This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Tori Bullard: We would like to acknowledge the Thorowall people of the Eeora Nation and the Warwanderi people of the Coolin Nation.

[0:06] Eliza Gunther: We pay respect to the traditional custodians of this land on which we work, live, and record, and strive to continue in the tradition of Australia's first storytellers.

[0:15] Tori Bullard: We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded.

[0:17] Eliza Gunther: Always was, always will be aboriginal land.

[0:21] Tori Bullard: You're listening to Stage Door Podcast.

[0:24] Eliza Gunther: The podcast celebrating theatre and creativity from on stage mishaps to career-defining moments, hosted by Thespians, myself, Tori, and co-host Eliza.

[0:34] Tori Bullard: Fortnightly, we will bring you industry professional guests, deep dives, and more.

[0:41] Eliza Gunther: Hello and welcome back to Stage Door Podcast.

[0:45] Tori Bullard: Today we are headed into another deep dive, which means we are welcoming back our special deep dive correspondent Gareth Isaac.

[0:53] Gareth Isaac: Hello, friends and lovers. Lovely to be back.

[0:56] Tori Bullard: Oh. How's everyone been?

[0:58] Gareth Isaac: Oh shoot the shit. I've been busy, man. Busy, busy.

[1:01] Gareth Isaac: We've just finished, as of last few days, the Adelaide season of Grease the Musical.

[1:08] Gareth Isaac: Now I have a little bit of time off before I go to Brisbane to do it again in January.

[1:13] Eliza Gunther: Is that the last one?

[1:15] Gareth Isaac: That's the final one. Yeah. I don't know what I'm gonna do with those eight weeks. Probably just rot a little bit.

[1:18] Tori Bullard: Yeah, rot.

[1:22] Gareth Isaac: Yes. I need to fly down. It's the come down after the—

[1:24] Eliza Gunther: That sounded really weird.

[1:28] Gareth Isaac: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're telling me.

[1:30] Eliza Gunther: That sounds really—

[1:32] Gareth Isaac: It's a bizarre world we live in.

[1:36] Tori Bullard: It is. It is. I don't know if we're all working on stuff in various things.

[1:43] Gareth Isaac: I'm working on something.

[1:46] Tori Bullard: Secret!

[1:47] Gareth Isaac: It's such a secret.

[1:49] Tori Bullard: Not that's not theatre, which is crazy.

[1:54] Tori Bullard: Um, I'm working as a very, a very, a very tiny part in something um in the film and television world at the moment. Which is fun. It's different and it's interesting.

[2:04] Eliza Gunther: I can't wait till you can talk about it.

[2:07] Tori Bullard: It's different, interesting, and very hush-hush.

[2:10] Gareth Isaac: Yes, it is. It's like it is, but it isn't. We won't talk about it.

[2:14] Tori Bullard: And I'm working my muggle job, everyone.

[2:17] Eliza Gunther: And also, and same.

[2:19] Tori Bullard: And that is the life of an actor.

[2:21] Eliza Gunther: Oh yeah. We love our muggle jobs, especially coming into Christmas, and everyone has blackout periods. And I'm like—

[2:27] Tori Bullard: And I work in retail.

[2:29] Eliza Gunther: Same, same, babes. It's uh been there, done that, bought time.

[2:36] Tori Bullard: I love it. Now, before we get too ahead of ourselves with this deep dive into underrated musicals, we did want to talk and do a quick explanation of how we intend to discuss the topic.

[2:47] Eliza Gunther: So, of course, today we are doing underrated musicals. Very fun. After all, there is no real metric for what makes a show underrated.

[2:56] Tori Bullard: So, how can we possibly talk about them without getting completely bogged down with subjective personal commentary?

[3:02] Eliza Gunther: And the answer to that is we can't. So, the three of us have decided, much like with our cult classic steep dive, to each pick a musical that we feel deserves a little more love than it gets and discuss it in a round table format.

[3:16] Tori Bullard: We've all got such different tastes, so we thought it'd be interesting to hash out why we think these flew under most people's radars, or in some cases, why they were utterly panned by critics and the public and why we actually love them.

[3:31] Eliza Gunther: Now to determine who gets to speak first, I've got myself a little wheel of names open here on my browser. Whoever I spin up first gets to start gushing about their little gem of a show. It's history, its strengths, its flaws, whatever anyone feels is relevant.

[3:45] Tori Bullard: But ultimately, we do want to hear why these shows are underrated and why we feel so strongly about it. So I'm gonna give this little guy a spin here.

[3:55] Eliza Gunther: Open Firefox. And away we go. Spin me.

[3:59] Gareth Isaac: Too bad. Get spun. Get fucking spun.

[4:03] Eliza Gunther: And it has landed on Tori.

[4:06] Tori Bullard: Oh, stop it. I was like, what is that?

[4:10] Eliza Gunther: Yeah, sucks to be you, girl. Gotta do it.

[4:13] Tori Bullard: Alrighty. Also, I'm so sorry, the wheel of name browsers just started doing like an audience cheer sound effect, and I wasn't expecting it.

[4:21] Eliza Gunther: Thank you. I'll take it.

[4:23] Tori Bullard: They generally do that.

[4:24] Eliza Gunther: I was unaware.

[4:25] Tori Bullard: Oh, I love it. Okay, so today, my underrated musical, and you gotta hear me out, is Groundhog Day.

[4:34] Eliza Gunther: So I recently saw Groundhog Day when it was in Melbourne, and I was completely obsessed, but I don't think I realized going into it it was gonna be as good as it actually was when I was watching it.

[4:46] Tori Bullard: So, for a little context, if you didn't get a chance to see the Melbourne season of Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day is a musical based on the famous film of the same name starring Bill Murray.

[4:57] Eliza Gunther: The musical follows Phil Connors, a cynical Pittsburgh TV weatherman who is sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in the small town of Punksitawney, Pennsylvania. Caught in a time loop, he's forced to relive the same day again and again and again.

[5:14] Tori Bullard: As Phil recognizes that an infinite loop offers infinite possibilities, is there a lesson being learned? And will he ever figure out the secret to breaking the cycle?

[5:24] Eliza Gunther: So that's a little bit of a synopsis without spoiling too many things. Also, this is definitely gonna be full of spoilers.

[5:33] Tori Bullard: So go away if you don't want to get the spoiler.

[5:36] Eliza Gunther: Not a spoilers for a classic Bill Murray film. What a tragedy.

[5:39] Tori Bullard: What?

[5:41] Eliza Gunther: So yeah, it was actually a film first, and Sondheim was originally interested in taking on the show, but ultimately said, and in quotes, to make a musical of Groundhog Day would be to gild the lily. It cannot be improved.

[5:53] Tori Bullard: Which ultimately just means that the movie was so good and so perfect that you couldn't improve any aspect of a musical version to that. Of which I very much disagree with that.

[6:08] Eliza Gunther: Um the show was then written by Danny Rubin with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin. And it had its world premiere and it won two Olivier Awards and was nominated for eight when it was in London.

[6:23] Tori Bullard: And Andy Carl, who plays Phil Connors, won the best actor and it took out Best New Musical.

[6:31] Eliza Gunther: I'm giving you like the full like history rundown before I get into it. But it then made its way so that you can get context here. It made its way to Broadway, and the first preview was stopped after 15 minutes because the revolve malfunctioned, and then it got turned into a concert version, which we love that.

[6:51] Tori Bullard: It kind of had a few things go wrong on Broadway in its start.

[7:06] Eliza Gunther: Then they put someone else in for I think it was like a couple days, and then on the 17th, like I think it was probably like three or four days later, um, Andy came back and did opening night on Broadway with an injury, which was spoken about quite highly by a lot of the critics in the newspapers.

[7:27] Tori Bullard: But still doing a show injured is not fun. It sadly closed early on Broadway with only 176 performances, despite its excellent reviews.

[7:37] Eliza Gunther: It was gonna have a tour around the US as well, but then that was cancelled, um, which meant the next stop was the West End.

[7:44] Tori Bullard: So the West End went really well, and so did Australia after that. But I still feel like this show is early days, like it was only written in like it only started performing in 2017, and I feel like its Broadway run really doesn't reflect the excellence of the work, and I'd love to see it go back there.

[8:03] Eliza Gunther: So this is why I think it's an underrated musical. Although all of the critics, all the productions were critically acclaimed, were well received. It did close early on Broadway.

[8:15] Tori Bullard: A lot of people have their theories about why that happened, but uh ultimately I don't know, maybe potentially it just didn't land with that audience, or they were just so the original film is very much a classic American film. I think they didn't want to accept any other version of that.

[8:33] Eliza Gunther: Yeah, I think I mean I've not seen it, so I can't comment on the musical itself, but I've heard nothing but wonderful things about it. From 90% of the people that I know that saw it in Melbourne, like yourself included, have said that it's one of the best musicals that they've seen on stage in Australia.

[8:54] Tori Bullard: But I feel like we're more akin and more what's the word? Like we receive work that's a little bit kookier, better, I think.

[9:05] Eliza Gunther: Yeah. Yeah, I completely agree, Tor. And from my understanding, Eliza's completely right on like hitting the nail on the head.

[9:13] Gareth Isaac: American audiences, from what I understand, just didn't receive some of the writing as strongly as the UK and Australia. And I I have a theory about this.

[9:24] Eliza Gunther: I think it is because it is a Tim Minchin piece.

[9:28] Gareth Isaac: A hundred. Some of his writing just lands and resonates so much better with the UK and Australia, mostly because that that is his influence. That's where he's come from.

[9:38] Eliza Gunther: There's there is a single line of text and dialogue in the piece that landed so well in Australia and the UK from what I hear, but didn't get a single hoot on Broadway.

[9:51] Gareth Isaac: And it's the line in one of the bar scenes where one of the guys says, You know, the Eskimos have one word for snow, followed by a 30-second pause when everyone is contemplating, followed by someone saying, What is it? It's snow. There was one word for snow. And the Americans didn't get it.

[10:09] Eliza Gunther: No, I I actually I truly do believe that's part of the reason why it didn't perform well.

[10:14] Gareth Isaac: I mean, I this show, I was it was unbelievable. I was crying in a lot of moments. I was laughing, I was pissing myself laughing. I was with my family, we were all cacking it, like out loud, really verbal laughter.

[10:28] Eliza Gunther: And I think it's because it just had so many it it feels like it has a little touch of Australianisms in there as well. Even like in the truck song, nobody cares where they're like the they're all the drunks in the car, and it was just hilariously done, and like and then the chase with like these little toy miniature cars going along, like it was such Australian humour within it as well, and I just feel like it didn't receive its flowers on Broadway, and it was it was not um you know appreciated enough, but then it's surprising.

[11:03] Gareth Isaac: I would really really like to see this show come back to Australia and do a full tour around Australia. I really think that audiences loved it so much, and I would go back and see that in a heartbeat.

[11:17] Eliza Gunther: I think Andy and Elise had such great chemistry and were brilliant in these roles. Something I'm really interested in, and it's not anything against this actor, but Andy has played it in every single iteration, which means that they I would love to see a different actor take on that role, just because it's been done four times the same person, and I'd love to see something different.

[11:40] Gareth Isaac: It's wonderful when you get amazing performers to reprise roles, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it's so wonderful to get new different voices in those roles because they will play the roles entirely different, all within the same context, but they'll play it entirely different.

[12:00] Gareth Isaac: Yeah, I completely agree, and it's been a point of contention with me for many years, even in the initial casting of Book of Mormon back in I want to say 2017, 2018. And I said it then when they imported the two leads. If you can't find two white guys in Australia to play two white guys, you're not doing your job. Which I'm so excited for the new cast. Oh, new cast looks sick for Mormons. Like, but that aside, I love Andy, I've chatted with him, he's a wonderful, wonderful guy. I've shared a beer with him. I think what he does with the role is phenomenal. But I do think let's give an Aussie a go. Like you've got an Aussie at the helm writing the music and lyrics. Let us do what we can with it, especially considering the rest of the cast were all Australians.

[12:44] Eliza Gunther: A hundred percent. I just think that this show has so much to offer, and it's both hilarious and heartfelt, and there's very few shows where I feel like they get the balance of that really, really well, and I think Groundhog Day truly does. So I think it needs its flowers. I think it needs a bigger Australian tour and to go back to Broadway and can we just shake the Americans and say, get it, just get it. I mean, we've been trying to do that for the majority of the time America has existed, but I don't think it's going to happen.

[13:15] Gareth Isaac: Thank you so much, Liz. That was a great report.

[13:18] Tori Bullard: Thank you guys. Yes, bring Groundhog Day back. Right. I'm getting the wheel of names up again. It's only two to go. Let's see what happens. Oh, who's it gonna be? Spinning, spinning, it's beeping at me. Up, it's landed on me. Okay. Sorry. Uh, in the words of Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage, buckle up, motherfuckers.

[13:37] Gareth Isaac: Oh no.

[13:38] Tori Bullard: Oh god. We've got 20 more minutes, and that's all we're allowed to have. I took way too long. I'll do my best to truncate then, even though this musical is very near and dear to my heart. I'm gonna be talking about the 1997 classic Jekyll and Hyde.

[13:59] Gareth Isaac: Yes. Now, some of you might not know this show, but you definitely know at least a handful of the songs from it. This is the show where This Is the Moment, In His Eyes, A New Life, Bring On the Men, and The Confrontation came from. The latter song is actually famously a viral TikTok sound. So this show is the brainchild of everyone's favourite pop songwriter turned MT artist Frank Wildhorn, with additional lyrics in book written by Steve Cooden and Leslie Bricas. Brickus famously being the guy who wrote Pure Imagination for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Like marvellous, marvellous writing. But the lyrics in this show make you question it.

[14:39] Eliza Gunther: Get ready.

[14:40] Gareth Isaac: You have tea.

[14:40] Eliza Gunther: Yeah, I have so much.

[14:43] Gareth Isaac: Again, this was a special interest musical for a while. So Frank Wildhorn, you may recognise the name. This is also the man who wrote Bonnie and Clyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Wonderland, The Civil War, The Count of Monte Cristo, like a lot of public domain adaptations. But his more left-of-field works include musical adaptations of the animes Fist of the North Star, Your Lie in April, and Death Note.

[15:11] Eliza Gunther: Death Note.

[15:13] Gareth Isaac: He wrote the Death Note musical. There is a Death Note musical, Jeremy Jordan was on the concept recording. We'll get to it.

[15:19] Eliza Gunther: Wow.

[15:20] Gareth Isaac: But he also wrote the hit Whitney Houston song Where Do Broken Hearts Go from 1988. So a very storied career. All of Wildhorn's work seem to have found their niches overseas. Jekyll and Hyde's most successful run, despite four years on Broadway, is in South Korea, where it just keeps getting done. But focusing back on Jekyll and Hyde. It's based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The musical focuses on Dr. Henry Jekyll, a man who believes that the evil in man's soul can be removed scientifically. In the musical, hoping to cure the undisclosed mental illness in his comatose father, this experimentation causes Jekyll to separate his own soul into a second darker half, Edward Hyde.

[16:05] Eliza Gunther: Hyde naturally goes on a killing spree and starts dating/slash abusing a courtesan, because of course he does, while Jekyll deals with the guilt he feels at Hyde's actions and tries to salvage his own engagement to a socialite.

[16:17] Gareth Isaac: It's stupid, overly dramatic, needlessly gothic in that mid-90s kind of way, and does not get the love it deserves, in my opinion. All the pieces of this musical throughout the decades have always lined up, and yet they keep fumbling the bag. As an example, it premiered in Texas in 1990. After four years and numerous rewrites, a cast recording was released called The Complete Works, which is considered to be the pinnacle of the show, which is ironic because many of the songs on it no longer exist in any form. This album featured Australia's own Anthony Warlow as both Jekyll and Hyde. This solidified the sound of the show, if not the content, and Warlow would famously never perform the role professionally until 2019, when Jekyll and Hyde was performed as a concert version in Australia featuring Gemma Ricks.

[17:15] Eliza Gunther: Oh wow.

[17:16] Gareth Isaac: Absolutely insane turn of event there, and it gets weirder. Australia is famous for never actually doing a professional staged production of the show until 2022 at the Hayes Theatre, despite numerous attempts by numerous companies to get it on its feet. Most infamously in 2015. I don't know if you two remember this, this was when we were at university. They held auditions and announced a cast in May of 2015 for a national production of Jekyll and Hyde, featuring Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Gemma Ricks, and Lucy Maunder.

[17:53] Eliza Gunther: Yeah.

[17:53] Gareth Isaac: This is in May.

[17:54] Eliza Gunther: Oh.

[17:55] Gareth Isaac: Two months later in July, it was announced the production was no longer going ahead. And to this day, I still don't know why it got canned, and I've never been brave enough to ask anyone involved.

[18:08] Eliza Gunther: I remember.

[18:10] Gareth Isaac: Yeah, it's never publicly been announced why it went down. But this has happened multiple times. The only thing that ever got off the ground was the concert version in 2019 and the Hayes production in 2022. Like the Hayes is amazing, but it's still a smaller theatre. Like it hasn't been an on like big, big stage of like the Capitol. Like, that's the kind of vibe I feel for this big musical.

[18:31] Eliza Gunther: Yeah, this is 90s gothic era orchestrations, musicals, rock, pop. It's got some r absolute banger songs in it. As I mentioned, This Is the Moment, In His Eyes. If you'd ever even approached a musical theatre course, you will have heard someone do these songs, thinking they're hot shit.

[18:50] Gareth Isaac: I may have been guilty of it myself.

[18:52] Eliza Gunther: Oh, multiple times for me.

[18:54] Gareth Isaac: Yeah.

[18:54] Eliza Gunther: Yes, it's a good thing.

[18:55] Gareth Isaac: Many of us, many of us were.

[18:57] Eliza Gunther: It had the yearning factor.

[19:00] Gareth Isaac: 100%. I feel this show, despite running for over 1,500 performances on Broadway, is entirely underrated, but not for the reasons you think. I think it is so well crafted musically, like the thematics and the light motifs, Wildhorn clearly wanted to do a song through piece, as referenced by the fact the song Facade shows up four times, and still somehow doesn't say anything new.

[19:29] Eliza Gunther: He wanted to be edgy and different in that 90s sort of way, but it has ended up being camp and hilarious.

[19:36] Gareth Isaac: For example, Edward Hyde one day kills a member of the medical board that denied Jekyll his experimentation rights. The man is standing at a railway station escaping murders, saying, I pray to God that I've done the right thing. Edward Hyde creeps up behind him like a pantomime villain, grabs him by the head, says, bad news from God, and snaps his neck. That is the dumbest shit, and it's so unintentionally funny. Like that happens in the Act Two opener. I love Jekyll and Hyde. It's such a funny thing. I love it so much. It has all the energy of like every TV series that was being produced at the time, like your Buffys and your Charmed, all of the great songs, usually having the star power to back it up.

[20:20] Eliza Gunther: A lot of like American Idol finalists went in.

[20:23] Gareth Isaac: Uh Hasselhoff! That's what I'm getting to. The final cast of the initial Broadway run, which received mixed to poor reviews and lost 1.5 million dollars, which is nearly 3 million dollars accounting for inflation today. The final cast included David Hasselhoff as Jekyll and Hyde, and this is the version they decided to film and put on a DVD and release publicly. It's the only filmed version of the show, and it's heinously dumb.

[20:50] Eliza Gunther: Don't attack me.

[20:59] Gareth Isaac: I've never actually fully listened to the cast recording of Jekyll and Hyde.

[21:03] Eliza Gunther: Well, here's the thing.

[21:04] Gareth Isaac: You can't.

[21:06] Eliza Gunther: Because there's no set version.

[21:09] Gareth Isaac: Every single cast recording is different and keeps cutting and removing songs. Wildhorn is so anal about this show that he keeps like fucking with it. He can't get it right, no matter what he does.

[21:23] Eliza Gunther: I mean, we all know those like writers and or composers and or writers and composers who when they create new work, it's really hard for them to like let go of it and just let it be, unless there is something that actually drastically does need to change.

[21:40] Gareth Isaac: A hundred percent.

[21:41] Eliza Gunther: And unfortunately, it's 35 years later, and it's still getting changed.

[21:48] Gareth Isaac: And still getting critically panned. To take us back to 2013, there was a Broadway revival. It closed after 15 previews and 23 performances.

[22:00] Eliza Gunther: Oh that's rough.

[22:02] Gareth Isaac: Yeah, that's a flop.

[22:03] Eliza Gunther: That's that's that's yeah.

[22:06] Gareth Isaac: And this is the reason I think the show is underrated. It has so many good elements to it. Wildhorn's pop music writing and sensibilities, leaning into the dark gothic era of what we considered edgy in the 90s, add in some killer voices like Linda Eder and Anthony Warlow. And you have something very, very good. Just stop fucking with it. Leave it alone.

[22:35] Eliza Gunther: So that is me ranting about Jekyll and Hyde for 10 minutes. I hope you learned something. I hope you go out and try and find versions of it. Any one of the multiple versions, have some fun with it and treat it as a nice little piece of what the fuck are you doing? And also go listen to the Death Note musical.

[22:54] Gareth Isaac: It's basically the same thing.

[22:56] Eliza Gunther: Oh no.

[22:57] Gareth Isaac: I remember seeing images and videos from that.

[23:00] Eliza Gunther: It looked sick.

[23:01] Gareth Isaac: I love anything that's a bit innovative and a little bit different, which I feel like is an excellent lead in to my musical.

[23:11] Eliza Gunther: I'm talking about it.

[23:12] Gareth Isaac: Oh yes, lay it on a story.

[23:14] Eliza Gunther: Because neither of us know this show.

[23:15] Gareth Isaac: No.

[23:16] Eliza Gunther: Yeah, I am.

[23:16] Gareth Isaac: So many people don't.

[23:17] Eliza Gunther: And it's not me being like, I'm so fun and quirky.

[23:21] Gareth Isaac: It's just a show that not a lot of people genuinely know about.

[23:25] Eliza Gunther: Um, and first.

[23:27] Gareth Isaac: That's it, you are fun and quirky.

[23:29] Eliza Gunther: Like, don't get us wrong.

[23:30] Gareth Isaac: You're very fun and quirky.

[23:32] Eliza Gunther: But you're like, I'm alternative.

[23:33] Gareth Isaac: I don't um I actually know all the musicals that you all don't know, and that's what I listen to on the regular.

[23:39] Gareth Isaac: My girlfriend's different. She goes to school in Canada. Yeah. Different and ringy. Um, but no, this musical is truly, truly wonderful, and I think it is super underrated. And it's mainly, I think, because more people don't know about it, because it's not had like any like major Broadway or anything like that. Um, so this is Islander, the musical. Islander is a unique and captivating musical that pushes the boundaries of traditional theatre, conceived by director Amy Draper with music and lyrics by Finn Anderson and a book by Stuart Melton. It tells the story of a lead, a young girl on the remote Scottish island of Kinnan, and I'm probably saying that wrong, I do apologize. As her island community dwindles, she encounters a mysterious stranger from a floating island who introduces her to a world where people live in harmony with nature.

The show combines Scottish folklore with modern innovation, creating an experience that feels both timeless and contemporary. One of the many reasons that I love this show is because I think it is a part of redefining what a musical can be. Islander truly challenges our ideas of what a musical can look and sound like, with just two performers, two performers and no orchestra. It utilizes live looping technology to create a haunting soundscape in real time. So all of the instruments, voices, sounds, everything are created by the performers on a looping machine that sits in the middle of the stage. So this layered immersive experience is a testament to how innovative storytelling can break down preconceived ideas of what a musical in air quotes should be and instead highlight what it has the potential to become.

So a little bit more on the actual story of the show itself. So the plot follows a lead, the youngest resident on the increasingly depopulated island of Kinnan, living with her grandmother and spending her days largely alone. Her life changes when she finds a stranded whale calf and meets Aaron, a stranger claiming to be from a floating island. This blend of Scottish folklore with universal themes of identity, isolation, and environmental connection creates a narrative that's both haunting and beautiful, grounding it in a sense of place and mythology. I discovered this musical probably two or three years ago now. I think I discovered it through, as I've discovered many of my most loved musicals, through Catherine Steele, who runs the Internet Theatre cult.

Um, if you're like a, uh, you know, if you watched YouTube like 10 years ago, she's kind of, you know, was a theatre influencer on YouTube, and I'm pretty sure that's how I discovered this through her Instagram stories a couple of years ago, because it ran off Broadway. I am so old, I have no idea who you're talking about. I love her very dearly. She doesn't um post a lot nowadays. She was a performer, I don't know if she still is, um, but she kind of was like my go-to place for all of like the she's how I discovered Hades Town. Because she did a listen of the original cast recording um maybe like a couple of months before they announced that it was getting a Broadway run, and he was like the cast for Broadway.

So I discovered it through her. Talking about the sound design, which is something that I have never personally obviously I haven't physically seen the show, I have only listened to it. I have seen video of it, very minimal video, but I have seen video of it. One of Islander's most striking features is its use of live looping technology. So the performers create every sound, both musical and environmental, using only their voices, layered to form intricate soundscapes. This approach really gives the show an ethereal quality with every scene and interaction feeling organic and immediate. The looping effects and harmonies create an immersive world that draws the audience into the heart of the island itself.

I feel like live theatre in general. You can rehearse as much as you want, shit's gonna happen. Every night you're gonna get an entirely different experience of what the sound of this world and this island feels like. It's not often that you see a musical with only two cast and only two performers. So with only two actors playing multiple characters, it enhances the intimacy of this show, which is something I love so much. I love an intimate show and an intimate setting where I feel like I can actually be part of the characters' world and life. So after originating in the Highlands, Islander gained significant recognition at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We love Ed Fringe, and that's where a lot of shows, including things like Six had their start, where it was named the best musical.

So from there it transferred to London's South Walk Playhouse, then off Broadway in New York, and has since had productions in South Korea, Poland, and Australia. I didn't know it had productions in Australia. When and where? Right. So the international journey shows how Islander's blend of folklore, innovation, and powerful storytelling speaks to audiences around the world. And for fans of theatre who crave originality, Islander is essential, and this is why I believe it is underrated and deserves more um recognition. It brings a fresh approach to what musicals can achieve, combining minimal resources with maximum creativity. It's not just a love letter to Scottish folklore, but a universal tale that explores isolation, nature, and identity, showing how traditional stories can resonate in modern and unexpected ways.

And I feel like coming from Australia, a place where indigenous people have been telling stories for thousands upon thousands of years. It's something that absolutely resonates with us. We are very lucky to create and tell stories on the land where Indigenous people have been for millennia before us. So, as someone who loves folk inspired atmospheric music, I find Islander's cast album completely captivating. The intricate vocal looping, the way the music captures the essence of the Scottish coast is something truly special. The show isn't mainstream, but I do believe it deserves to be seen by anyone with an appreciation for boundary pushing innovative theatre. It's breathtaking, and I'd love to see it live here in Australia.

I'd love to be in it if it ever comes to Australia. Because I think with any work that's innovative that we cannot see with our own eyes at the same time that we hear it. The story is a little bit confusing when you're just listening to a cast recording. I already love this show very much. I feel like I would love it so much more to see it in person and really understand and delve into the story that these characters and these actors portray. So that's my little soapbox on Islander. You can listen to the original cast recording on Spotify, and I absolutely recommend that you do. The original cast recording, so it features Bethany Tannik as a lead and Kirsty Finlay as Aaron.

[31:32] Tori Bullard: People like Josep, Aurora, Noah Khan, it exactly fits into that vibe.

[31:39] Gareth Isaac: Yeah, I was gonna say the one time you came over and used my Alexa to put on some background music has completely fucked my algorithm.

[31:47] Tori Bullard: Oh yeah.

[31:50] Gareth Isaac: Like that that is infected.

[31:52] Tori Bullard: Um thank you, T.

[31:53] Gareth Isaac: Oh, when I Yeah, when you came and did some work at mine.

[31:56] Tori Bullard: Yeah, and you put on some fantasy cottage core playlist, and it has just completely balked every song request on my day list.

[32:03] Gareth Isaac: It's very good.

[32:05] Tori Bullard: Thank you, Tori. This is really good. I think you've chosen out of the three of us a musical that is not only underrated, but unrated at all.

[32:13] Gareth Isaac: It's gay Brigadoon.

[32:15] Tori Bullard: Love that. Love that for us. And I think number one, that's just a great premise. Um sorry to reduce it to its core components. But Brigadoon was, of course, Scottish mythology. And I love always love the idea in any story of like mythical places that are only accessible very briefly, and a love story that blooms throughout it. That's cool as hell. I love that.

[32:34] Gareth Isaac: This show actually, as well. I think one of the things I love about it is I don't think it actually has a love story in it at all. And I don't believe it revolves around romantic love, more so familial connections.

[32:48] Tori Bullard: Um, which I love a story where the plot doesn't focus on a romance. Because I think that yes, that's wonderful and it's really fun and it's enjoyable, but there are other things in life, like we don't just live our lives for romance, therefore I like theatre that reflects that.

[33:05] Gareth Isaac: I found this brilliant. I love hearing about different shows that are underrated, even if they're well known, it it doesn't mean that they're not underrated for what they are, like Jekyll and Hyde. I know that very well, but I do agree after like hearing you talk about it, it is underrated. And um having an unknown piece that is just like we don't know it, so of course it's underrated.

[33:27] Tori Bullard: And then obviously uh a piece that has excellent reviews and is a brilliant piece, but just somehow didn't land very well on Broadway and has had amazing seasons in other places.

[33:39] Gareth Isaac: Um they all yeah, they're underrated in very different ways, which I think is a really nice mix here.

[33:46] Tori Bullard: Like, thank you guys for having me on to get on my soapbox, and thank you for getting on your soapboxes. I always love hearing what people are passionate about.

[33:53] Gareth Isaac: Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come and have a little more channel.

[34:00] Tori Bullard: Always happy to do it. And this is actually our last deep dive of the year.

[34:02] Gareth Isaac: Crazy.

[34:02] Tori Bullard: Last deep dive of season five. Next deep dive will be in season six. Can you believe it? We're heading into the year of doing this. Season six absolutely crazy and we're making some changes to the formatting of our episodes from next season, which will be exciting and a little bit different, a little bit saucy.

[34:28] Gareth Isaac: But obviously, we've still got a couple more episodes.

[34:30] Tori Bullard: I think we've still got two or three more episodes after this one to finish out the year. All very, very exciting episodes that we are very excited about.

[34:41] Gareth Isaac: But that is it for today, listeners.

[34:43] Tori Bullard: Thank you so so much for being here with us. Thank you so much, Gareth, for joining us once again as our deep dive correspondent.

[34:51] Gareth Isaac: Of course, if you love us, if you love us and you love what we do and you love listening to the podcast, the absolute best, best, best way to support us is to rate and review us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

[35:03] Tori Bullard: Please rate us five stars if you love us. If you don't, well, don't just rate us five stars anyway, because we're just little guys. Support us.

[35:11] Gareth Isaac: But please rate and review us, follow us on Instagram at stagedoorpod and until next time listeners stay happy healthy and safe and we will see you then.

[35:20] Tori Bullard: Bye.

[35:21] Gareth Isaac: Bye.