In 2000 Gabriel Rossi and Ben Price presented the first version of Melbourne: The Musical, now re-staged for this year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival. It’s an interesting idea, with some successful moments and some lumpy ones. Rossi (guitar and voice) does most of the presenting and music, and has a direct, genuine manner which certainly kicks things along. Much emphasis is laid on how straight-talking and un politically-correct the show is going to be, how it will give everyone a serve, but this is not actually so apparent. Suburbs featured include Werribee, Footscray, Preston, Thomastown, St. Kilda, Noble Park, etc, etc; there is a strange avoidance of material about the more affluent places, surely a great target for comedy as well as the more predictable Frankston or Dandenong (indeed a reverse snobbery may be at work). Lyrics are original, but unfortunately set to existing songs, so a great chance for original music is lost. Occasionally Rossi performs against recorded backings, but he is much less at home here than when he’s by himself or, for a brief set, with his nephew Adrian, a very skilled player.
Ben Price appears to good effect in the first section as Ted Baillieu, Tim Tam (a supposed Vietnamese migrant), Dermot Brereton and Robert Doyle, and his skills as mimic and easy manner contribute much to the show’s appeal. However Price also succumbs to the temptation to just zoom into funny voices, trading more than is wise, by this point, on the audience’s good will.
In addition, somewhat mysteriously, in the more rambling, much less tight second section, another performer comes on as Bono, doing Melbourne type lyrics to Bono’s songs. Nicely done, but somewhat superfluous.
The show began very late, and runs a bit too long, but its good concepts and skilled performers make it worth a look. Incidentally Tourism Victoria recently staged a work called Melbourne Australia: the Musical. This particular effort seemingly does depict inner Melbourne, the city's laneways, Royal Exhibition Building, Fed Square, South Melbourne, etc.
Maybe some combined show would really show Melbourne in its range and variety.
2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Melbourne: The Musical
11 Years On
Venue: Comics Lounge | 26 Errol St, Nth Melbourne (Licensed venue. Under 18s must be accompanied by a Parent or Legal Guardian.)
Dates: 3 – 24 April, 2011
Times: Sun 8pm
Duration: 100 minutes
Tickets: All Tix $25
Bookings: 03 9348 9488 | thecomicslounge.com.au | at the door