Type – Shakespeare, Pop-Score, Romantic Comedy
If you liked – Fangirls, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Zombie! The Musical
The Lovers: This Shakespeare-styled music video production gives hope for new Australian musicals. You’d be a pucking fool not to see it!
An original 2021 staging by Bell Shakespeare, an original cast recording, and now a Broadway-level budget restaging at the Brisbane Festival, it looks like William Shakespeare is still cool over 400 years later. Award-winning production company Shake & Stir put their money where their mouth is and are gifting Australia with a new staging of Laura Murphy’s hit original Shakespeare-pop musical The Lovers – or The Lovers 2.0 as I’m calling it.
The Lovers, is an example of what you can create for the Australian musical theatre industry when you have backing and trust from a professionally established production company. For Shake & Stir to invest in The Lovers with such gusto gives hope for more original Australian works. This is without a doubt, the makings of a blockbuster musical.
However, there’s a ‘but’ coming…
Laura Murphy & the beauty in the original musical
In The Lovers, gone is the tomfoolery of Bottom and The Mechanicals and we solely focus on our four lovers, Helena (Natalie Abbott), Hermia (Loren Hunter), Demetrius (Jason Arrow) and Lysander (Mat Verevis) as the mischievous fairies Oberon (Stellar Perry) and Puck (Jayme-Lee Hanekom) attempt to intervene with their twisted love triangle. But as we all know, the course of true love never did run smooth.
At the very heart of The Lover’s success, is Murphy’s music, lyrics, arrangements and orchestrations which are the closest you’ll get to literal musical ear worms. Murphy has managed to capture the essence of Shakespeare’s subtext and combined it with the energy and makeup of the pop genre. Heidi Maguire (Music Direction) leads the onstage band in an explosive delivery of Murphy’s orchestrations, often seen throughout as a back scrim rises in key moments.
Murphy’s lyrics and book remains, at its beating heart, a perfect introduction to Shakespeare’s language. There’s a clear purpose to each of her arrangements as she crafts notions of masculinity in Demetrius and Lysander, understated and powerhouse feminism in Hermia & Helena, and the pedestal we place love in the universe as told through Oberon and Puck.
More Matter with Less Art
BUT, The Lovers is also an example of decadence fighting with substance. Nick Skubij’s (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) direction is incredibly layered, incredibly bold and often incredibly rich as he takes Murphy’s book and music and places the audience within what feels like a live music video with the visceral energy of being at Tomorrowland.
Tiered visual screens project David Bergman’s vast video design throughout: swirling vortexes, dripping gold waterfalls, Rocky Horror style lips mouthing snakelike hisses, and lyrics from the title song, ‘Love, Pop & Shakespeare’. There’s a three-tiered revolve on which the set rotates as Yvette Lee’s olympic-styled choreography takes place in, on and over it. Trent Suidgeest’s impeccable concert-styled lighting design at times has to compete with Bergman’s visuals to the point it almost feels like sensory overload.
The overall design by Isabel Hudson is incredibly playful and whimsical as she dresses the set in a tidal wave of love petals, which creates visceral imagery as the cast sweeps through them and magic spells are cast. Our four main lovers are dressed in costumes reminiscent of & Juliet with layered gold trimmings, puffy waists and pop-star styled finery. It holds a tangible quality to it that is inherently unique, whilst being familiar at the same time.
I found myself playing a constant see-saw-like dance as I went from having to pick my jaw up from the floor at the gorgeous imagery, and then tumble the other way as I was furrowing my brow at certain choices of direction. The beauty of a rising sun after a night of magical mayhem was a gorgeous breath after the climax, whilst the projections for the effects of a magical flower were damn near transportative in their execution.
Occasionally though, there were times when I was taken out of the production as I had to ask what an abundance of toys actually added. Lowering a neon sign reading, “The Forest” whilst a large blossom tree is rotating onto the stage, the design shifting from dark blues and blacks to bright pinks and whites is purely putting a hat on a hat. So too was this clear in the finale as lyrics being projected on screen were hidden behind two layers of set dressing – one of these needs to go back in the toybox. Meanwhile, Oberon’s rich, red cowboy outfit is never accurately justified in its ostentatiousness, nor is Puck’s pom-pom headdress with both actors seemingly swallowed by their coverings.
Who exactly are The Lovers?
As Oberon, Perry returns to the role as one half of the narration throughout The Lovers, pairing well with Hanekom’s Puck. Perry’s vocals wrap around Murphy’s language like silk that glides and soars through each change in tone and intonation. Opposite, Hanekom’s Puck is joyous fun, with her ability to take on the many beat drops and rap-songs told with such fluidity as to feel fresh and inventive.
Exploring more of his comedic repertoire, Arrow is a world away from the Hamilton that fans will know him as. His Demetrius is a “f*ckboy” whose heart is pulling him in two directions. There’s a story being told in ‘I Want What I Cannot Have’ that is targeted at a young male audience to pay close attention to.
Opposingly, Verevis’ Lysander is lovelorn, yet shy. He wants to give Hermia the world, but there’s a definite lack of trust in himself to be able to give it. His love-spelled comedy for Helena gives Verevis almost two parts to play and he revels in them both.
Taking over Hermia at the opening night performance for Hunter, cover Jenni Little performed the role at a moment’s notice. Little’s Hermia is strong-willed and veracious, dying to stretch beyond the confines of her father’s grasp. It’s worth noting that Little had not performed the role at all before stepping on stage, and yet it felt like she’d been playing it for weeks.
Abbott’s return as Helena stood as the crowd favourite. She has a genuine quality about her that is both extraordinarily likeable, yet foundationally strong. It’s not often you hear someone on a cast album recording who sounds exactly the same on stage and Abbott managed to make it look like the easiest thing in the world.
Is The Lovers Worth Seeing in Brisbane?
The Lovers feels sure to take on the same fan following – mostly grown online and in the eyes of youth – as other hit musicals such as Beetlejuice, & Juliet, and dare I say it, The Swifties. The reaction from the audience felt like being at a concert as screams ran throughout, hands waved in the air and tears ran down the faces around me. Patti Lupone may not be impressed, but the crowd damn sure loved it.
It’s moments like this that make my little musical fanboy heart jump for joy when homegrown Australian works are given funding to go beyond a one off workshop. The Lovers is currently finishing its run at the Brisbane Festival before it arrives at Sydney’s Theatre Royal at the end of October. It may require, to quote The Bard, “more matter with less art”, but you’d be a pucking fool not to buy tickets.
Tickets and Practical Info for The Lovers in Brisbane 🎟️
Brisbane Festival at QPAC until October 5th
Sydney from 31 October at Theatre Royal Sydney
2hrs 10mins with interval
Tickets: https://theloversmusical.com.au/
CAST
Natalie Abbott as Helena
Jason Arrow as Demetrius
Jayme-Lee Hanekom as Puck
Loren Hunter as Hermia
Stellar Perry as Oberon
Mat Verevis as Lysander
Indigo Hunt – Associate Choreographer & Cover
Jenni Little – Cover
Nic Van Lits – Cover
CREATIVES
Laura Murphy – Book, Music, Lyrics, Arrangements & Orchestrations
Nick Skubij – Director
Heidi Maguire – Music Director
Isabel Hudson – Designer
Trent Suidgeest – Lighting Designer
David Bergman – Sound & Video Designer
Yvette Lee – Choreographer
Nigel Poulton – Fight & Intimacy Director
