Opera Australia to send Shane Warne The Musical to India

Opera Australia has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Australia-India Council (AIC) to send Shane Warne The Musical to India.

Written by Eddie Perfect, who worked with Opera Australia in its highly successful production of South Pacific in 2012, Shane Warne The Musical is one of 13 projects supported by AIC in the 2014-2015 grants scheme. The grants are awarded to “innovative projects that foster deeper people-to-people and institutional links between Australia and India”, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website.

First performed in 2008, Shane Warne The Musical is a hero-worshipping, PR spinning, celebrity-slaying, satirical homage to the king of spin and has been produced in Australia several times starring writer/composer Eddie Perfect in the title role. A reworked and updated version played at Hamer Hall in Melbourne and at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival (2013) featuring Perfect, Lisa McCune, Verity Hunt-Ballard, Christie Whelan-Browne and Andrew Conaghan. A recording of the 2013 cast was also produced and is available on iTunes.

Opera Australia seems to be moving towards presenting more and more music theatre, with South Pacific and The King and I proving commercial successes for the company. Anything Goes is set to open mid next year as part of the OA 2015 season with performances scheduled for Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

Casting for this international production of Shane Warne The Musical is yet unknown.