Home grown shows suit Caroline to a tee

February 2: Caroline O'Connor is back in Australia and preparing for the world premiere of a brand new musical that she believes has the potential to take on the world. She speaks to TROY DODDS about the journey...

She made her name via international blockbusters and has appeared on Broadway and the West End, but it is two home grown Australian shows that dominate the year ahead for Caroline O'Connor.

Later in the year, she appears in David Williamson's latest work, Scarlett O'Hara At The Crimson Parrot, for the Melbourne Theatre Company, and right now she's in rehearsals for the world premiere of The Hatpin, a new musical that arrives with much anticipation at the Seymour Centre in Sydney later this month.

"I feel very fortunate to be involved in two new pieces of work," O'Connor told AussieTheatre.com.

"It's amazing - you would think one new show in unchartered territory would be enough in one year but it just happens that way sometimes and I feel very blessed and very honoured to be given this opportunity."

O'Connor has not seen The Hatpin, written by James Millar and Peter Rutherford, in any of its workshop presentations, and says it was quite by chance that she became involved in the project.

"I got an email out of nowhere from (producer) Neil Gooding asking if I would be at all interested in this piece," she said.

"The first thing I did was search the show on the internet and I was quite taken by the image, and when I read the script I found it very dramatic and thrilling to the point where it became a page turner."

O'Connor has plenty of praise for her fellow cast members - particularly Melle Stewart, who has been involved with the project since day one - and can't speak highly enough of Millar and Rutherford as writers.

"Peter's music is simply stunning and beautiful and James' writing is so poetic," she said.

"I was a fan of James as a performer. I remember seeing him in Oklahoma! a few years ago and I was quite taken by his performance style. I had done the show, and he had a completely different take on the character (Jud) and it was very clever. There's definitely something very special there."

For O'Connor, the star of musicals such as Chicago and West Side Story, The Hatpin provides something very different.

"That's the really thrilling part about this. It's all very new in every aspect - it's an unknown story, an original script and an incredibly different concept in production style," she said.

"There's no real expectation as it's all evolving and happening right now. It's unknown which makes it exciting and nerve-racking."

The Hatpin focuses on a desperate mother, Amber Murray, who makes a heartbreaking decision, the consequences of which are still being felt today. Using the moral support she gains from her friendship with the free spirited Harriet Piper, she fights the injustices of circumstance and tragedy to find hope and strength. The piece is inspired by a true story, something O'Connor finds particularly special.

"I think there's nothing quite like having truth in a story, it makes it even more powerful and you take yourself back to that time and place and think about what it was like for this young girl," O'Connor said.

"We're trying desperately hard not to let people know too much as it's quite exciting as the story goes on, particularly when it gets to the courtroom."

For O'Connor, 2008 is very much about local content, but she can see herself back in London in the not too distant future, where she's been doing plenty of work of late. And who knows, a return to the Big Apple may not be too far away, either...

The Hatpin opens at the Seymour Centre in Sydney on February 27. Bookings: (02) 9351 7940. Scarlett O'Hara At The Crimson Parrot opens at the Arts Centre Playhouse in Melbourne on June 7. Bookings: 1300 136 166.