Musicals 101: When Is It Religious?

Check out The Nut Graph for my article on staging Follow the Light in 2005, and its likelihood of being restaged in Malaysia!

IN 2005, as part of my postgraduate thesis, I decided to put on a musical, not realising the amount of work a production actually needs. With my vision of making it a large-scale song-and-dance spectacle the likes of a Great White Way or London West End production, it was an exercise in overambition. Still, it was a learning experience.

The first important lesson I learnt occurred because of the subject matter. I was keen on writing a musical that retold the Christmas story involving the whole gang: Mary and Joseph, the baby in the manger, the shepherds and the Wise Men. After all, the project was scheduled for year-end, and I was in Australia, where the audience would notionally be more receptive to the Christmas story...

Read the whole article here !