18,000kms from Broadway: What it’s like studying music theatre from one of the most isolated capital cities in the world

The popularity of the musical form in Australia can be seen not just in the professional musicals in major capital cities, but also in the many amateur, community, and school shows that are produced each year as well. There is a long and ever-expanding list of Australian musicals, of creatives, and of performers who are making their mark on the form both in Australia and abroad. Yet, as recently as 2021, Australia was still considered a “secondary market” for “big-brand shows” from New York and London (Cave and Paulson 2021) rather than its own space for new and innovative works and practices. This distinction is even more stark for those who are geographically displaced from Australia’s major theatrical hubs, namely Sydney and Melbourne.

Despite having one of the major academies for performing arts (WAAPA) and plenty of talented performers and practitioners, Perth is always behind the times when it comes to musicals. As a music theatre fan, practitioner, and academic who lives in Perth, I have often been frustrated by how difficult it is to access music theatre texts due mostly to my geographical displacement from them. In this paper I will be discussing some of the challenges faced as a music theatre scholar from within my own geographical context, as well as some of the positive shifts and changes that are currently emerging.