Re-string the SG and tune up those drum skins, Melbourne’s musical theatre offerings are about to have their overdrive pedal stomped on. The critically acclaimed School of Rock: The Musical has done the rounds of both Broadway and London’s West End, and now it’s officially heading to Melbourne this coming October.
The stage show, based on the excellent, Jack Black-starring 2003 flick of the same name, will take up residence in Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre from October onwards.
The School of Rock stage production sports some of theatre’s highest possible pedigree, with the stage book adaptation of the original script coming from Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. What’s more, the music for the production was composed by a little unknown fellow by the name of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The production originally debuted in December of 2015 on Broadway to rave reviews, with a host of Tony Award nominations – including Best Musical – following in 2016. Awards it only missed out on due to the presence of a production called Hamilton. Yep.
It subsequently opened in London in May of 2016, and began a US tour in September 2017. The run in Melbourne will be the first time the production has been put on outside of either the United States or London.
The announcement of School of Rock‘s arrival means Melbourne’s musical theatre slate is about to get extremely competitive on the family-friendly fronts, with the show scheduled to run in direct competition with the planned arrival of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which is due to arrive in Melbourne in early 2019.
Richelle and Torben Brookman of GWB Productions, who are bringing the show to Australia, spoke to Fairfax Media and stated that they aren’t worried about Potter stealing any potential audience away from School of Rock, and that the competition will create increased interest from punters.
The great show that shall not be named is about to take over the Princess Theatre from now until eternity but I think what that is going to do is it is going to create a huge excitement about going to the theatre.
We feel like it is going to amp up the interest in theatre in Melbourne a lot. Melbourne is really seen as a hub of music theatre and I know a lot of families fly over to Melbourne and make a weekend of it. There’s definitely a place for both of these shows in the Melbourne market.
Between now and October the local production has to find some 36-odd talented kids to fill out the show’s extensive and very youthful cast.
Good luck to ’em.
Tickets are said to go on sale soon. You can peep all the vital info via the show’s official website.
