As produced by StarKid Productions, University of Michigan USA 2018
Reviewed by Frank McKone
Oct 8
Directed by Krys Pendrich; Co-Directed by Florian Kai
Choreography by Allura-Jane Haunting
Cast:
Paul – Mars Que (They, Them)
Emma / Donna – Honey Boom (She, They)
Bill – Ostin Gerhadt (He, Him)
Charlotte / Deb / Colonel Schaffer – Allura-Jane Haunting
Ted / Homeless Man / Dan – Freddy Hickey (He, Him)
Sam / Coffee Jerk / Mr Davidson – Lex Maddox (She, Her)
Professor Hidgens / Rod / Obnoxious Teen – Jay Lee Jnr (He, Him)
Nora/Melissa/Cop 1/Nurse/Smoke Club Kid/General John Macnamara – Stephanie Steer (She, Her)
Zoey / Alice / Cop 2 – Krys Pendrich (They, Them)
Crew:
Art Director / Merch Consultant / Graphic Designer – Mars Que
Choreographer / Social Media – Allura-Jane Haunting
Photographer – Steph Benassi
Stage Hand / Social Media (Facebook) – Florian Kai
Backstage Manager – Reese Kai
Stage Hand / Front of House – Steven Pendrich
Stage Hand / Understudy – Ruby Laing
Backstage / Understudy – Olivia Cullen
Set Assistant – Quinton Randall
Assistant Backstage Manager – Ebony Cooper
Set Design – Connor Harris; Backstage – Xaith Cooper
Lighting Technician – Punko Regarto; Backstage – Aiden Cooper
Sound Technician – Paige MacDonald
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| Welcome to Hatchetfield, USA |
Youth Cabaret is a newly established community theatre organisation in Canberra focused on engaging neurodiverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ young people. As a group they must surely take a critical view of the society around them, so it’s not surprising that they have chosen to perform a show about someone who doesn’t fit the ‘norm’.
I have to say though, that to some degree I’m with Paul. I appreciate the awful irony of presenting a musical in which the guy who hates musicals is the central character.
In the first half, the show presents an enthusiastic satirical view of society – specifically American – where absurdity rules as everyone must dance and sing at every opportunity (and even when there’s no opportunity) to fulfill the expectations of whatever role they may have.
The simplest example is Emma, who must sing as she makes Paul’s coffee, which he needs to escape his sing-song office. Why? Well of course, because her employer insists she must sing to her customers because then they will buy more coffee!
Of course, since we are in the world of musicals, working-class Emma and middle-class white collar Paul become a loving couple. How they try to cope when everybody sings and dances – even the police, financial managers and academics – is often funny, yet also often suspiciously threatening disaster.
As in the best of musicals, that possibility comes to fruition in the second half, when a meteor crashes to earth and kills everyone in Hatchetfield – except of course, Emma.
But a musical cannot end as a genuinely felt tragedy. Emma is amazed as Paul reappears. Is he really alive – or really dead? No matter – Emma loves Paul, so they hug and kiss as love conquers all.
The quality of the singing and the complexity of the choreography, so often a spoof of musical convention, make the show engaging – even when it’s often difficult to have any idea of what’s going on.
Maybe in the world of the young today, that’s the daily truth.
The original was written in 2018, but perhaps even more appropriately today, as the Democrat Obama has become a fading light, it is President Trump who is the meteor from somewhere weird in the universe which is destroying all the Americans. Or us.
Emma and Paul’s love is the only hope.
That’s the value of art, even in the form of an absurdist musical.
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Paul – Mars Que and Emma – Honey Boom The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Youth Cabaret 2026 |
