How to make a successful musical

If making a new play is complex and fraught with misadventure, then making a new musical quadruples all those effects, declares Simon Phillips.
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Kate Cole and Lucy Maunder in Queensland Theatre’s Ladies in Black. Photo by Rob Maccoll.

In a wide-ranging career spanning several continents, which to date has seen him employed as Artistic Director by two Australian state theatre companies and awarded for his direction of theatre and opera, New Zealand-born Simon Phillips has become increasingly identified as a director of major musical theatre.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts