Forget Prince Charming, this modern Aussie Cinders can save herself

A new Australian musical. It’s a treasure so rare that people greet the idea with the same mix of excitement and disbelief that accompanies ghost sightings, Bjork concerts and baristas who can spell your name correctly. The obstacles a new musical faces are manifold, and the stakes at play mean that many go under before a single ticket is sold.

Melbourne is about to witness the opening of one of these exceptional beasts, and it’s no diminutive try-out sheltered away in a tiny venue. No less than the Comedy Theatre will be home to the unveiling of Midnight, a work that’s been more than eight years in the making and boasts a cast of heavy hitters including Shane Jacobson, Lucy Durack, Verity Hunt-Ballard and Matt Lee. Alongside them, playing “Ella” and her prince, are up-and-comers Brianna Bishop and Thomas McGuane.

Midnight takes its inspiration from Cinderella, but the team behind it have expanded the tale to include properly fleshed-out back-stories, three-dimensional characters and – of course – musical numbers worthy of such a beloved tale. John Foreman and Anthony Constanzo lead the music department, and Kate Miller-Heidke has contributed a stirring ballad.

Producer Spencer McLaren says while most people are familiar with the Disney version of the Cinderella story, it’s been around in some form or another long before Walt set his sights on it. “I think the earliest version we’ve found is from 7BC, by the Greeks. It’s been reinvented and retold in various cultures over and over again,” he says.

The specific shape of the story has shifted throughout its various incarnations. “The slipper is there a lot. The pumpkin’s a more recent addition. But, generally, you’re talking about a central female character who ends up in a situation where she’s hard done by and she’s saved.”

That last point was a thorny one. The show’s inception occurred when co-writer and co-director Dean Murphy was watching Disney’s Cinderella with his young daughter.
“[Cinderella] was waiting to be saved. I didn’t want Charlie to think that that’s what you do if you’ve got problems. You don’t wait for some guy to come along and make everything right.

“So when we first started talking about it, we knew we had to make her a much stronger character who, while she’s been dealt a lot of tough things in life, is not a victim sitting around waiting to be rescued. She’s dealing with these things and is the one in charge of her own story as well as any of us can be.”

Midnight retains its storybook setting but in many other respects updates the source material for modern audiences. For one, it’s shifted into the realm of romantic comedy. “The first conversation we had was, ‘What if you took the Cinderella story but did it as though it was When Harry Met Sally meets The Princess Bride?’,” Murphy says. “Instead of them falling in love so quickly, what if they have to go through all the obstacles and ups and downs that so many relationships have?”

The comedy has been tailored to local tastes, too. Verity Hunt-Ballard, who plays Cinderella’s stepmother, says: “Australia does have a particular kind of comedic tone and audiences have a particular kind of comedy that they respond to, and it’s been really interesting playing with that.”

While the stepmother’s role in fairytales traditionally comes with plenty of baggage, this version doesn’t cleave to expectations. “It’s really nice to be playing against the stereotype,” Hunt-Ballard says. “That was exciting when it was pitched to me. I’m very much enjoying finding new ways to portray her. She is larger than life, I’ll say that.”

For a performer, one of the most exciting elements of a new musical is the fact that there are no shoes to fill. McLaren spent years performing in professional musicals, from Beauty and the Beast to Carousel to Footloose. “My experience was very much replicating international products. I found that immensely frustrating,” he says.

Hunt-Ballard has starred in plenty of big commercial vehicles but is also known for having an unusual degree of experience in new works. “It’s always an honour to be in the room when something’s literally being created from scratch,” she says. “It’s terrifying at times and then exhilarating as well.”

One of the hurdles new musicals face is just how many people are needed to get it off the ground. A playwright can finish an entire script without getting up from their desk, but a musical requires a whole team just to reach draft stage. Midnight’s credit list is extensive but doesn’t even include the host of people who contributed additional work along the way – Tripod’s Simon Hall composed a song that didn’t fit the final cut, Joanna Murray-Smith gave story feedback, and fellow playwright Elizabeth Coleman provided dramaturgical advice.

The final creative team skews male, but McLaren was careful to bring a more diverse set of eyes to the development process. “We’ve been conscious of trying to address that as much as we can, to make sure we’re not cis white 50-plus men going, ‘This is what your daughter should be doing!’”

The lengthy development period has also allowed room for actors to shape the roles that others will go on to play down the line. “It’s been great with people like Verity. She really breaks down her character. So it’s made us have to delve further in,” Murphy says.

For her part, Hunt-Ballard described the creative team as “amazing collaborators [who] really value the opinion of the cast”. “That’s quite rare sometimes, to feel really valued as a creative as well as a performer.”

Hunt-Ballard has two daughters, and one of the big attractions of Midnight was the way this Cinderella is much more than a helpless damsel. The other was its focus on togetherness.

“Her fundamental belief is to protect her community, as opposed to the Cinderella story of ‘my prince will come and save me ...’ It’s lovely to come and see a story with incredible music and all the power that a musical gives, but fundamentally it’s saying: let’s look after each other.”

Hunt-Ballard hopes that sense of community will extend beyond the stage.

“It’s great for audiences to come in and know that it’s a new Australian work and not compare it to the other big imported shows. This is something quite special and different: to be part of the audience historically, to go ‘I went to the premiere of that musical that had never been done anywhere else’.”

Midnight opens at the Comedy Theatre on June 25. https://midnightmusical.com.au/

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