The Girlie Show - A Love Letter to the Early 90s

In 2015, just after Midsumma (the Melbourne LGBTQ+ festival) had finished, I came up with the idea for my next play. I was working in fashion retail, and while standing alone in the very quiet men’s department, I came up with the idea for “The Girlie Show” – a love letter to Madonna and the early 90s. I immediately started writing notes down and coming up with characters, and the following day I began writing. When an idea hits me, I need to start immediately.

A year earlier I had written a one man show which played La Mama in Melbourne and the Old Fitz in Sydney. It was an autobiographical show called, “Everything I Know I Learnt From Madonna”, it was the story of my love life as told through Madonna lyrics. The show had gone very well, and it gave me the chance to celebrate my love of Madonna. I had decided that “The Girlie Show” would be my second play in a Madonna trilogy. The third ended up being, “Diva Wars”, which played at the New Theatre in Sydney for Fringe in 2017.

I remember vividly lining up for tickets to see “The Girlie Show”. I was first year Uni in Wagga Wagga and the Ticketek, where tickets were being sold, was below the local radio station. I didn’t need to stay overnight like people in Sydney did, or the characters in “The Girlie Show”, but I got there at 5am and was the first. More joined and I made friends in the line, just like my characters. The concert itself was amazing, seeing your favourite artist for the first time is life changing. I have seen Madonna several times since then, including last year in New York, but that first time is just so special.

After the show was written and workshopped and it was added to the Midsumma Season at La Mama in Melbourne, I had made the decision to move back to Sydney after five years. I knew I had to do a Sydney season as well, and was so fortunate that the Old 505 in Newtown agreed to put it on. I got my good friend, Josh Karlik, as director for Melbourne. He co-directed with me the year before for Midsumma, with my play, “Silvertop Ash”; a play about gay teen suicide in rural Australia. I knew I could trust him with this personal play. I also got my good mate, Emma Louise, to come on as assistant director in Sydney. She was another I trusted unequivocally.

Before I left Melbourne, right as I was starting to pack up my house, we held auditions in my house in Brighton East. An amazing two days of seeing talented performers. It was important for the show that our actors had an understanding of Madonna fandom or at least were willing to try. We asked every actor their favourite Madonna track, and got some great and varied answers. We always knew when someone didn’t really know her songs, they would usually answer, “Like a Virgin”, with a blank look on their face. Then there were others, like Adam Noviello, who ended up playing Derek and will play him again in the read, who answered several songs, including albums tracks. I knew he was a fan. Of course, there was the one girl, who could see all the Madonna merchandise in my house and answered, “I don’t actually like Madonna”. No points for honesty there.

When back in Sydney, Emma and I held auditions and again the quality of actors was incredible. Josh began rehearsing and so did I in Sydney. I was so happy to head to Melbourne for the first read with the cast. I worked the day shift in retail in Sydney and then got the play down there, the plane was delayed, so I arrived at about 1am in Melbourne. The next night we had the reading and then I flew home on the first flight the next morning. Sydney first read was much easier.

Both shows rehearsed simultaneously, I did head to Melbourne a few times to rehearse my roles. It felt good to go between two states and rehearse the show with two completely different casts. Both shows were the same, but very different. As a writer, this was a treat to see your characters done by two people at the same time.

January hit and I drove to Melbourne a week before opening for bump in and rehearsals. Most of the drive was me trying to learn those damn lines. That first night I rehearsed and was so glad to be there, was also happy to be staying with my friends Perri and Paul, also happy Perri was in the show as well.

We opened to a full house and kept a full house the whole season, people were being turned away. The show created a great buzz with amazing reviews. It was also great that Madonna fans, with no connection to the cast, were coming to see the show and loving it. It’s nostalgic and it made them remember their first time seeing their favourite diva and seeing “The Girlie Show”.

During the Australia Day long weekend, I left my car in Melbourne and flew back to Sydney. It was weird not having my own car. We rehearsed and I headed back down south to finish the season. I was sad to leave, I love Melbourne and had such an amazing experience with this show; but it felt like a fitting farewell to this beautiful town.

Pretty soon, it was time for Mardi Gras and time for the Sydney season. Again, an amazing cast received with sell-out crowds, great reviews and an even better audience response. People were loving the show and it made my heart sing. When you sit alone and write a show, you hope to connect to the audience but never really know if you will. Sometimes plays work better than others, thank God this one was in the positive list.

As an actor, I loved this show too. I got to play two very different characters. There is Patrick, the conservative Catholic who doesn’t want his daughter Mary to go see Madonna. Then there’s Tony, or Tone as he prefers, who is a single dad with a very wild 16-year-old son, Sam. He loves his son and will do anything for him. Tone is one of my favourite, if the most favourite, character I’ve ever played. I am so excited to read him again on Friday night.

Reading online will lose some of the great things about the show. We dropped the two original songs we put in the show, and the 90s costumes were amazing. Plus, the scene changes were filled with iconic 90s tunes. But still, the heart is still there, and the cast for the read are all legends. This is a coming of age tale about finding yourself and your people with the help of Madonna.

Tune in on Friday night at www.facebook.com/TheGirlieShowPlay to see the live read. Covid-19 may be shutting everything down, but it won’t shut down our creativity or our passion.