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With an Australian Director, the Barry Lowe (Book) & Sean Peter (Music & Lyrics) Underground Cabaret of A Musical Play, Dutch Courage, will open at New York’s Wings Theatre on May 23, 2008.

Dutch Courage began life as a musical cabaret utilising pre-existing songs; it was workshopped, and a series of staged and sung readings were presented at The Rocks Theatre in Sydney in 1990. So successful was it, that composer, Sean Peter, came on board to write original songs and lyrics. With book changes, Dutch Courage had it’s theatrical debut in Adelaide in 1997.

The New York Premiere will be directed by ‘Melbourne Musical Theatre Wunderkind’ and Host of the popular Music Theatre radio program, Broadway At Bedtime, Will Conyers. It will be the first time that Wings has hosted an International Director.

Conyers first came into contact with Dutch Courage when he was asked to play the lead role, ‘Greta’, for the Melbourne-based Magnormos Musical Theatre Readings Program under the unquestionably superb direction of Martin Croft.

“…We were both knocked out by Will’s performance...” said the creators, Lowe and Peter.

“The role (Greta) is an actor’s dream”, says Conyers. “It’s real tour de force stuff - she is at one time: Danny la Rue, Hannibal Lecter (without the appetite) and Shirley Bassey. A singing Nelson Mandela of a Winston Churchill in a frock, she deserves a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize... and perhaps a Tony”, Conyers laughed with a wink.

“When the show finished, I wanted the boys, (Lowe & Peter), to do something else with it. I had no idea that that conversation would take us off-Broadway!”

Farewell Australian Fund-Raising Performances in both Melbourne and Sydney will be scheduled for January-March 2008.


With World War 2 as a backdrop, Dutch Courage is “… a unique view about surviving … in a world where Gypsies, Jews, Blacks and Gays lived in danger of extermination. Dutch Courage succeeds in treating these issues with a good deal of sensitivity, while being a riot in poor taste for most of the rest of the night…” Adelaide Advertiser

“Dutch Courage … draws on real people and events, told in flashback by Jakob, the Jewish partner of transvestite Greta, who uses her nightclub, ‘Chez Sissy’, as a cover for resistance work. This includes sleeping with the enemy for troop information and blowing up the Amsterdam Records Office to prevent the Nazis cross-checking forged identity papers”. John Edge The Bulletin

“… satiric bite, heart catching pathos, and sometimes searing power…” The Bulletin