The Goodbye Girl coming to Sydney, first casting news announced

The Goodbye Girl has been tapped as the next show to receive the Neglected Musicals staged reading treatment: Tyran Parke will direct this Neil Simon/Marvin Hamlisch/David Zippel confection for three performances only in Sydney.

The musical, based on the 1977 Neil Simon filmed, originally premiered on Broadway in 1993. It starred Bernadette Peters, and Martin Short (in his Broadway debut!)

The musical director will be Brad Miller, and the cast will include Deone Zanotto, Aaron Tsindos, Romy Watson, Caroline Kasper, Lisa Callingham, Emma Cooperthwaite, and more.

“The Goodbye Girl movie is loved by so many and when the musical opened on Broadway an Australian production started to be put together. However as is sometimes the way with showbiz, plans were shelved and Sydney audiences haven’t been able to see this five-time Tony-Nominated musical until now,” said producer Michelle Guthrie.

Here’s the story: Elliot Garfield, a typical self-obsessed actor, sublets a friend’s Manhattan apartment. Unfortunately, it’s still occupied by his friend’s ex-girlfriend Paula, a former dancer, and her precocious pre-teen daughter Lucy. Can these antagonistic roommates co-exist? Will there be something sweeter under their prickly encounters?

Neglected Musicals, who is presenting the show in association with Hayes Theatre Co, presents musical theatre that has never or rarely been seen in Australia. They are presented as a reading of a chosen show with scripts in hand and the musical numbers sung through, after only one day’s rehearsal. They are a hoot. (Check out this video from their reading of On the Twentieth Century, which starred Lara Mulcahy, Katrina Retallick, Blake Erickson, Michael Falzon, and more).

Of The Goodbye Girl, director Tyran Park said “With the pedigree of talent involved in creating this show originally on Broadway, it always held great interest for me.

“I’ve loved the hilarious, award-winning movie and the subsequent Marvin Hamlish / David Zippel songs for twenty years. It’s funny, it’s romantic and it’s got a truly winning Broadway score that I know audiences will fall in love with.”

The Goodbye Girl will be staged at Sydney’s Hayes Theatre for three shows only: twice on Monday 26 October, and once on Sunday 1 November. Tickets are $40. For more information and to book, visit www.neglectedmusicals.com.au.