Summer Rain (musical)
| Summer Rain | |
|---|---|
| Music | Terence Clarke |
| Lyrics | Nick Enright |
| Book | Nick Enright |
| Premiere | 1983: National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney |
| Productions |
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Summer Rain is a musical with book and lyrics by Australian playwright Nick Enright and music by Terence Clarke.
Set in New South Wales, Australia, it's Boxing Day 1945 in Turnaround Creek, an outback town. The dust settles as the town nurses their Christmas hangover. Harold Slocum and his family of the Slocum's Travelling Tent Show are down on their luck and become stranded. They're broke and desperate for an audience; they end up in Turnaround Creek. To the country folk, the prospect of a show is a welcome diversion, but Barry the publican at the Shamrock is strangely unwelcoming. He remembers the last time the Slocums were in the district. Emotions run high and the sedentary life of the town is disturbed by the remembrance of an illicit affair. The musical represses new life breathed into the rural community, and is altogether humorous and sensitive.
Originally written in 1983 for Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art for students, the musical has since had professional productions twice in Sydney (Sydney Theatre Company in 1989 and 2005) and once in Brisbane (Queensland Theatre Company in 1997). Its many amateur and student productions include Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2000, University of Wollongong in 2004, Australian Institute of Music in 2014 and Shellharbour's Roo Theatre in 2014.
Although no cast recording of has been made, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast a live performance of the 1989 Sydney production on radio. Performers such as Nancye Hayes and David Campbell have recorded the song "Once in a Blue Moon" in solo albums. A 1994 television special on Australian musicals incorporated performances of both "Once in a Blue Moon" and "You Might Miss the Mongrel". The book and lyrics were published by Currency Press.
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