For The Blank Page, Eddie Perfect throws open the doors to the creative process and hosts seven talents in musical theatre for a Q&A, broken up with song.
“Thanks for coming to our big old nerdfest,” he says, welcoming the crowd.
“This is not only about sharing the process; it’s kind of like the chance to not be so alone and to see how other people work.”
The actor, playwright, singer and songwriter welcomes his guests onto the stage – first it’s Matthew Frank and Dean Bryant. Perfect says the pair is a big part of the reason he got into writing musicals. They’re the “theatre mafia” and basically run musicals in Melbourne.
Then there’s comedian Michelle Brasier, who is known for her work with comedy trio Aunty Donna. Leah Sprecher and Brad Stevens are the overseas contingent; the Americans are responsible for Broadway Barbara, an online sensation who has her own touring cabaret show.
Virginia Gay, of Winners and Losers fame, shares her experience of failure and the moment she learnt to embrace it and all the good that comes from it.
“Failure is vital,” says Gay, who also hosted the Cabaret Festival’s Variety Gala. “You learn the boundaries of what you’re good at and you learn those boundaries are not permanent. As soon as you do that, you take the fear away from failure.”
Gillian Cosgriff rounds out the group, with Perfect describing her as: “One of those people who are sickeningly talented in everything.”
The actor, who was in the Melbourne Princess Theatre’s production of Harry Potter, is in the middle of writing her first musical, The Fig Tree, and gets behind the piano to sing one of the numbers from it – “The Door”. It’s a beautifully raw moment about leaving the door ajar for that person who perhaps should be firmly locked on the other side.
Gillian Cosgriff gives a beautifully raw performance. Photo: Claudio Raschella
The group chat all things musical theatre, including how they each began writing, pathways to the stage and the nitty gritty of song composition.
Michelle Brasier’s song “from a millennial to Gen Z” is brilliant and identifies all the millennials in the room with screams of laughter. In the song she sings: “Back when backstreets were back… what about our favourite Hanson brother, Zac.”
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Gay and Perfect perform “Taking out the Bins”, which Adelaide Cabaret Festival audiences may recognise from Perfect’s Introspective show two years ago. It’s a song he wrote about the warping of time and the shocking revelation that an entire week had passed since the last bin night.
To close, it’s the feel-good “Behind You”, a song Perfect wrote for Gay’s pantomime, The Boomkak Panto.
There was plenty of real industry insight for playwrights and performers to take away from this show, but for those who tend more toward the audience, it was also a fascinating window into a new world.
The Blank Page with Eddie Perfect was presented on Sunday in the Adelaide Festival Centre Banquet Room as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, which continues until June 24. See more stories and reviews on InReview’s Cabaret Festival page.
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