Dangerous When Wet is a fabulous new musical comedy celebrating the friendship and rivalry of local swimmers Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie – Australia’s first female Olympic representatives and winners of Gold and Silver in the 100m freestyle at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
Narrated by Australia’s first Hollywood Superstar, Annette Kellerman, this vaudeville-styled, hilarious and touching show will have you laughing, crying, singing along and rejoicing in Australia’s swimming history.
It was such a joyous experience to be at opening night of this wonderful new musical. Based on a true story, with an all female cast and nearly all female creative team. It was truly an amazing way to celebrate many fabulous female Australian icons. We need more of this!
This has a beautiful score by Joanna Weinberg and had me humming many of the tunes as I left the theatre. It is so refreshing to hear such glorious legit musical theatre singing by all cast members. The melodies and counter melodies with gorgeous harmonies shone through. The music in act two is where this particularly shines and has one showstopper number after the next. Just when you think you’ve heard the best song in the show, the next song comes in to knock your socks off. Hopefully they consider doing an original cast album.
The cast of 8 not only play their respective principal roles but many other smaller parts as well. There was much great strength in stamina by all.
Megan Walshe as Annette Kellerman is an absolute star. The creative team must have thanked all the gods when she auditioned. Excellent comic timing, velvet toned speaking voice and bell like singing voice and oh can she dance. The Olympic song in act two was a highlight of the show. By the way, she also choreographed the show.
Cypriana Singh as Fanny Durack and Grace Trainor as Mina Wylie were perfectly cast in their leading roles. They sounded exquisite when singing individually and together. Their acting was so genuine and heartfelt. I think we will be hearing from both of them a lot in the future.
Jacinta Gregory as Cecil Healy was hilarious from start to finish and it’s exciting to hear a rich female tenor voice. Annerose de Jong as Mrs Mack and Eliane Morel as Rose Scott/Alick Wickham we fantastic comedy duo sparring team in the main and supporting roles. Addy Robertson and Vida Cullen were great support to the rest of the cast.
Darryl Wallis (Musical Director, Arranger and Accompanist) was the one man band for the show, he played beautifully and it fitted the vaudevillian style of the show.
Lyndal Loves costumes for Megan Walshe’s Annette Kellerman were particularly stunning.
I do hope that they get more opportunities to do this again. If the show gets licenced, it would be perfect for many universities and community musical theatre groups to perform.
I look forward to finding out what happens next to Dangerous When Wet the Musical.
To book tickets to Dangerous When Wet: The Musical, please visit https://dangerouswhenwet.com.au/.
