Helpmann Award Nominees

I’ve just been reading through the Helpmann Award nominees.

Congrats to everyone who got nominated. It’s good to see some extremely talented performers getting recognised, especially in musical theatre. However, I have a bone to pick with someone…

Why, oh, why is Wicked nominated for Best Original Score?

Wicked has been one of my favourites since I first heard it in 2005. Whilst not a big fan of Stephen Schwartz, I genuinely fell in love with his musical adaptation of an amazing book by Gregory Maguire, and it stayed on my playlist for years. I also think that it should’ve won more Tony’s than it did.

But this is where Wicked belongs… at the Tony Awards.

I have no problem with the performers being nominated for Helpmann Awards. I have a slight problem with the production team being nominated but won’t bitch and moan (considering that the show is a carbon copy of the Broadway show, as expected), but Best Original Score? I thought the Helpmann Awards were meant to “recognise distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in the many disciplines of Australia’s vibrant live performance sectors, including musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, opera, classical music, dance and physical theatre.”

The real crime here is that Metro Street, an extremely well written musical by Matthew Robinson, didn’t get a look in and Stephen Schwartz did.

Jon Nicholls/Ross Cunningham and co. Please explain…

[/rant]