“It’s a question I get asked every time the show opens:why two parts?”
Michael Cassel
“It’s a question I get asked every time the show opens:why two parts?” Cassel said. “The answer was,there’s so much story to tell,so much to convey. But then they had the past 18 months,time to think about things,and it gave that (writing) team the opportunity to come back together and say ‘if we were to reimagine this,can we do it?’ ... (Or) are we compromising the storytelling,compromising the experience?”
After a few drafts they had a version that they tried on the London stage in April with the original creative team,and it worked.
“It’s the same,but different,” says Cassel. “You’ve got all of those incredible characters,you’ve got the same story arc,but it clips along at a really spectacular pace. Part of the experience is all the wizardry and the magic and technical effects,so that’s preserved,so just the momentum of the show and the theatricality of the show is heightened.”
Once they knew it worked artistically,Cassel had to decide whether it was a shrewd business move for the Australian market. To keep the show going,he said,it was important to boost the appeal to international tourists from the region – and he also believed there was a much bigger potential domestic audience in Melbourne and Sydney.
“I felt if we were to make that switch here it would make us more accessible in terms of the time commitment,which is a big factor... and if the cost of the two-parter was previously challenging they can now buy this one-parter. I think this gives us the best chance for success.”
The whole cast and crew are fully vaccinated and in rehearsals for the show’s reopening (still as a two-parter) next Thursday.
Naomi Edwards,the show’s Australian associate director,said they were nearly up to speed for their return after a “boot camp” to get the cast ready for the physically demanding show.
“It got us of the couch and out of our trackies and just put the energy back,” she said. They also used physical and vocal exercises to help “reconnect” the cast.
“They have absolutely managed to keep everything that is special about this and transform it into something that’s told quicker.”
Naomi Edwards
“Some people have been super hungry and just busting to get back and ready to fly,and others just needed a little bit of time to adjust,” she said. There has also been the chance to take a new look at the script and the characters:there will be “slightly different interpretations of character”.
She has seen “sneak peeks” of the shorter Broadway production,though she’s not allowed to reveal spoilers.
“They have absolutely managed to keep everything that is special about this and transform it into something that’s told quicker,” she said.
There were “some really clean structural edits”,she said – but she will miss some aspects of the two-parter,particularly the community element.
“You would see the same people coming back after dinner or on the following night and they knew the people around them. That’s a really exciting thing,it gave such a shared experience and a scale of storytelling. It was a real honour to be a part of.”