Dusty: The Musical (ACM) – theatre review

A dynamic lead, some stirring and familiar numbers and a moving story with which I wasn’t familiar make Dusty: The Musical well worth attending.

Director Jason Langley was one of the actors who workshopped Dusty back in 2004. Written by John-Michael Howson, David Mitchell and Melvyn Morrow (the team that also wrote Shout! The Legend of the Wild One, the musical based upon Johnny O’Keefe’s life), it eventually debuted at Arts Centre Melbourne on 12 January 2006 and now it has been nipped and tweaked and is back at the same venue. It is a biographical musical about Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien, who was born in London on 16 April 1939. It was the nuns at her Catholic school in Ealing who gave her the nickname Dusty.

A talented singer from a young age, she daydreamed about success as a performer, although her parents saw her as a plain Jane and encouraged her brother Dion’s musical abilities at her expense. Try as her folks did to dissuade her from pursuing a career in the industry, Mary – who would go on to change her name to Dusty Springfield – persevered, keeping her dream alive. In 1958, after answering an advertisement, she joined the group the Lana Sisters before forming folk-pop band The Springfields with her brother (who changed his name to Tom Springfield) and a friend. In October 1963 she left the band to embark on a solo career. She had transformed from a chubby tomboy with heavy glasses and short, mousy red hair to the quintessential image of a pop star, with blonde beehive, layers of heavy black mascara, pale lipstick and an array of glittering gowns.

Between 1963 and ’67 she had 17 hit records and spent 162 weeks in the singles charts. She offered audiences a new style of music, a cross between soul and mainstream pop. In spite of her success, she was plagued by insecurity, routinely haunted by her younger self. The true love of her life also didn’t have it easy as Dusty succumbed to excess. By her side throughout were her loyal hairdresser and wardrobe assistant. In the musical many of the people who played important parts in Dusty’s life have been melded into one and others are fictitious, dramatic creations.

Her hits, all of which are featured in Dusty: The Musical included I Only Want To Be With You, I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me and Son of a Preacher Man. In all there are 20 numbers in the first act and 16 in the second, a most engaging, easy listening soundscape.

With her superb vocalisation, Amy Lehpamer (The Sound of Music) is breathtaking as Dusty and I was also particularly taken by Baylie Carson as the awkward Mary O’Brien. Their duet at the end of the first act makes the hairs on the back of your neck rise – pure dynamite! Todd McKenney is his usual cheeky, irreverent self as Dusty’s faithful friend and hairdresser, Rodney, alongside wardrobe assistant Peg (Virginia Gay). Elenoa Rokobaro is a regular presence in Dusty’s life as her American lover and fellow songstress Reno, while Anne Wood is cast as Dusty’s mother, Tyler Coppin her father and Joshua Mulheran her brother.

They are among a 17-strong cast and nine-piece band under the musical direction of Michael Tyack, with choreography from Michael Ralph, that breathe life into the wannabe star with problems that made it all the way to the top. Dusty’s is a story full of heartache and heartbreak, angst, derision and adulation, well captured by the trio of writers under Langley’s direction. As talented as they came, Dusty risked sabotaging her life time and again before her untimely death from breast cancer on 2nd March, 1999 at the age of 59.

To see the highs and lows, you should head to the Playhouse, at Arts Centre Melbourne, before 4 December 2016. On 31st December, it moves to the Adelaide Festival Centre, where it will play until 22 January, 2017.

Alex First