Tim Rogers, the front-man of You Am I, has teamed up with award winning playwright Aidan Fennessy (Chilling and Killing My Annabel Lee; Brutopia) to adapt his debut solo album (which won him the 1999 ARIA Award for Best Male Artist) into a musical. ‘What Rhymes with Cars and Girls’ will be performed four times at the Playhouse as part of GPAC’s 2017 Deakin University Theatre season. It will then tour to Bendigo, Sydney and Brisbane.
Directed by Clare Watson with musical direction by Rogers, who fronts a three-piece band, the show has got singers Johnny Carr and Sophie Ross bringing out a bizarre, beautiful tale of contemporary romance to life on the stage. This two actor cast enables a closeness and intimacy to develop towards and between their characters.
Picture this: star-crossed lovers brought together by a pizza delivery gone wrong. Sounds relatable! But what follows is a complex, at times raw and vulnerable romance, examining class divides and alienation, growing older, intimacy and urban love through a working-class pizza delivery man and a band singer with an upper class background. It promises to resonate with anyone who has ever loved, even the most cynical. Unashamedly romantic, it revitalises old romantic clichés through their Australian twist and heartfelt script.
Responding to a “Australia’s desire for contemporary, home-grown works” (MTC Artistic Director Brett Sheehy AO), the play premiered in 2015 and has been performed to rave reviews since, delighting audiences and showcasing Australian creative talents through an iconic Australian album.
The songs, tales of love and heartbreak told in a heavy Australian vernacular, are performed in a country-folk style. Set in the late 1990s, it resonates with nostalgia for those times. It is respectful to the source material, bringing back fans of Tim Rogers’ iconic album while simultaneously revitalising the music under his direction to become a feel-good musical love story. Rogers’ album, addressed to a lover, becomes a proper dialogue. Fennessy has threaded a beautiful story around Rogers’ songs to bring out another side of their power.
This adaptation reveals the transcendental possibilities of good art, bringing out the story in song.
When & Where: The Playhouse, GPAC – September 21 – 23
Call the Box Office at 5225 1200, or book through gpac.org.au.
Written by Brianna Courtney Bullen
Image by Jeff Busby
