Tim Minchin hopes that one of his future shows will have its world premiere in Australia. Speaking on the red carpet at the Sydney opening of Matilda the Musical, he said his current project Groundhog Day was not the piece to debut “for a number of reasons”, but added: “one day I’ll open something here.”
The comedian-composer is working on the musical version of Harold Ramis’s 1993 film about a weatherman forced to live the same day over and over again. The musical is set to open at London’s Old Vic in July 2016, before a Broadway run in New York in March 2017. Minchin hopes that it will also transfer to Australia. “I’d be devastated if Groundhog Day didn’t get here.”
He’s happy with the production’s development so far, but says there is work still to be done. “Certainly there’s an instrumental section I want to have a go at, and maybe one more song. Obviously there are always tweaks with lyrics, and the way that songs and script integrate.”
The project reunites him with many of the award-winning Matilda team, including director Matthew Warchus, choreographer Peter Darling and designer Rob Howell. They have recently recorded a workshop with 12 actors.
“I listen to it all the time and it’s a thing,” said Minchin of his new work. “I have no idea what other people think, but we think it’s all right.”
Minchin was in fine form on the red carpet, clearly excited to open the much anticipated Sydney run of Matilda the Musical. “Everyone has done their jobs so well,” he said, adding the production had a distinctly Aussie flair. “It’s Australian-style [to say]: ‘Oh yeah, we’ll do a show’ and then smashing the crap out of it. It’s brilliant.”
He also confirmed plans were in place for the show to open in Melbourne and Perth, adding: “I would be very surprised if it didn’t eventually at some point play everywhere in the whole fucking world, hopefully.”
The multi-talented Minchin, who grew up in Perth, is set to perform a one-off (and already sold out) Winter Sonic evening of music and conversation at the Fremantle Arts Centre in August.
Matilda the Musical premiered in Stratford upon Avon in November 2010, before opening in London’s West End in November 2011, and then running on Broadway from April 2013. But Minchin, who wrote the music and lyrics, largely credits the show’s writer Dennis Kelly with Matilda’s success around the world.
“It’s a great story, an incredible adaptation,” he said. “I didn’t bugger up the songs.” Successful musicals could be difficult to create, he said, “because there are so many moving parts and you really need cohesiveness between those parts.”
Almost six years after Matilda first opened, Minchin said all the show’s elements came together well.
“I realise the music sounds like the set, and the set looks like the story and it’s almost cross-sensory. It is all pursuing the same goal, which is to take care of this story. I think that is what makes a good musical, and I think we did all right.”
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Matilda the Musical is at Sydney’s Lyric theatre until 20 December
