better. - Herald Sun, 24 August 2002

Paul's a devil of pick

Witches conjure up a powerful brew

Make no mistake, the casting of the uniquely talented Paul McDermott as a difficult, prickly, rude, self-obsessed devil in the musical The Witches of Eastwick was inspired.

He seems born for the role. As the devilish Darryl van Horne, McDermott stole the show's opening night.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh was thrilled with his star's performance describing McDermott as "similar to (Hollywood stars) Bill Murray and Jim Carrey - yet still a completely original talent".

With girlfriend Malvadee McIvor by this side, McDermott's reply to such lofty was - completely originial.

"Whow are those people?" he said. "Its been so long since I watched American cinema I do not know who those people are. I prefer Czechoslavakian cinema, myself."

Stage star Marina Prior, who plays one of the three frustrated women who bring to life van Horne, looked like she had just stepped off the Oscar's red carpet in a stunning silver and turquoise-beaded Collette Dinnigan gown.

Prior said she was revelling in her role, which is a major departure from the straight-laced, serious musical theatre roles for which she is best known.

"I am loving it. It is like being let out of prison," she said.

After a chequered preview season when illness ravaged the cast, the touring party was ready to play up and play hard at the opening night after party. A sea of classic martinis waited for thirsty guests at the Regent Plaza Ballroom. They did not last long with guests pouncing on them like parched travellers who had just crawled out of the desert.

Molly Meldrum, who has now racked up five months without a cigarette, spun some magic behing the DJ turntable. Serious actor David Wenham talked business to Madga Szubanski and Jacinta Stapleton, the newest recruit to the Stingers, turned up with her "personal stylist" Daniel Manning doubling as her date for the evening. - Herald Sun, 25 August 2000

Satirical, satanic McDermott leads a devilish dance

Any idea that survives translation from book to film and then to a musical has to have something solid behind it, and The Witches of Eastwick begins with a timeless starring role, that of the Devil. Added to that is a satirical swipe at American Puritanism, a dash of women's liberation and a generous amount of sex: a combination that can hardly fail.

It still took John Dempsey and Dana P. Rowe several years to produce the book, lyrics and music, with lots of encouragement from Cameron Mackintosh. It failed to produce a musical hit, although the songs are pleasant and Stephen Mear's and Bob Avian's choreography is high-energy stuff that includes lots of dance jokes. Letting libidos and lechery loose among a cast dressed in prim 1960s gear is often hilarious, just for a start.

The show stands or falls on its Darryl van Horne, the Devil from the Gomorrah of New York.Casting Paul McDermott, with his background in the Doug Anthony Allstars, an international musical comedy sensation, and his many subsequent television successes, has proved a stroke of genius.

Jack Nicholson, who starred in the film version of The Witches of Eastwick, is a hard act to follow, but McDermott brings a unique edginess and unconventional comic skill to the role, and he turns out to be able to dance as well as he can sing.

McDermott instantly claims the audience as he allies in the games he plays with the good burghers of Eastwick. A look, a smirk, a raised eyebrow is all it takes to put us in the know. His seduction of the three women who become the witches is laughably easy, but we know that he represents their collective wish-fulfilment hero, and Eastwick's representatives of masculinity are no competition at all.

John Updike's novel was all about redrawing the boundaries, and he manages to have it both ways in his novel. Darryl represents a necessary corrective to hypocritical no-sayers, but his devilish nature then has to be curbed when the real damage begins.

The witches turn out to be more than a match for him. Marina Prior as Jane Smart demonstrates that her ing้nue days are behind her, replaced here with a delightfully wicked transformation into rule-breaking vamp. Pippa Grandison as Sukie Rougemont is a contrast in style, but her alteration from wholesome to earthly is also a delight.

Angela Toohey as the sculptor Alexandra Spofford is the leader of the group, and she successfully conveys the older woman's feisty readiness to embrace "free love" without inhibition or hang-ups. The three women work beautifully as a warm ensemble, united in their otherness from the uptight little community of Eastwick.

Rosemary Ashe has made a heroic dash from London to stand in for the indisposed Geraldine Turner as Felicia Gabriel. She won an Olivier Award from best supporting actress in this role in the London version of The Witches of Eastwick, so her performance is first class. She manages to make Felicia both funny and hateful, no small task, and proves to be a great dancer, too. Her vocal numbers make a microphone an irrelevance as she bellows and rants at her long-suffering husband Clyde.

In this role Tony Sheldon is hilarious and sometimes sad, representing the real sacrificial victim in this witches' brew of a tale. Young performers Matt Lee and Penny McNamee, as Michael Spofford and Jennifer Gabriel, make a fresh and happy contrast to the town's elders.

The highlight of the show and its best known song, Dance with the Devil, gives McDermott his best chance to demonstrate the anarchic energy and wicked humour that characterise Darryl.

The joyful shedding of inhibition on the part of the town's dull, henpecked men, the liberating of Michael's adolescent sexual energy, in what might be subtitled the triumph of the phallus, are all wonderfully evoked in a blaze of raunchy dancing, dazzling lighting and pounding music. This show is a lot of fun. - The Age, 26 August 2002

Energetic, but short on witchcraft

Hit movies have become the latest source of new stage musicals. This might be a welcome antidote to the plague of revivals from Oklahoma! to Oliver but these screen-to-stage shows have to battle against cinema's grand scope or come up with novel ways of telling a story if they're to succeed. And like the musicalised The Full Monty, which captures the movie's heartbreak and desperation of the unemployed, they need someone to love and someone to hate. Corny, but true.

Cameron Mackintosh's The Witches of Eastwick (2000) – part John Updike's novel, part George Miller/Warner Bros movie, part new material – has neither. It reduces nearly all the characters to unremarkable stereotypes having a good time in a bygone, picket-fence world of American family values. If there's any point to the story, other than some phony-feminist, New Age self-actualisation, or just learning to love your sex drive, it's hard to find in John Dempsey's book and Dana P. Rowe's music, which wallow in 1950s and '60 pastiche.

Thankfully, the three "witches", divorcees desperate for a decent, passionate man, are fine, comic performers. Marina Prior goes way against type to play the mousy teacher and cellist, Jane Smart, with guts and sharp one-liners before transforming gorgeously into a '60s glamourpuss. She and earthy sculptor, Alexandra Spofford (Angela Toohey), and naive writer Sukie Rougemont (Pippa Grandison), are women who find solace in friendship. Give them a martini and they're dreaming about their ideal kinda guy.

Unwittingly, they summon the devil, the lecherous Darryl Van Horne, who liberates their constipated art, their bodies and their beauty – he even floats them out over the audience – and throws the stitched-up little town into turmoil.

Forget Jack Nicholson's movie Darryl – seedy, fat but sexy as hell. Singer, comic and TV star Paul McDermott makes a happy rake, a chuckling, gabbling serial seducer; he has something of the Road Runner about him as he chases his butler Fidel, a dwarf (James Sallon), across the stage. Act one of Friday's premiere had him doing scads of leg-acting, twirling fingers and wrists, and overacting. By mid act two, ditched by the ladies, he was on a roll, belting out his fury in stunning voice.

A sense of what the show might have become arrives with Felicia Gabriel, the town's ugly conscience and minder, who sees through Darryl and in turn is hexed by him and the witches. British actor and opera singer Rosemary Ashe, who created this role, lets rip with raucous, vicious castigations; she's the monster, la grande macabre the show needs, and a fabulous foil for McDermott. She flew from London at a day's notice to cover for a flu-stricken Geraldine Turner. Hoofing, belting, storm-trooping or vomiting scorpions and buckets of bloody water, she's the ultimate anti-hero.

Fancy gizmos – fireworks, a flying church, sparkles and lollipop coloured designs – kept Friday's premiere audience happy, as did the choreography, which harked back as far as The Pajama Game. At least you can rely on a strong Aussie ensemble to do it proud. Toohey struts her stuff in a strong if retro number, more Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes than Liza on Broadway while Matt Lee, as her son Michael, gets a Saturday Night Fever-style number which lets him shine outside of the show's redundant teen love interest. - The Australian, 26 August 2002

Three bats conjure up evil dream lover

Ooh, witchy women, see how high they fly -- gliding elegantly above our heads in this tale of three small-town friends bewitched by the devil incarnate.

The Witches of Eastwick has all manner of magic but don't be distracted by the slick tricks. In this sexy, high-spirited musical, the spell is cast by the cast.

Not only is everyone excellent, some play radically against type. Ever the cute guy on Good News Week, Paul McDermott, enters lustily into the evil of Darryl van Horne, a playboy devil who regards the world as his mansion. McDermott is a good singer, a competent dancer and has the sort of swagger that makes a nice girl feel very afraid.

Marina Prior, freed from period costume into the guise of sex goddess and comedian (her true self?), is thrilling as Jane, the mouse who turns fatale. No doubt directors will enjoy exploring these facets of Prior in blockbusters to come.

Prior's classical soprano contrasts beautifully with the voices of her co-stars. Angela Toohey, as Alex, has a Shirley Bassey growl that turns Another Night at Darryl's into a high point of vampery.

Pippa Grandison is a sweet, lush Sukie but in Words, Words, Words shows a stunning talent for hysterical, rapid-fire chatter -- without once letting her Yankee accent slip.

Witches is also blessed with one of the best ensembles you will ever see. Mostly they serve the story as Eastwick's gossipmongers, but give these goofy and gorgeous individuals a big dance number and baby, they swing. I would gladly watch The Glory of Me 100 times just to see them shake their booties.

Amid all this campy high comedy there is poignancy, and it's here the production weakens.

The witches' voodoo dabblings cause the death of Felicia (Rosemary Ashe) and husband Clyde (Tony Sheldon), leaving daughter Jennifer (Penny McNamee) alone in the world. Yet the production makes little of it. Who's afraid of a bit of tragedy, then? Especially as it's a turning point in the plot -- the moment the witches realise they must get rid of Darryl before his devilry destroys Eastwick.

That aside, Witches is a pleasurable night out full of yummy, hummable tunes to take away. But beware -- this show is not for children. Take your worldly grandmother or better still, any teenage girl who needs an early warning about wicked, wily men. - Herald Sun, 26 August 2002

Devilishly hard to get just right

With a new Cameron Mackintosh work on the way, Bryce Hallett looks at musicals in the making.

Making new musicals is a tricky business. There's nothing new about this as even the most experienced creators know, be it Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jerry Herman or Stephen Sondheim.

Like Hollywood films, musicals are workshopped, road-tested before preview audiences, sometimes delayed. A song thought pivotal at the outset may suddenly drop out or, as is often the case, a dreary patch of dialogue may be eliminated in favour of a new song to better express the moment.

And if a musical is partly made as a vehicle for a star then the performer can also dictate some of the terms, as a demonstrative Ethel Merman attempted when collaborating with Sondheim on the musical Gypsy.

Traditionally, musicals are the result of a deep-seated commitment to an art form not always taken seriously by the profession, one that is the poor relation to opera and the country-bumpkin cousin to serious drama. These are among some of the perceptions. But the music theatre, at its best, can be as profound as it can be entertaining.

From my experience of interviewing composers, music-drama writers and stars over the years, including Lloyd Webber, Terrence McNally, Nick Enright, Barbara Cook, Caroline O'Connor and Marina Prior, the art form is difficult to crack, hugely collaborative and, when all its parts work as one, a thrilling experience and not merely escapist or recreational fare.

There's no magic formula even though a number of today's composer-lyricist partnerships suggest they are looking for one, straining so hard for inspiration that the result resembles a show made for and by a committee.

It's no accident that Australia's home-grown musicals make a feature of familiar songs, be it those of Peter Allen (The Boy from Oz), Johnny O'Keefe (Shout!) or Burt Bacharach/Hal David (What the Worlds Needs Now). All were concerts, more or less, although The Boy from Oz most successfully integrated drama and song, greatly assisted by the autobiographical nature of Allen's songs, Enright's linchpin words and Gale Edwards's fine staging. It helped too that Todd McKenny turned in a dazzling performance, his energy lifting that of the entire company.

Paul McDermott has made a similar, perhaps even bigger, leap by leading the Australian production of The Witches of Eastwick. As Mel Brooks said of Matthew Broderick in The Producers, McDermott is "surprisingly good". He belts out tunes in key, dances like a pro and brings to the devilish role of Darryl Van Horne the comic timing and wry asides for which he's well known. McDermott's unflagging energy and strong presence enable him to emerge the show's star. By the time the show opens in Sydney his sarcastic retorts and devil-may-care attitude should be working a treat.

For her return to the musical stage, Marina Prior, cast against type as Jane Smart, turns in a classy performance to reveal a side audiences familiar with her work in Phantom are unlikely to have seen.

The Witches of Eastwick comes from the Cameron Mackintosh stable, a newish piece which had to be massaged into shape in London over a lengthy period. It's a throwback to musical comedy of old and though the music by Dana P. Rowe and the lyrics of John Dempsey are none too memorable it's suitably perky and bright, although light. But the production shows that if you get the casting right it is likely to succeed and could be on the road to becoming a hit.

Based on the John Updike novel and the Warner Bros film starring Jack Nicholson, the musical transformation ends up resembling neither. Instead, it's a colourful, grotesque cartoon replete with nostalgia, caricatures, some fabulously overblown song and dance in the number Dance with the Devil, and a midget called Fidel who runs away with the award for the evening's best recurring visual gag.

The Witches of Eastwick originally opened at the cavernous Drury Lane Theatre, but was later moved to a more intimate space to give it another chance, something musicals rarely have the luxury of getting. It is interesting how many modern musicals you think have sunk without trace are doing the rounds of Asia. The return of Mackintosh-branded musicals has been welcomed by the industry (and audiences), not least because they create employment and give opportunities to emerging and established talents. Oliver! has come via the entrepreneurial clout of IMG while the riskier, relatively unknown Witches has come via Jacobsen Entertainment, which recently listed as a public company.

Premiering the musical in comedy capital Melbourne, as was the case with Mamma Mia!, is probably the ideal place to launch the piece - as will be the case for The Full Monty next year - although the opening was not without jitters.

During previews, not only were the three witches flying but so were the rumours about technical hitches. Then the flu bug hit the cast, including Geraldine Turner in the supporting but not inconsequential part of Felicia Gabriel, the town's loathsome hag.

Mackintosh, ever the hands-on mogul, rescued what could have been a middling opening night. Soon after Turner became ill, he imported performer Rosemary Ashe who created the supporting role in London and won an Olivier Award for it. He insisted that Turner stay in bed and not damage her voice, despite her protestations.

The understudy was also ill and so along came Ashe, firing on all comic cylinders, to deliver an over-the-top turn as the husband-bashing dame reminiscent of the insufferably overbearing Shirley in Strictly Ballroom.

Witches is breezy fare, not the least bit taxing. A couple of days later I could barely recall a single tune but it's the commitment of the leads, including Angela Toohey and Pippa Grandison, and the combined attack of the chorus, which makes it magical and fun.

The Witches of Eastwick opens at the Theatre Royal in March. Mamma Mia! opens at The Lyric, Star City, next month.

Sydney Morning Herald - 10 September 2002