Shane Warne: The Musical is a musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 comedy based on the life of Australian cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er Shane Warne

Shane Warne

Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...

. First performed at the Athenaeum Theatre

Athenaeum, Melbourne

The Athenaeum or Melbourne Athenaeum is one of the oldest public institutions in Victoria, Australia, founded in 1839. The first President was Captain William Lonsdale, the first Patron was the Superintendent of Port Philip, Charles La Trobe and the first books were donated by Vice-President Henry...

 in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 on 10 December 2008, the musical was written by Eddie Perfect

Eddie Perfect

Eddie Perfect is an Australian actor, comedian and musician who currently plays Mick Holland in Channel Ten's Offspring series. He won the 2009 Helpmann Award for Best New Australian Work, the Victorian Premier's Literacy Award and the Green Room Award for his musical, Shane Warne The...

 and directed by 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...

. The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

 described the musical as "a warts-and-all account of the spin bowler's controversy-laden career and roller-coaster personal life set to soul, rock, opera, gospel music – and even a bit of Bollywood."

While initially suspicious of the project, Warne later gave his approval after watching the show, saying "I think Eddie and his team have written the musical in a respectful and sympathetic way, and that they have captured my fun, larrikin side." The musical has been able to draw an audience that would not normally attend musicals with Perfect saying "You see young blokes making their way to their seats carrying armfuls of beers for their mates, just like they do at the cricket. It’s like Reformation theatre when people were buying oranges to throw at the actors – why shouldn’t they have fun."

Plot

The musical consists of two acts: the first act covering Warne's aborted Australian rules football

Australian 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...

 career, his marriage and his rise to success as a Test cricketer while the controversial issues that Warne was involved in; such as his drug offence, infidelity and the John the bookmaker controversy feature in the second act. The musical finishes with a chorus "Everyone's a little bit like Shane".

The musical contains a series of songs about various incidents in Warne's life both on and off the cricket field, including:

• "The Tale Of Warne";
• "Run";
• "Get Offa The Couch";
• "How do you spell success? AIS
  Australian Institute of Sport
  The Australian Institute of Sport is a sports training institution in Australia with world class facilities and support services. The Institute's headquarters is situated in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The 66.0 hectare site campus is in the northern suburb of Bruce, but some of the...
  
  ";
• "We're Going There";
• "Piss It All Away";
• "Hollywood";
• "The Ball
  Ball of the Century
  The Ball of the Century, also referred to as the Gatting Ball or simply That Ball, is the name given to a cricket delivery bowled by Australia's Shane Warne to England's Mike Gatting. The event occurred on day two of the first Test of the 1993 Ashes series, which took place at Old Trafford,...
  
  ";
• "Payin' Attention Now";
• "Dancing With The Stars";
• "We Never Cross The Line";
• "The Away Game";
• "Is The Sun The Moon?";
• "I'm Coming Home";
• "Shine Like Shane";
• "What About That, Shane?";
• "The Ashes";
• "Bunny in the headlights" (about Daryll Cullinan); and
• "What an SMS I’m in".

Reviews

Reviews for the musical have been mainly positive.

• Australian Stage: "The story is thin, the songs are wordy and the sound wasn’t great, so many of the lyrics were lost. [...] Without wanting to cut down a tall poppy, there are certainly holes in the script and score. But who cares!? The performances by the ensemble cast are brilliant, the packed audience loved it, the upfront this-is-what-I-am-and-who-gives-a-shit-what-you-think-about-me attitude (reflecting Shane’s own character) is refreshing, the show will bring in thousands of audience-goers who love sport and Shane, but rarely go to the theatre (which is fantastic), so what more can a new Australian musical do?"
• The Independent
  The Independent
  The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
  
  "The mid-field marriage of a likeable star, fake bowling, plenty of sporting puns, and a moderate raunch factor had the crowds chuckling and clapping along. [...] [The musical makes] his life an appealingly debauched song and dance, playing with musical styles from nicely-harmonized gospel to gangsta rap."
• Gideon Haigh
  Gideon Haigh
  Gideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh is an English-born Australian journalist, who writes about sport and business. He was born in London of a Yorkshire father and an Australian mother, and was raised in Geelong, Victoria.- Career :Haigh has been writing about sport and business for over...
  
  , The Guardian
  The Guardian
  The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
  
  : "Perfect's vision is an almost unimprovable mingling of satire and homage, cheek and deference, music and comedy."
• Herald Sun
  Herald Sun
  The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
  
  : "[The musical] is a wild, funny, outrageous, and by the end, surprisingly moving account of the champion spin bowler's life so far. [...] Among the fun, there's genuine respect for [Warne's] enormous talent but it doesn't gloss over his personal failings."

Awards and Nominations

• 2008 Green Room Awards
  • Best New Australian Musical (winner)
  • Male Artist in a Leading Role - Eddie Perfect (nominated)
  • Female Artist in a Leading Role - Rosemarie Harris (nominated)
  • Featured Ensemble Performance - The Ensemble (nominated)

• 2009 Helpmann Awards
  • Best New Australian Work - Eddie Perfect (winner)
  • Best Musical (nominated)
  • Best Choreography in a Musical - Gideon Obarzanek (nominated)
  • Best Male Actor in a Musical - Eddie Perfect (nominated)

• 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Award
  Victorian Premier's Literary Award
  The Victorian Premier's Literary Awards were created by the Victorian Governmentwith the aim of raising the profile of contemporary creative writing and Australia's publishing industry....
  
  
  • Prize for Musical Theatre Script (winner)

External links

• Shane Warne: The Musical – Official site