Keating!
Encyclopedia
Keating! is a musical theatre production which portrays the political career of former Australian Prime Minister
Paul Keating
. Keating was Prime Minister between 1991 to 1996; the musical follows him from his ascendancy to the leadership through to his eventual electoral defeat by John Howard
. It was written by Casey Bennetto, who was inspired to write the show by his disappointment at the results of the 2004 federal election, which saw Howard's Coalition
government returned for a fourth term. The musical takes a humorous, satirical
tone and presents a positive image of Keating while frequently criticising the Howard government
. Bennetto describes the show as "ridiculously pro-Paul Keating".
Originally performed by musical group the Drowsy Drivers, the show achieved rapid success from its low-budget premiere at the 2005 Melbourne International Comedy Festival
where it enjoyed a sold out run and won an unprecedented three festival awards. In 2006, Neil Armfield
directed an extended Company B
production of Keating!, now with two acts and six new songs written by Bennetto. The Company B production has toured across Australia, receiving strong reviews and winning Helpmann Award
s for Best Musical and Best Regional Touring Production. In 2008 a live recording of the show was broadcast nationally on ABC2
; it was released on DVD in November 2008, through Madman Entertainment.
In January 2010, it was announced that the Old Nick Company
would be staging a production at the Theatre Royal, Hobart
between 3 and 6 March.
Prime Minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, ascending to the office after two leadership challenges against his predecessor, Bob Hawke
. As Prime Minister, he was interested in a "big picture" approach to government, engaging with issues such as a closer relationship with Asia
, Aboriginal
reconciliation and the formation of an Australian republic
. His government was defeated in the 1996 federal election by the Liberal
-National
coalition under John Howard. Writer Casey Bennetto was inspired to write a musical about Keating following his disappointment at the result of the 2004 federal election, which saw the Howard government returned for a fourth term. "It was time to have a laugh at it," he said. He says Keating's story appealed to him because of its classic dramatic structure, that of a man who struggles, "makes it to the top" and must compete against "three bad guys"—successive Opposition leaders John Hewson
, Alexander Downer
and John Howard. Bennetto believed Keating's colourful personality made him an "ideal" character for musical theatre, citing the former Prime Minister's reputation for being sharp-tongued, wearing Zegna suits and collecting antique clocks. Bennetto wrote the show in eight weeks, drawing on Keating biography Recollections of a Bleeding Heart by Don Watson
. He describes it as a "ridiculously pro-Paul Keating" piece which ultimately aims to be funny and entertaining.
and Cam Rogers as Alexander Downer. Despite the musical's success in Melbourne, Bennetto did not have any plans for Keating! after the end of the comedy festival. However, producer Catherine Woodfield insisted they develop it further. Between 2005 and 2006 they took it on tour across Australia, including a week of shows in the Sydney Opera House
, a return season at Melbourne's Trades Hall, a two-week season at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival
, a week of shows at the Brisbane Powerhouse and two nights in Darwin
.
Also in 2006, renowned director Neil Armfield offered to direct a production of Keating! at Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre with Company B
. For the Company B production Bennetto reworked the musical into a two-act piece, writing six new songs for the show. Of the original cast, only McLeish, Pozzebon and Bennetto were retained; McLeish returned as Keating and Pozzebon as Evans, while Bennetto took on the roles of Hewson and Downer. Terry Serio joined the cast as Hawke and Howard. Bennetto says that both he and McLeish were worried that Armfield would turn "relatively simply staged, roughly hewn" musical into "the Amadeus
version" without the original show's sense of fun, but instead felt it became a "more accomplished, buffed-up version of the original show".
The Company B version of Keating! enjoyed sold-out seasons in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide
, Brisbane
, Perth
, Canberra
, Wollongong, Albany
and elsewhere (including a run of shows at the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival) before coming to a close on 31 August 2008. On 20 August 2008, ABC2 broadcast a live performance of the show from Sydney's Seymour Theatre Centre. The recording was released on DVD by Madman Entertainment in November 2008.
praised the musical as "the best show I've seen at this festival in five years" and The Age
s Daniel Ziffer described it as "clever and superbly funny". Within the first week it had become one of the most popular shows of the festival, having sold out by the fifth show. By the end of its Melbourne run, the show had won three major festival awards—the Barry, The Age Critics' Award and the Golden Gibbo—the first time any production had ever done so. For the songs of Keating!, Bennetto won both the 2006 Helpmann and Green Room Awards for best original musical score.
The Company B version also received strong reviews, with a writer in Brisbane's Courier-Mail describing it as "brilliantly satirical" and a reviewer in Melbourne's Age awarding it the top rating of five stars. However Paul Sheehan
, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, criticised the musical's pro-Keating bias, calling the script "preachy and safe" and an insult to those who voted for Howard. In 2007 it won the Helpmann Award for best musical, as well as the awards for best direction for Armfield and best actor in a supporting role for Serio. The following year it won another Helpmann for best regional touring production. By the end of its 2007 Sydney season, it had taken $500,000 in box office earnings, and by its final show in 2008 its total audience had reached over 223,000 people across Australia.
Keating, who has attended the show multiple times, believes that it is popular because politics and public life today are without humour. "The game is very dour," he says, "But satire can get a lot across. It can cut out the humbug." He believes another reason is an increased interest in the unsettled issues in the national debate, such as the question of a republic. Downer has also seen the show and commented afterwards that he enjoys satire and thought "Keating! the musical was far better than Keating the prime minister."
The following summary refers to the extended, two-act version of the musical.
" and cricket—and his deputy, Paul Keating, who is fond of "the works of Mahler" ("My Right Hand Man"). While Hawke admires Keating's economic prowess, he is perplexed by the other man's "un-Australian
" interests. Keating emerges and shares some of his life story and his hopes to gain the leadership from Hawke as they had agreed to in a deal known as the Kirribilli Accord for the venue
at which it was reached ("Do It In Style"). However, Hawke reneges on the deal and Keating returns to the back bench
. In a rock ballad, vaguely in the style of Queen
, he sings of his desolation before resolving to challenge for the Prime Ministership ("I Remember Kirribilli"). He confronts Hawke with the blue-eyed soul
-style "It's Time"; the song refers to the name of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam
's famous 1970s campaign
and uses Keating's fondness for collecting antique clocks as a motif for his belief that it is indeed time for a change of leadership. Keating becomes Prime Minister and sings of his ambitions for the nation—including a treaty with Australian Aborigines, an Australian republic and an improved relationships with Australia's Asian neighbours—in a reggae
song ("Ruler Of The Land").
As Keating celebrates his success, Gareth Evans cautions that the political life of a Prime Minister is limited in the minor-key Latin tune "The Beginning Is The End". Both he and the ghost of Gough Whitlam
counsel Keating to "maintain your rage". Keating then faces off against Opposition Leader John Hewson in a freestyle rap battle, arguing over the merits of Hewson's "Fightback!
" policy platform, with Keating winning the battle due to his superior command of colourful invective, much of which is drawn from actual Keating quotes ("On The Floor"). Angered, Hewson challenges Keating to call an early election, but Keating refuses in the song "I Wanna Do You Slowly". The song's title again refers to a well-known Keating quote, but takes on a sexual interpretation in the slow, Barry White
-style funk number. The Keating government contests the 1993 federal election, and in an animated video Kerry O'Brien, Michael Kroger
, Robert Ray
and Antony Green
report on the incoming results in scat
over ukelele ("Antony Green"). Labor wins, and Keating sings about the unexpected victory as "the sweetest victory of all", using a famous phrase from his actual election night speech ("Sweet").
In the ska
tune "The Arse End Of The Earth", which refers to Keating's private description of Australia, both Keating and Evans complain about the day-to-day issues of the economy and their unfavourable portrayal in the commercial media getting in the way of their larger agenda, including republicianism, a new flag
, and Aboriginal reconciliation. Alexander Downer
replaces Hewson as Opposition Leader for a short and unsuccessful period. In a costume of fishnets, corsetry and lipstick that alludes to a photograph of the actual Downer posing in fishnet stockings for a competition, he sings his belief that he is just "too freaky" for the leadership ("Freaky"). Meanwhile, Evans has an extramarital affair with Australian Democrats
leader Cheryl Kernot
(typically played by a male) ("Heavens, Mister Evans"). In an understated minor-key bossa nova
song, Keating sings of the need to recognise and apologise for the damage done by white colonisation and subsequent subjugation of the Australian Aboriginal population ("Redfern"), before seguing into a more upbeat mambo about the Mabo
decision by the High Court of Australia and his attempts to use the decision to promote a reconciliation agenda ("Ma(m)bo").
John Howard becomes leader of the Opposition, presenting a new threat to Keating. Howard describes his intense desire for power and his thirst for revenge against the petty humiliations put on him as a child in a menacing minor-key march ("Power"). However, in the media he presents himself as "a normal bloke and nothing more" ("The Mateship"). Through various costume changes, he attempts to cast himself as a sports fan, a friend of the Australian soldier and a farmer, though the song implies that these are only costumes. The song also refers to the "children overboard" affair
, his criticism of political correctness
, and his use of immigration as a political issue, some of which occurred after the actual Howard's subsequent election to Prime Minister. In a slow rock duet, Keating and Howard both beseech voters to "Choose Me". However, as the 1996 electoral polls close, Keating concludes that he is doomed electorally. He sings of his unachieved dreams and with some bitterness at what he sees as the backward-looking message of his opponent in a country-influenced ballad referring to former Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley
's description
of Labor's overarching goals ("The Light On The Hill").
In the final number, "Historical Revisionism", the election tightens dramatically and the results come to hang on a single polling booth—the theatre in which the musical is playing. Keating wins and Howard concedes with the line "Well, I'm sorry... that I lost!" (a reference to his unwillingness to support a formal apology to the Aboriginal people). As the song's title indicates, the actual Keating did not win the 1996 election. The song segues into a reprise of "Ruler Of The Land".
, blues
, rap
, reggae, soul
, swing and beer-barrel waltz. The lyrics frequently draw on quotes from the real Keating and other political figures, particularly in "On The Floor" which contains numerous verbatim quotes from Keating's debates with Hewson. In expanding the show for the Company B production Bennetto wrote six new songs, adding an Act One "curtain" number ("Sweet"), an exploration of Keating's time in office ("The Arse End Of The Earth"), two songs on Aboriginal reconciliation and native title
("Redfern" and "Ma(m)bo") and another song for Howard ("The Mateship"). "Dogs Of Damnation", a song from the original version in which Evans warns Keating that his political life is limited, was replaced by the similarly themed "The Beginning Is The End".
A live recording of the original single-act version played at the Sydney Opera House
was released in 2006 by Bella Union Enterprises and is available through the Drowsy Drivers' Keating! website. In 2007 Company B released a cast recording
of the extended show containing all of the musical numbers featured on stage except for "Antony Green". The CD features the Company B production's original cast, with McLeish as Keating, Serio as Hawke and Howard, Bennetto as Hewson and Downer, Pozzebon as Evans and Mick Stuart as Kernot. The band consists of Alon Ilsar (drums), Eden Ottignon (bass), Pozzebon (keyboards), Guy Strazz (acoustic guitar) and Mick Stuart (electric guitar). By 2008, the CD had sold over 5,000 copies.
Act Two
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
Paul Keating
Paul Keating
Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
. Keating was Prime Minister between 1991 to 1996; the musical follows him from his ascendancy to the leadership through to his eventual electoral defeat by John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
. It was written by Casey Bennetto, who was inspired to write the show by his disappointment at the results of the 2004 federal election, which saw Howard's Coalition
Coalition (Australia)
The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...
government returned for a fourth term. The musical takes a humorous, satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
tone and presents a positive image of Keating while frequently criticising the Howard government
Howard Government
The Howard Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard. It was made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition, which won a majority of seats in the Australian House of Representatives at four successive elections. The Howard Government...
. Bennetto describes the show as "ridiculously pro-Paul Keating".
Originally performed by musical group the Drowsy Drivers, the show achieved rapid success from its low-budget premiere at the 2005 Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the third-largest international comedy festival in the world and the largest cultural event in Australia. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks in April typically opening on or around April Fool's Day...
where it enjoyed a sold out run and won an unprecedented three festival awards. In 2006, Neil Armfield
Neil Armfield
Neil Geoffrey Armfield AO is an Australian director of theatre, film and opera.Born in Sydney, Armfield was the youngest of three boys. The son of a factory worker at the nearby Arnott's biscuit factory he was brought up in the suburb of Concord adjacent to Exile Bay...
directed an extended Company B
Company B (theatre)
Belvoir is an Australian theatre company based at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia. Its Artistic Director is Ralph Myers.Belvoir receives government support for its activities from the federal government through the Major Performing Arts Board of the Australia Council for the Arts and...
production of Keating!, now with two acts and six new songs written by Bennetto. The Company B production has toured across Australia, receiving strong reviews and winning Helpmann Award
Helpmann Award
The Helpmann Awards recognize distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in Australia's live performing arts sectors. The recognized disciplines include musical and physical theatre, contemporary and classical music, opera, and dance, with a comedy category introduced in 2006...
s for Best Musical and Best Regional Touring Production. In 2008 a live recording of the show was broadcast nationally on ABC2
ABC2
ABC2 is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 7 March 2005, it is the responsibility of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television division, and is available nationally to digital television viewers in Australia...
; it was released on DVD in November 2008, through Madman Entertainment.
In January 2010, it was announced that the Old Nick Company
Old Nick Company
The Old Nick Company, established in 1948, is the main student theatre company at the University of Tasmania. It stages a popular annual revue and other smaller productions...
would be staging a production at the Theatre Royal, Hobart
Theatre Royal, Hobart
The Theatre Royal is situated in central Hobart, Tasmania. It stages many events including international ballet, opera, drama and musicals. It was constructed between 1834-1837 and is the oldest continually operating theatre in Australia....
between 3 and 6 March.
Background
Paul Keating was a LaborAustralian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
Prime Minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, ascending to the office after two leadership challenges against his predecessor, Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
. As Prime Minister, he was interested in a "big picture" approach to government, engaging with issues such as a closer relationship with Asia
Foreign relations of Australia
The foreign relations of Australia have spanned from the country's time as Dominion and later Realm of the Commonwealth to become steadfastly allied with New Zealand through long-standing ANZAC ties dating back to the early 1900s, and the United States throughout the Cold War, to its engagement...
, Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
reconciliation and the formation of an Australian republic
Republicanism in Australia
Republicanism in Australia is a movement to change Australia's status as a constitutional monarchy to a republican form of government. Such sentiments have been expressed in Australia from before federation onward to the present...
. His government was defeated in the 1996 federal election by the Liberal
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
-National
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
coalition under John Howard. Writer Casey Bennetto was inspired to write a musical about Keating following his disappointment at the result of the 2004 federal election, which saw the Howard government returned for a fourth term. "It was time to have a laugh at it," he said. He says Keating's story appealed to him because of its classic dramatic structure, that of a man who struggles, "makes it to the top" and must compete against "three bad guys"—successive Opposition leaders John Hewson
John Hewson
John Robert Hewson AM is an Australian economist, company director and a former politician. He was federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 1990 to 1994 and led the party to defeat at the 1993 federal election.-Early life:...
, Alexander Downer
Alexander Downer
Alexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...
and John Howard. Bennetto believed Keating's colourful personality made him an "ideal" character for musical theatre, citing the former Prime Minister's reputation for being sharp-tongued, wearing Zegna suits and collecting antique clocks. Bennetto wrote the show in eight weeks, drawing on Keating biography Recollections of a Bleeding Heart by Don Watson
Don Watson
Don Watson is an Australian author and public speaker.-Biography:Watson grew up on a farm in Gippsland, took his undergraduate degree at La Trobe University and a Ph.D at Monash University and was for ten years an academic historian. He wrote three books on Australian history before turning his...
. He describes it as a "ridiculously pro-Paul Keating" piece which ultimately aims to be funny and entertaining.
Production history
Originally performed by musical group the Drowsy Drivers, Keating! premiered at the 2005 Melbourne International Comedy Festival as a low-budget, single-act show in a 100-seat venue at the Melbourne Trades Hall. Mike McLeish played the lead role, with Bennetto as "the three Hs – Hawke, Hewson and Howard", Enio Pozzebon as Gareth EvansGareth Evans (politician)
Gareth John Evans, AO, QC , is a former Australian politician from 1978 to 1999 representing the Australian Labor Party, serving in a number of ministries including Attorney-General and Foreign Minister from 1983 to 1996 in the Hawke and Keating governments. He was president and chief executive...
and Cam Rogers as Alexander Downer. Despite the musical's success in Melbourne, Bennetto did not have any plans for Keating! after the end of the comedy festival. However, producer Catherine Woodfield insisted they develop it further. Between 2005 and 2006 they took it on tour across Australia, including a week of shows in the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
, a return season at Melbourne's Trades Hall, a two-week season at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Adelaide Cabaret Festival
The Adelaide Cabaret Festival is an annual cabaret festival held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. It is the largest festival of its type in the world, with more than 48,000 attendees....
, a week of shows at the Brisbane Powerhouse and two nights in Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
.
Also in 2006, renowned director Neil Armfield offered to direct a production of Keating! at Sydney's Belvoir Street Theatre with Company B
Company B
Company B may refer to:*Company B - a dance-pop trio.**Company B , Company B's 1987 debut album.*Company B - a theatre company.Company B - A marketing and Public Relations firm in Milwaukee, WI...
. For the Company B production Bennetto reworked the musical into a two-act piece, writing six new songs for the show. Of the original cast, only McLeish, Pozzebon and Bennetto were retained; McLeish returned as Keating and Pozzebon as Evans, while Bennetto took on the roles of Hewson and Downer. Terry Serio joined the cast as Hawke and Howard. Bennetto says that both he and McLeish were worried that Armfield would turn "relatively simply staged, roughly hewn" musical into "the Amadeus
Amadeus
Amadeus is a play by Peter Shaffer.It is based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, highly fictionalized.Amadeus was first performed in 1979...
version" without the original show's sense of fun, but instead felt it became a "more accomplished, buffed-up version of the original show".
The Company B version of Keating! enjoyed sold-out seasons in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Wollongong, Albany
Albany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
and elsewhere (including a run of shows at the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival) before coming to a close on 31 August 2008. On 20 August 2008, ABC2 broadcast a live performance of the show from Sydney's Seymour Theatre Centre. The recording was released on DVD by Madman Entertainment in November 2008.
Response
The premiere of the Drowsy Drivers' production at the 2005 Melbourne International Comedy Festival was met with enthusiastic reviews. Comedian Chris AddisonChris Addison
Chris Addison is an English stand-up comedian, writer and actor. He is known for his lecture-style comedy shows, two of which he later adapted for BBC Radio 4...
praised the musical as "the best show I've seen at this festival in five years" and The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
s Daniel Ziffer described it as "clever and superbly funny". Within the first week it had become one of the most popular shows of the festival, having sold out by the fifth show. By the end of its Melbourne run, the show had won three major festival awards—the Barry, The Age Critics' Award and the Golden Gibbo—the first time any production had ever done so. For the songs of Keating!, Bennetto won both the 2006 Helpmann and Green Room Awards for best original musical score.
The Company B version also received strong reviews, with a writer in Brisbane's Courier-Mail describing it as "brilliantly satirical" and a reviewer in Melbourne's Age awarding it the top rating of five stars. However Paul Sheehan
Paul Sheehan (journalist)
Paul Sheehan is a conservative Australian columnist and senior writer for the Sydney Morning Herald, where he has been day editor, chief of staff and Washington correspondent...
, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, criticised the musical's pro-Keating bias, calling the script "preachy and safe" and an insult to those who voted for Howard. In 2007 it won the Helpmann Award for best musical, as well as the awards for best direction for Armfield and best actor in a supporting role for Serio. The following year it won another Helpmann for best regional touring production. By the end of its 2007 Sydney season, it had taken $500,000 in box office earnings, and by its final show in 2008 its total audience had reached over 223,000 people across Australia.
Keating, who has attended the show multiple times, believes that it is popular because politics and public life today are without humour. "The game is very dour," he says, "But satire can get a lot across. It can cut out the humbug." He believes another reason is an increased interest in the unsettled issues in the national debate, such as the question of a republic. Downer has also seen the show and commented afterwards that he enjoys satire and thought "Keating! the musical was far better than Keating the prime minister."
Synopsis
Act One
Sung-through, the production begins with Bob Hawke introducing the political situation of 1990 and the contrasting personalities of Hawke—with his enthusiasm for "footyAustralian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
" and cricket—and his deputy, Paul Keating, who is fond of "the works of Mahler" ("My Right Hand Man"). While Hawke admires Keating's economic prowess, he is perplexed by the other man's "un-Australian
Un-Australian
Un-Australian is an increasingly pejorative term used in Australia. In modern usage, it has similar connotations to the US term un-American, however the Australian term is somewhat older, being used as early as 1855 to describe an aspect of the landscape that was similar to that of Britain...
" interests. Keating emerges and shares some of his life story and his hopes to gain the leadership from Hawke as they had agreed to in a deal known as the Kirribilli Accord for the venue
Kirribilli House
Kirribilli House is the official Sydney residence of the Australian Prime Minister. The house is located at the far eastern end of Kirribilli Avenue in the harbourside suburb of Kirribilli...
at which it was reached ("Do It In Style"). However, Hawke reneges on the deal and Keating returns to the back bench
Backbencher
In Westminster parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a Member of Parliament or a legislator who does not hold governmental office and is not a Front Bench spokesperson in the Opposition...
. In a rock ballad, vaguely in the style of Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
, he sings of his desolation before resolving to challenge for the Prime Ministership ("I Remember Kirribilli"). He confronts Hawke with the blue-eyed soul
Blue-eyed soul
Blue-eyed soul is a media term that was used to describe rhythm and blues and soul music performed by white artists, with a strong pop music influence. The term was first used in the mid-1960s to describe white artists who performed soul and R&B that was similar to the music of the Motown and...
-style "It's Time"; the song refers to the name of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
's famous 1970s campaign
It's Time
It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative government, Labor put forward a raft of major policy proposals, accompanied by a...
and uses Keating's fondness for collecting antique clocks as a motif for his belief that it is indeed time for a change of leadership. Keating becomes Prime Minister and sings of his ambitions for the nation—including a treaty with Australian Aborigines, an Australian republic and an improved relationships with Australia's Asian neighbours—in a reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
song ("Ruler Of The Land").
As Keating celebrates his success, Gareth Evans cautions that the political life of a Prime Minister is limited in the minor-key Latin tune "The Beginning Is The End". Both he and the ghost of Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
counsel Keating to "maintain your rage". Keating then faces off against Opposition Leader John Hewson in a freestyle rap battle, arguing over the merits of Hewson's "Fightback!
Fightback!
Fightback! was a radical economic policy package, 650 pages long, proposed by then Liberal Party leader John Hewson.-Key elements:The key elements of Fightback! were:...
" policy platform, with Keating winning the battle due to his superior command of colourful invective, much of which is drawn from actual Keating quotes ("On The Floor"). Angered, Hewson challenges Keating to call an early election, but Keating refuses in the song "I Wanna Do You Slowly". The song's title again refers to a well-known Keating quote, but takes on a sexual interpretation in the slow, Barry White
Barry White
Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter , was an American composer and singer-songwriter.A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring...
-style funk number. The Keating government contests the 1993 federal election, and in an animated video Kerry O'Brien, Michael Kroger
Michael Kroger
Michael Norman Kroger is a businessman and a powerbroker within the Victorian division of the Liberal Party of Australia. He was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne.-Early Life :...
, Robert Ray
Robert Ray (Australian politician)
Robert Francis Ray , Australian politician, was an Australian Labor Party member of the Senate from July 1981 to May 2008, representing the state of Victoria....
and Antony Green
Antony Green
Antony John Green is an Australian psephologist and commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.-Early years and background:...
report on the incoming results in scat
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...
over ukelele ("Antony Green"). Labor wins, and Keating sings about the unexpected victory as "the sweetest victory of all", using a famous phrase from his actual election night speech ("Sweet").
Act Two
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
tune "The Arse End Of The Earth", which refers to Keating's private description of Australia, both Keating and Evans complain about the day-to-day issues of the economy and their unfavourable portrayal in the commercial media getting in the way of their larger agenda, including republicianism, a new flag
Australian flag debate
The Australian flag debate is a debate over whether the Australian flag should be changed in order to remove the Union Flag from the canton, often in connection with the issue of republicanism in Australia...
, and Aboriginal reconciliation. Alexander Downer
Alexander Downer
Alexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...
replaces Hewson as Opposition Leader for a short and unsuccessful period. In a costume of fishnets, corsetry and lipstick that alludes to a photograph of the actual Downer posing in fishnet stockings for a competition, he sings his belief that he is just "too freaky" for the leadership ("Freaky"). Meanwhile, Evans has an extramarital affair with Australian Democrats
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
leader Cheryl Kernot
Cheryl Kernot
Cheryl Kernot is an Australian politician, academic, and political activist. She was a member of the Australian Senate representing Queensland for the Australian Democrats from 1990 to 1997, and the fifth leader of the Australian Democrats from 1993 to 1997...
(typically played by a male) ("Heavens, Mister Evans"). In an understated minor-key bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
song, Keating sings of the need to recognise and apologise for the damage done by white colonisation and subsequent subjugation of the Australian Aboriginal population ("Redfern"), before seguing into a more upbeat mambo about the Mabo
Mabo v Queensland
Mabo v Queensland was a landmark High Court of Australia decision recognising native title in Australia for the first time...
decision by the High Court of Australia and his attempts to use the decision to promote a reconciliation agenda ("Ma(m)bo").
John Howard becomes leader of the Opposition, presenting a new threat to Keating. Howard describes his intense desire for power and his thirst for revenge against the petty humiliations put on him as a child in a menacing minor-key march ("Power"). However, in the media he presents himself as "a normal bloke and nothing more" ("The Mateship"). Through various costume changes, he attempts to cast himself as a sports fan, a friend of the Australian soldier and a farmer, though the song implies that these are only costumes. The song also refers to the "children overboard" affair
Children overboard affair
The Children Overboard affair was an Australian political controversy involving public allegations by Howard government ministers in October 2001, in the lead-up to a federal election, that sea-faring asylum seekers had thrown children overboard in a presumed ploy to secure rescue and passage to...
, his criticism of political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
, and his use of immigration as a political issue, some of which occurred after the actual Howard's subsequent election to Prime Minister. In a slow rock duet, Keating and Howard both beseech voters to "Choose Me". However, as the 1996 electoral polls close, Keating concludes that he is doomed electorally. He sings of his unachieved dreams and with some bitterness at what he sees as the backward-looking message of his opponent in a country-influenced ballad referring to former Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley
Ben Chifley
Joseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician, was the 16th Prime Minister of Australia. He took over the Australian Labor Party leadership and Prime Ministership after the death of John Curtin in 1945, and went on to retain government at the 1946 election, before being defeated at the 1949...
's description
The light on the hill
"The light on the hill" is a phrase used to describe the objective of the Australian Labor Party. The phrase was coined in a 1949 conference speech by then Prime Minister Ben Chifley....
of Labor's overarching goals ("The Light On The Hill").
In the final number, "Historical Revisionism", the election tightens dramatically and the results come to hang on a single polling booth—the theatre in which the musical is playing. Keating wins and Howard concedes with the line "Well, I'm sorry... that I lost!" (a reference to his unwillingness to support a formal apology to the Aboriginal people). As the song's title indicates, the actual Keating did not win the 1996 election. The song segues into a reprise of "Ruler Of The Land".
Music
The songs of Keating! employ a wide range of musical styles, including bossa novaBossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, reggae, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, swing and beer-barrel waltz. The lyrics frequently draw on quotes from the real Keating and other political figures, particularly in "On The Floor" which contains numerous verbatim quotes from Keating's debates with Hewson. In expanding the show for the Company B production Bennetto wrote six new songs, adding an Act One "curtain" number ("Sweet"), an exploration of Keating's time in office ("The Arse End Of The Earth"), two songs on Aboriginal reconciliation and native title
Native title
Native title is the Australian version of the common law doctrine of aboriginal title.Native title is "the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs"...
("Redfern" and "Ma(m)bo") and another song for Howard ("The Mateship"). "Dogs Of Damnation", a song from the original version in which Evans warns Keating that his political life is limited, was replaced by the similarly themed "The Beginning Is The End".
A live recording of the original single-act version played at the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
was released in 2006 by Bella Union Enterprises and is available through the Drowsy Drivers' Keating! website. In 2007 Company B released a cast recording
Cast recording
A cast recording is a recording of a musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording, as the name implies, features the voices of the show's original cast...
of the extended show containing all of the musical numbers featured on stage except for "Antony Green". The CD features the Company B production's original cast, with McLeish as Keating, Serio as Hawke and Howard, Bennetto as Hewson and Downer, Pozzebon as Evans and Mick Stuart as Kernot. The band consists of Alon Ilsar (drums), Eden Ottignon (bass), Pozzebon (keyboards), Guy Strazz (acoustic guitar) and Mick Stuart (electric guitar). By 2008, the CD had sold over 5,000 copies.
Musical numbers
Act One- My Right Hand Man – Hawke
- Do It In Style – Keating
- I Remember Kirribilli – Keating
- It's Time – Keating and Hawke
- Ruler Of The Land – Keating
- The Beginning Is The End – Keating, Evans and Whitlam
- On The Floor – Keating and Hewson
- I Wanna Do You Slowly – Keating and Hewson
- Antony Green – Reporters
- Sweet – Keating
Act Two
- The Arse End Of The Earth – Keating and Evans
- Freaky – Downer
- Heavens, Mister Evans – Evans and Kernot
- Redfern – Keating
- Ma(m)bo – Keating
- Power – Howard
- The Mateship – Howard
- Choose Me – Keating and Howard
- The Light On The Hill – Keating
- Historical Revisionism – Scrutineer, Keating and Howard
External links
- Keating! – The Opera, official website for the single-act Drowsy Drivers version of the musical
- Keating! The Musical annotations, lyrics annotated with cultural and historical references
- Keating!, website of the Old Nick Company's production of the musical.