I'm not normally one for the musical - every time you get to an interesting part of the story some fool or fools jump up and make a big song and dance of everything (sorry) - but Keating! the musical might just have changed my mind.
Billed as
the country soul opera we had to have
Keating! celebrates the political life of the last good Prime Minister we had, Mr Paul J Keating, from his rise to Prime Minister to the 1996 election against John Howard.
You could probably see this show without knowing anything about Australian politics in the 90s and still enjoy the songs and performances but I'm guessing you'd miss the jokes in every other line (it is cram packed with intelligent gags).
Musically (backed by five very talented musicians) the show wanders through a spread of musical genres - country, soul, a tango, the mambo, rock, cabaret and even a hiphop battle between Keating and John Hewson in the 93 election. (If I ruled this country, all elections would now have to be decided in this manner).
The performances were uniformly strong and you got the sense that everyone on stage was having a lot of fun, something which is always pretty infectious. The musical agility of all the performers - but particularly Mike McLeish as Keating - as they quickly switched between styles over and over was particularly impressive. Tony Serio also puts in a highly impressive (scary and depressing) performance as John Howard and the writer/creator of the show Casey Bennetto is truly frightening as the Frankenfurteresque Alexander Downer, singing about what a freak he is.
There is (as far as I can recall) no dialogue at all in this show - everything is told through song. Though I didn't realise it at the time, one of the songs even features a relatively word for word rendition of Paul Keating's renowned (in left circles) Redfern speech about the unjust treatment of Indigenous Australians over the last 200 years.
I won't give away the ending (the show finishes with the 96 election) but I will say that you are left with a nice case of the warm gooeys.
I was lucky enough to chat briefly with Casey Bennetto after the show (very nice bloke) and he told me about the show's opening performance in Sydney, where the man himself, Mr PJ Keating was in the audience and mamboed his way onto the stage to appear in the encore number. The crowd of luminaries that hung around after that show
were all most reluctant to leave at closing time, enjoying the warm glow of a world where a decent, caring and forward looking man was still running the country.
Evidently Keating and Kevin Rudd are the only two federal politicians to have seen the show so far.
The current season of Keating! at the Canberra theatre is sold out but there is a return season towards the end of March - which is also selling quickly.
If you like your politics and love your music, this is a show to see.
(Big big thanks to Sylvie for the ticket)
