The Australian musical theatre writing and development scene is small compared to its counterparts in the US or UK.

While Australia punches well above its weight when it comes to performing, there have been comparatively few locally written and developed shows that have become successful.

Partly this is because there are fewer people living in Australia - about 26 million compared to 67 million (UK) and 333 million (US). When you have smaller talent pool to tap into, it’s not surprising that there are fewer shows being written and produced.

But that alone doesn’t account for the disparity.

I would say the two key differences are a lack of tradition in this field, and lack of writing & development infrastructure for musicals.

Lack of tradition

American and British creators can look back and take inspiration from creators who are (or at least whose works are) known the world over - Gilbert & Sullivan, Rodgers & Hart & Hammerstein, Lionel Bart, Frank Loesser, Bock & Harnick, Kander & Ebb, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Steven Sondheim, the list goes on and on and on and on (as Maltby & Shire might put it). There’s undeniable proof going back a hundred years that one can be successful writing musicals in these countries.

(It’s interesting that Ireland, which boasts world-renowned playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, JM Synge, Brian Friel, Martin McDonagh, Oscar Wilde and Enda Walsh, has produced relatively few well-known stage musicals, with Once - to which End Walsh contributed the book - perhaps being the biggest exception.)

Australian creators have only recently started to make their mark on the world scene, with Tim Minchin and Eddie Perfect both having success on shows that have had Broadway and West End runs. While other Australian shows have been successful, usually their success has been limited to Australian shores, eg Muriel’s Wedding (ironically commissioned by a Brit Jonathan Church when he was the artistic director of Sydney Theatre Company, and a show that I personally think could play well in London). Or they’ve been jukebox shows such as Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The Boy from Oz or Moulin Rouge).

Lack of training and development infrastructure

In the US you can study writing musical theatre at a tertiary level, at universities such as the Tisch School of Arts at New York University (NYU), and also Temple University, both of which offer MFAs in writing musicals. (Granted, the cost of these courses is wallet and heart-breaking.)

In the UK Goldsmiths University offers a similar course. (While it’s more academic and less practical than the NYU and Temple courses, it’s also substantially cheaper.)

While there are top-tier acting and directing schools in Australia, including the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) and others, there are no schools formally teaching musical theatre writing.

In the United States you can also participate in programs, courses, workshops, conferences and sheet music publication services such as the renowned BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, New Musicals Inc (NMI), the O’Neill National Musical Theater Conference and New Musical Theatre.

In the UK similar organisations exist, such as Book Music Lyrics (BML), Mercury Musicals Development and New UK Musicals.

Australia currently has no organisations (that I’m aware of) that are focused on training people to write, and cultivating the development of, Australian musicals. A small Melbourne-based company, Magnormos, with such a brief was founded in 2002 but currently appears to be dormant. New Musicals Australia was an initiative funded by the Australian Federal Government but only last about three years. Sydney’s Hayes Theatre Company does have a creative development arm which has brought a number of shows to fruition, but this is as an adjunct to its main purpose of curating a full season of musicals (usually international shows, with some local ones mixed in).