If only all history lessons were so much fun!
MILLERS POINT SONGBOOK is a musical history tour of Millers Point from colonial settlement to contemporary times, with music and lyrics by Joanna Weinberg, with additional music and lyrics by Sue Hunt.
MILLERS POINT SONGBOOK consists of array of musical styles – opera, rock n roll, ballad, shanties, jigs- culminating in a folk cabaret that’s as much to do with community as it is with historical fact.
The production, directed by Weinberg, is an amalgamation of amateur choristers and musical theatre professionals and it works a treat, imbuing the show with a genuine sense of community.
There’s the frolicking rollicking numbers starring merino sheep or rats running rampant with bubonic plague to the rousing anthems of Jack Mundey’s Green Ban, 1973 and The Spirit of Millers Point.
The professionals, led by Rob Johnson, Eliane Morel, Annerose De Jong and Megan Walshe, create a myriad of characters down through the colonial ages, from seafarers, speculators and real estate agents, and the countless women who supported and suffered and spearheaded; suffragettes, nurses, midwives, the spine of Millers Point.
Weinberg takes to the stage for one number, The Murder Ballad of Anne Kirkman, the publican’s wife killed by her husband in 1849. Legend has it that her ghost haunts The Hero of Waterloo hotel to this day.
Musical backing is supplied by Michelle Goldman on piano, Paul Miskin on guitar and bush bass, and Jeremy Cook on a plethora of percussion.
There’s an added frisson and authentic ambience and atmosphere with the show being staged inside the Garrison Church, which was constructed with stone quarried from the Argyle Cut.
There’s a muck-in sense of making it happen in MILLERS POINT SONGBOOK and the performers, professional and amateur, certainly make it happen with warmth, energy and joy.
MILLERS POINT SONGBOOK plays till May 28 at the Garrison Church, Millers Point.
Please go to the website – events.humantix.com and then in the search area enter The Miller Point Songbook. Thi will take you ro a screen which will give you all the information that you need.
I cannot find where to book or when it the show is on. It says to 28 May but what times, where to book?