I met with Baz Luhrmann’s long time co-writer Craig Pearce at The Star in Sydney, as the cast and crew were feverishly preparing for the premiere of Strictly Ballroom – while the Lyric Theatre itself underwent a facelift in time for its glamorous debut. We headed into The Star’s new food court for lunch and sat appropriately in an area that looked like a giant disco ball – to talk about the new musical. In the first part of our chat, we reflect on his years working with Baz, partnering with Global Creatures, the anticipation of the debut of the new musical and much more…
What does it mean for you to be bringing Strictly Ballroom back to the stage?
It’s exciting for us. Strictly Ballroom is such a big part of our history. And we’ve thought about it and talked about it as a musical since its inception. It started out as a stage play as you’d know.
Were you involved in the original stage production?
I was involved in the second iteration of it. Its first was a self-devised piece that Baz did at NIDA, with some others in his course. It was only twenty minutes long. I was in NIDA at that time, though in a different year, and everyone in the course had to do a self-devised piece in their second year. And they were usually pretty terrible. But this Strictly Ballroom thing came on, no one had heard of it. It had only two performances, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and everyone just thought it was amazing. Like really amazing. And then after Baz left NIDA, they were invited to a theatre festival in Czechoslovakia that was for theatre schools. It was still behind the Iron Curtain at that time! And NIDA contacted Baz’s group, who had just left the school, to take Strictly Ballroom to Czechoslovakia. So they did. And I desperately wanted to go along. I’d never even been to Europe before! I was maybe 23… I ended up teaming up with some people from the film school, and making a documentary about it and the whole thing was a huge, huge hit.
Then in 1988, Baz was artistic director of a theatre company as part of the bicentennial celebrations, and he hired me as an actor. We both studied acting, not writing or directing, after all. And one of the things we did was expand Strictly Ballroom from the 20 minute piece to a 40-45 minute piece. We had a long curtain call and did a lot of dancing to pad it out… but it was really successful. And people loved it. Baz then got approached about turning it into a film. And I ended up co-writing the film with him.
I’ve seen its genesis, and was part of expanding it. So I’ve been both an observer and a practitioner… and now we’re here because ever since the film we’ve talked about turning it into a musical. There were workshops a long time ago, and it never happened then… and I think it’s good that it didn’t, because I think it would have been too confusing to do it too close to the film.
Maybe we’re cashing in, maybe we have to change it just for the sake of changing it… so to do it now, how ever many years it’s been since the initial production, ít feels more organic. We have enough distance now to look at the piece, almost like it was done in another time, in another place by different people. Like we’re doing an adaptation of a much loved piece. We’re neither precious or self-conscious now. We’ve looked at it and asked ourselves, what is the essence of Strictly Ballroom, in all its various incarnations? What has connected it with audiences?
Even from that first time it was performed at NIDA, the overriding thing is that the piece has a relationship with the audience that is inclusive. We speak directly to the audience at times. Indeed, a lot of the journey of writing the screenplay was trying to discover a cinematic style that allowed you to do that.
So we very consciously opened with a red curtain and words across the screen, and that’s a device to say, “In a land far, far away…” or whatever. It’s a classic cinematic storytelling device. Then there are the interviews, the documentary style where people talk to the camera. There’s the physical comedy that is unconsciously saying to the audience, we’re not trying to be naturalistic. We know that you know that it’s a story, so come on board and help us tell the story together. And I think the people that like Strictly Ballroom really like it because of that reason, whether consciously or unconsciously, they felt very involved in the storytelling.
So with the musical, we’ve really gone and looked at all the different ways we can have the audience involved in the storytelling once again. So without giving too much away, we use a lot of devices, from the way that (Production & Costume Designer) Catherine Martin has designed the piece and themed the auditorium… so that when you walk into the theatre and even the foyer, you feel that you’re a part of a big ballroom dancing festival. And through the show, there’s an emcee character, J.J. Silvers, who has a fairly small role in the film, is given an expanded role here, he interacts with the audience. And at times, the characters interact with the audience a little. So hopefully the audience will feel very engaged with the telling of the story, and they’ll feel a part of the story. And they’ll feel that they’re not just passively sitting back and watching the story, that they’re being taken and involved with it.
One of the early things that was revealed about the production was that you were working with Global Creatures, who are known for productions like Walking with Dinosaurs and King Kong. So what has that collaborative process been like, as they bring the technical dynamics to achieve that inclusion you speak of.
It’s been interesting, that whole process. They’ve been incredibly supportive. Gerry Ryan, who owns Global Creatures, one thing about him is that not only is he an incredibly nice human being, but he’s a huge enthusiast. He’s involved with professional cycling, with GreenEdge, he owns race horses that have won the Melbourne Cup multiple times… and he got involved with a fascination of making these amazing creatures for Walking With Dinosaurs, and that was his introduction to theatre. Fast forward to Strictly Ballroom, and it’s seemingly lo-tech, but at the same time it’s incredibly hi-tech and complex, but in a way which isn’t obvious… it’s the same expertise, it’s just applied in a different way.
Extending this idea of it being inclusive storytelling, just about all the cast are on the stage just about all the time, and indeed there is scenery… the way it moves around, it dances. And it’s the responsibility of cast and the crew to dance every prop and every piece of scenery and every costume… to make it dance. Baz has always said about this production, that nothing comes on stage. It dances. It doesn’t move. It dances. So we have to be quite clever in doing that, and we embrace the whole theatre…
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Preview performances of Strictly Ballroom started this week at the Lyric Theatre at The Star in Sydney. The show will officially premiere on April 12th. For more details on the production, and tickets, head to: http://www.strictlyballroomthemusical.com/. And click HERE for the second part of our chat, where we look at the cast, the soundtrack and more.
