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Talking
to the Stars: Dean Bryant
It's been a big couple of years for Melbourne's Dean Bryant.
AussieTheatre.com's Troy Dodds caught up with Dean for a chat and an update on his
thriving career....
TD: You've just recently returned from NYC with Virgins, what was it like?
DB: Speedy! I was in the middle of Priscilla
rehearsals at the time (I’m Associate/Resident on the show) so only had a week off.
Basically I got off the plane and went straight into a production meeting with the NY part
of the team (our producer and the production team were all American). Over the next three
days the team re-rehearsed the original Melbourne cast, who hadn’t been together
since Virgins at the Malthouse in February. We were in this tiny rehearsal room
on 36th St that could barely fit the cast in, let alone the band and all the creatives
– it ran out air after about one dance number (there’s 17 in the show) and about
3pm each day the girls started to pass out from jetlag. We bumped in, teched, dressed and
opened all on the same day – it was crazy – but the NY team were so onto it, and
the opening performance was perfect – looked like a million dollars and the girls
were absolutely inspired. I went home a day later, but the rest of the team stayed on for
another fortnight, building up to sellout houses and brilliant audience response.
 TD: How
did the Americans take to the show?
DB: They listened more than I expected. Our first musical, Prodigal, played
off-Broadway in 2002 and one of the challenges was for the audience to get past the
Australian accents. The first part of Virgins (it’s a threesome) is set in a
US high school and parodies teen comedies – obviously they got the language of that.
The second piece was in our accents, but uses the theatrical language of burlesque and
vaudeville – that one they really got. The last piece is a reality TV song
competition for asylum seekers and is very grounded in our political climate – this
one was always the hot favourite in Australia, and we were anticipating that without the
same social context it might not register. We were dead wrong, and the Americans easily
translated it into their own political climate.
TD: Obviously you've worked extensively for some time with Mathew Frank. How did the
partnership begin?
DB: We met at WAAPA doing Musical Theatre and were going out a few days later. Matty had
composed a fair bit already – I thought his music was extraordinary – beautiful
to listen to, as well as being inherently dramatic. About 18 months into our relationship
(by then he had graduated, so we were living in different cities) we decided to try
writing together – he was fairly dubious to start off with – I hadn’t
written anything except a lovely poem my local paper published when I was nine. Anyway, he
tossed up the idea of updating the prodigal son parable to contemporary Australia and
making the son gay. For a few months I would avidly make up (pisspoor) lyrics and he would
eventually come up with some music. Over summer we decided to really focus on it, and
finished the first draft before I began third year. We workshopped it as our final
production with my graduating year, and put it on ourselves a few months later. It got
picked up for a pro season, and then for an off-Broadway debut. That seemed like a good
sign that we worked well together.
TD: Tell us about the process of writing a musical. Does it tend
to be a long one for you, or do you knock it over in a reasonably short amount of time?
DB: Long and short and tedious and quick and fun and ultimately satisfying. Every project
has been different. We talked through Prodigal for six months before the real
first draft was completed, then workshopped it before the first production, a year later. Virgin
Wars was written in a fortnight, but the next two parts took six months – then
three workshops before it was completed (4 years after the first part was done!). Once
We Lived Here has been through four years of rewrites and readings. Our newest show, The
Silver Donkey was very quick – we got the rights in March, it was in rehearsal
by May and touring the US by September.
TD: Where do you think musical theatre is at in Australia at the moment?
DB: I wish there more producers or theatre companies for midsize original work. Musicals
that take the form even a little bit seriously aren’t looked at. I’m bored with
musicals that exist only to say "isn’t it funny we’re doing a musical about
this!" Musicals with wit, heart or political content don’t get a look in. And
they’re the ones that will shape our voice. We’re such an "in-joke"
kind of country sometimes.
TD: There seems to be a strong surge towards shows like Virgins, with
professional casts yet not necessarily on multi-million dollar budgets and big stages. Do
you think this type of show is being more supported than ever?
DB: It’s more financially viable to do a little show than a big show, and lately,
with pieces like Urinetown and Spelling Bee, producers have found ways
to make small-cast shows hot enough to compete in their own way with the experience a big
musical can offer. I don’t think there’s a huge likelihood the midsize musical
will become the norm here – the big shows are still going to be the risks worth
taking for commercial producers. But many theatre companies are seeing the audience and
critical appeal in the musical, especially ones with some sort of comic edge, so they
certainly are more visible lately.
TD: You've done plenty of work as a director as well as a writer - where does your
real passion lie?
DB: In creating pieces of theatre that draw an audience in – that make them laugh or
cry or recognise themselves or see a different way of being. I like the longevity of a
piece that you’ve written, that other people can listen to the cd and see their own
show. I like the world that you create when you direct.
TD: What are you working on at the moment?
DB: Virgins is touring Victoria next year, the cast album has
just been released (it's available at www.middle8.com), there’s interest from
the UK to premiere Prodigal, Silver Donkey has been released to the schools
market. We started our website a few months ago - we get a lot of requests for sheet
music, so rather than keep emailing Brand New Eyes out, we put the most popular/singable
at audition-type songs on there, as well as info about our shows, pics, mp3s, reviews - www.bryantandfrank.com.
The current news is that this week it was announced that we were awarded a commission from
the Production Company to write a new musical for them. We’d been shortlisted for Once
We Lived Here – a musical commissioned by Playbox under Aubrey Mellor –
they decided that rather than award the prize, they’d work with us to create a piece
more in line with what they’re interested in producing as a new musical. It’s a
very interesting result – Once We Lived Here, we believe, is our most mature and
interesting work, and we think it has the making of a great musical. It’s been in
development for a number of years; the first reading was at Playbox with Lisa McCune,
Christen O’Leary, Anne Wood, Adam Murphy and Tim Wright, and we’ve since had
another reading in NYC, as well as a closed one last year, after another rewrite. I think
people can’t read a musical off the page, or even from a demo, it’s only on
it’s feet does the heart and ideas and desires of the piece come alive. Virgins was
pretty much written off until we actually put it on – and then we couldn’t have
written better reviews or audience response. I suspect the same will happen with Once
We Lived Here once we get it up. In any case, Matty and I are in it for the long haul
– and this commission is so generous – we’re thrilled at the opportunities
the Pratt commission offers. They’re intending to guide the new musical towards
success by bringing in the best creatives and resources around – who’d complain
about that? |
