NZ Musicals

November Spotlight Profile …….

Paul Jenden

Writer, Director, Choreographer, Set and Costume Designer
Paul Jenden wrote and directed his first play at eight years old: a classroom adaptation of Charlotte’s Web. In 1975 he graduated from Victoria University with a degree in French Language and Literature and began a theatrical career that has seen him established as a director, designer, dancer, choreographer and writer. In 1980 he left New Zealand to base himself in New York City and toured in the U.S.A. and Canada as well as Europe and Asia. He returned to live in New Zealand in 1989.  Paul has many successes to his name. His first production at Circa Theatre was Fairy Stories in 1996, which began a series of highly successful Christmas shows. His Dancing the Gay Fandango at Taki Rua in 1991 became a top selling show at the 1994 Adelaide Fringe Festival and Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival. His sparkling 1989 production of Le Papillon was one the most popular NZ works ever mounted by the Royal New Zealand Ballet and with Maclary Theatre Productions he produced The Hairy Maclary Show which has toured widely in New Zealand and was featured in Adelaide’s Come Out Festival and at the Victorian Centre for the Arts.  He has designed sets and costumes for Dirty Weekends, Boys at the Beach and Travesties as well as Circa’s annual pantomimes and his own musicals. He has also worked as a movement consultant on Stones in his Pockets, The Cherry Orchard, The Underpants, The Winslow Boy and The American Pilot. He has twice been voted Costume Designer of the Year at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards.  Paul began working as a lyricist in 1988. With Gareth Farr he has written a trilogy of historical musicals, Troy, Monarchy and Rome and is currently working on his new script, The Nero Show. He is also the lyricist for Roger Hall’s pantomimes, including Cinderella, Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood.  Jane Keller will be including two songs in her cabaret from Paul’s works Friday night at conference and Paul will be attending conference in Auckland.

TROY The Musical is about the events and characters before, during and after the Trojan War.
Cast:  Minimum 8 (one silent) playing multiple roles, but could be up to 35
Act 1 - The amorous adventures of the god Zeus begin the events that lead to the Trojan War. He seduces the daughter of Atlas and begins the bloodline that leads to Priam, King of Troy. His affair with a Phoenician princess leads to the royal house of Mycenae and the brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus. Leda is already married to the King of Sparta, but after Zeus tricks her she gives birth to Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. Helen’s mortal and plainer sister, Clytemnestra, marries Agamemnon and becomes Queen of Mycenae. Menelaus marries Helen and becomes King of Sparta. But Helen elopes with Paris, a Trojan prince, and in revenge Menelaus convinces his elder brother to join him in a war against Troy. Meanwhile, on the tiny island of Ithica, Odysseus longs to be part of a great adventure. He joins Agamemnon, Menelaus and the hero Achilles and uses his talent for trickery to help them win the war. In the fighting, the Greek hero Achilles and the Trojan hero Hector are slain, and their ghosts lament the cruelty of war. Finally, it is Odysseus who has the idea for the Trojan horse that the Trojans pull into the city.
Act 2 - After the war, the women of Troy become slaves to the Greeks and participants in their downfall. Achilles’s mad son takes Andromache, who is murdered by his jealous wife. Agamemnon takes Cassandra, but both are killed by an axe-wielding Clytemnestra, who has begun her own affair while her husband was away. Meanwhile Odysseus, aghast at the horrors he has unleashed, has been trying to get back home to Ithica, but encounters various mythical characters like Cyclops, Circe and the Sirens. In a final, insane bloodfest, all the characters stab each other, all the while singing of love and romance. Only Odysseus survives, finally coming home to his faithful wife and vowing to stay safely in Ithica.

MONARCHY The Musical is a light-hearted history of the British monarchy.
Cast: Minimum 8 (one silent) playing multiple roles, but could be up to 50
Act 1 - The silent figure of Death appears and will continue to lurk through the show, escorting the Kings and Queens from the stage as they die. Queen Elizabeth the Second introduces the show and the history of her family. Starting with Egbert, the first King of England, she quickly moves on to a not -so-great Alfred the Great and the machinations of Canute and the Danish kings. A nervous Edward the Confessor gives way to the suave Frenchman, William the Conqueror, who in turn gives way to the feuding Plantagenets. A camp Edward the Second and a clever Henry the Fourth quickly bring on the very wicked Richard the Third, whose death on Bosworth Field brings the Tudors to power. The six wives of Henry the Eighth lament their fate, Elizabeth the First and Mary Queen of Scots sing about being lonely at the top and the first act closes with the execution of Charles the First by Oliver Cromwell.
Act 2 - Queen Elizabeth the Second complains about the escapades of her more recent family, then introduces Charles the Second, the Restoration and a cameo appearance by the seductive Louis the Fourteenth of France. Queen Mary and Queen Anne lead to the Hanoverian Georges and their naughty mistresses. Then a young Queen Victoria sings of her new love for Albert while her older self sings of his loss. She is followed by more familiar monarchs and eventually to the present Queen. Finally Elizabeth the Second comments that it is a hard life, but someone has to do it and takes her place on the throne.

ROME The Musical condenses the life and death of Julius Caesar into one evening.
Cast: 9 (one silent)
Act 1 - Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife, prepares the party and welcomes the guests. Caesar appears and is toasted by his family, despite the whispering behind his back. His protege, Brutus, is especially critical, while Caesar’s nephew Octavian and Mark Antony compete for the position of adopted son. Suddenly Cleopatra arrives and throws the party into chaos. Calpurnia observes her husband flirting with Cleopatra, and Mark Antony’s wife also sees her husband succumbing to Cleopatra’s charms. But Caesar catches Mark Antony and Cleopatra together, decides to adopt Octavian instead and everyone goes into dinner plotting each other’s deaths.

Act 2 - Everyone is more drunk and more dangerous. Caesar sings about the difficulty of keeping power, but is soon stabbed by Brutus. Octavian, Mark Antony and Brutus then try to take power, but Brutus is quickly murdered by Antony. Cleopatra attaches herself to Antony, but his wife Octavia, who happens to be Octavian’s sister, is distraught and stabs him. Cleopatra is forced to commit suicide with an asp, but her death is quickly followed by those of Calpurnia and Octavia, victims of poison. Octavian is the last left standing, having manipulated everyone else’s demise, and he establishes himself as the Emperor Augustus.

September Spotlight Profile ……. Roger Hall

Roger Hall, the most successful New Zealand playwright of his generation, was born in Essex, England. His desire to write and to act was kindled by his father’s talent as an impersonator, frequent family visits to the theatre, (and by his love of post-war British radio and television comedies.  Hall's early scripts were for television, with his debut as a scriptwriter for television coming in 1969, when he collaborated with Joe Musaphia on New Zealand’s first television comedy series In View of the Circumstances. In 1976 he wrote he wrote his first stage play Glide Time, and saw it progress triumphantly after its Circa premiere to almost every theatre in the country. In 1977 came Middle Age Spread, his best-known play, thanks to the film version and a successful London West End production which ran for 18 months and won the Comedy of the Year Award.

In 1977 Hall moved from Wellington to Dunedin as Burns Fellow (1977–78), then stayed on as a half-time teaching fellow in the university’s English Department. He relinquished this position in 1994, moving to Auckland early in 1995. Hall’s work since has continued to hold a loyal audience, often speaking of Hall’s own cultural and generational history and contemporary concerns. Be it the history of immigration from England (Prisoners of Mother England), the stockmarket’s rise and crash (The Share Club and After the Crash) or the ‘90s rash of book clubs (The Book Club). He also experimented with his form widely. In 1983 he collaborated with Philip Norman (music) and A.K. Grant (lyrics) as author of the book for Footrot Flats, based on Murray Ball’s syndicated cartoon strip. This remains one of New Zealand’s most licensed plays. The same team produced the successful Love Off the Shelf (a satire on popular romantic fiction) in 1986 and a number of other works.

In the 1990s, Hall turned to the production of a string of very successful one-handers, which have played here and around the world. One of his most ambitious works has been A Way of Life for a North Island tour by New Zealand Actors’ Company for a cast of 12. In recent years, he has written the box office hits Spreading Out (2004), Taking Off (2004), Who Wants to be 100? (2007). His most recent play is Four Flat Whites in Italy which will premiere with ATC in June. In 2006 he collaborated with his daughter, playwright Pip Hall, on a revue-style commission for the Plunket centenary, Who Needs Sleep Anyway?, which was produced in three cities. Recently concerned by the lack of work for family audiences in our theatres he has revived the Christmas pantomime in collaboration with Paul Jenden, Michael Nicholas Williams and Circa Theatre, and these have also proven popular nationally.

As his author entry in the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature comments, “While Hall’s play’s are funny, their comedy is that of sorrowful resilience, and of serious social criticism, for all their unfashionable willingness to treat the middle classes with some sympathy. His one-liners can show truth about human manners as well as wit.”

Hall’s plays have been performed in at least ten other countries securing his reputation as New Zealand's best known dramatist. He now has at least 40 plays to his credit. In the last ten years, his works have put $15 million into this country’s box-offices (professional and amateur) and such is his popularity that there is on average a production of one of his plays once every two weeks.

Stage Plays
After The Crash = 5 female, 3 male, 67 pages. The Keynes Avenue Social Club decides that real estate offers the quickest solution to restoring their fortunes.

Aladdin  (Pantomime)  - 2 female, 5 male, 87 pages - The classic tale of Aladdin.

A Way Of Life - 5 female, 7 male, 111 pages. An epic play tracing the lives of several generations of a New Zealand farming family.

By Degrees - 4 female, 70 pages. Four very different women give accounts of their experiences of doing university degrees as 'mature students'.

C'mon Black = 1 male, 44 pages. Join Dickie Hart on a supporter’s tour with the All Blacks in South Africa during the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Cinderella (Pantomime) - 3 female, 6 male, 78 pages. Hall partners up with Paul Jenden and Michael Nicholas Williams to update the popular Pantomime of Cinderella.

Conjugal Rites - 1 female, 1 male, 66 pages Genevieve and Barry have been married for twenty-one years, their children are leaving home, and they've each taken a lover.

Dirty Weekends  (Musical) - 4 female, 4 male, 75 pages. A couple move into a new neighborhood where they get the gardening bug.

Dream Of Sussex Downs - 4 female, 6 male,  53 pages Based on Chekhov's Three Sisters, but set in 1950's Wellington. Three New Zealand sisters are constantly drawn back 'home' - to England.

Dynamite - 4 female, 7 male,  26 pages. A full blooded English melodrama set in Victorian days.

Fifty Fifty - 2 female, 3 male, 80 pages. George cannot understand why his wife left him. The play looks at the problems of redundancy and unemployment, and by the end we may more fully understand the wife's decision.

Footrot Flats (Musical) - 4 female, 4 male, 60 pages. The familiar characters of Footrot Flats provide between them two hours of music and laughter.

Glide Time - 1 female, 6 male, 102 pages The play examines the lives of those forced to work with each other every day in a (public service) job none of them likes.

Hark, Hark The Harp - 2 female, 5 male, 21 pages.  A comedy about a town's reaction to the arrival of Rudolf and his second hand harp for the Citizens' Orchestra.

Hot Water - 4 female, 4 male, 89 pages. To a Taupo bach during the Christmas holidays come the holiday visitors - welcome and unwelcome.

Jack and the Beanstalk  (Pantomime) - 4 female, 4 male, 80 pages  Pantomime of the classic fairytale.

Love Off The Shelf (Musical) - 4 female, 4 male, 64 pages. Two unsuccessful authors turn secretly to romance writing…and find romance.

Making It Big (Musical) - 4 female, 4 male, 77 pages. The rise of (the mythical) Jane Wineberry, Southland's gift to country music, from the Miss New Zealand Show to Nashville.

Market Forces - 3 female, 4 male, 84 pages.  Staff can anticipate changes. Some downsizing is inevitable. The characters from Glide Time battle on.

Middle Age Spread - 3 female, 3 male, 82 pages. Three couples attend a dinner none of them wants to be at.

Mr Punch - 1 male, 26 pages. The dramatic life of Denis Glover devised and compiled from Glover's writings, letters and poems.

Multiple Choice - 5 female, 11 male, 68 pages. Margie Hughes, solo parent, takes her son Paul out of school to teach him at home.

Pirates, Witches & Robbers - 3 female, 4 male, 35 pages. Tales from the Margaret Mahy’s storybook.

Prisoners of Mother England - 6 female, 6 male, 73 pages. Following a group of English immigrants after their arrival in NZ till ten years later.

Robin Hood  (Pantomime)  - 3 female, 15 male, 112 pages. The traditional Robin Hood story but with a pantomime Dame.

Social Climbers - 6 female, 89 pages. A group of women teachers are forced to spend three days and nights together in a tramping hut.

Spreading Out - 4 female, 3 male, 83 pages. A look at a Kiwi family 30 years on as we revisit the characters from Middle Age Spread.

State Of The Play - 2 female, 4 male, 83 pages.  A successful writer takes a weekend writing-for-the-stage school in a small town.

Take A Chance On Me - 4 female, 4 male, 89 pages. Midlife in the lives of six newly single New Zealanders.

Taking Off - 4 female, 56 pages. The story of four women who set out, a little later in life than most, on their OE.

The Birthday Burglar - 8 female, 8 male, 15 pages. An adaptation of a Margaret Mahy story.

The Book Club - 1 female, 35 pages. Deborah, a self-confessed bookbuyeraholic, joins a book club and in doing so changes her life only to have it become exactly what it was.

The Hansard Show - 5 female, 6 male, 48 pages. A history of NZ as seen through the Parliamentary debates from the inception of the House of Representatives.

The Quiz - 6 male, 26 pages. A student gets temporary work at a tobacco factory, where his work mates insist he takes part in a quiz. The price is horrific.

The Rose - 2 female, 5 male, 27 pages. The leader has acquired enormous power without people realising the dangers of this. A man decides to assassinate the leader.

The Share Club - 3 female, 5 male, 63 pages. A comedy looking at the lives, loves and games of eight starry eyed people who have formed a neighbourhood share-club with the intention of making easy money.

Where Would A Songwriter Be Without Love? (Musical) 2 female, 2 male, 300 pages. A tribute to the music of Philip Norman. With songs from Footrot Flats, Making it Big, and more.

Who Needs Sleep Anyway? - 4 female, 4 male, 79 pages. Father and daughter Roger and Pip Hall team up for this witty and moving take on raising children. Commissioned by The Plunket Society.

Who Wants to be 100?  - 2 female, 4 male, 87 pages.  A classic kiwi comedy about that place everyone dreads – the rest home.

You Gotta Be Joking! - 1 male, 54 pages. Dickie Hart leaves country for the city and hates it.

You Must Be Crazy - 2 female, 2 male, 19 pages. An account of the Volunteer Service Abroad experience.

For information about Roger Hall’s works and licencing, contact Katrina Chandra at Playmarket
09 365 2648  agency@playmarket.org.nz      www.playmarket.org.nz

Thank you to Playmarket for allowing us to usethe article was originally printed in Playmarket News #43, Autumn 2009