Nex' Town

Nex' Town is a 1957 Australian musical by Kylie Tennant and Maurice Travers with music and lyrics by Iris Mason and Hal Saunders. The original production premiered at the Independent Theatre in Sydney,^[2] directed by Haydee Seldon and presented by Peter Scriven.^[3]

Nex' Town
Sun Herald 20 Oct 1957
Music	Iris Mason Hal Saunders[1]
Lyrics	Iris Mason Hal Saunders
Book	Kylie Tennant Maurice Travers
Setting	Youanmi, Western Australia
Premiere	30 October 1957: Independent Theatre, Sydney Australia

Background

In January 1957 it was reported Peter Scriven and Alan Burke were working on the book for an Australian musical comedy for the Elizabethan Theatre Trust.^[4] In April 1957 Scriven returned to Australia after a six week trip overseas and announced the Trust would produce its first musical comedy soon.^[5] In the final event the Trust would present Lola Montez, written by Burke, and Scriven's musical, Nex' Town, debuted at the Independent.

Scriven said he chose to do a show about travelling show people because "they are broad and typical. They are like the Diggers."^[6]

He arranged for the show to be put together, financing it himself with a combination of his personal wealth and income from his puppet show The Tintookies. (The budget for the production was between £5,000-£6,000.)^[7]

The musical was set in a real town, Youanmi in Western Australia. It was once a thriving town but by 1957 all that was left was a tin shed.^[8]

"It's hard to be Australian without being obviously Australian," said Scriven. "I don't know whether one has it in Nex' Town. Perhaps it's a bit much to hope one has. To get a feeling that this is Australian singing, and Australian dancing, is very difficult."^[6]

Premise

SMH 2 Oct 1957

The story of a travelling road show who get stranded in Youanmi, a small Western Australia gold town.

The troupe's baritone knocks out a local and thinks he kills him.

Select songs

• "A Man's Mad" - Neil Williams
• "Shootin' Through"
• “Nex’ Town”
• “The Plot Song”
• “Hullo, Joe”

Original cast

• Bob Ainslie
• Chris Christensen
• Janne Coghlan as sideshow siren
• William Collins
• Ken Fraser as Joe smug politician (local member) home from Canberra
• Guy Le Claire as young narc
• Minnie Love as amateur evangelist
• David M Martin as the clown
• Laurel Mather as Mrs Copley, predatory widow and local publican
• Yvonne McLeod as the female romantic lead
• Neil Williams as Lucky McNeill the baritone^[9]

Reception

The Sydney Morning Herald called it "probably the best Australian made musical yet staged here" although it felt "the determination to imitate oft-proven American tricks at the cost of any really deep Australian feeling was sometimes a little disheartening" and "it was hard to swallow whole several dreary stretches of dialogue and the long and straggling second act."^[10]

The Jewish Times said "The Aussie flavor desperately weaves throughout like the illustrated smell from a freshly cooked pie in animated cartoon."^[11]

The Bulletin called it "a delightful musical comedy... musically, the show has been remarkably well served by Iris Mason and Hal Saunders with a string of insistently tuneful ditties... a vigorous and highly entertaining musical, produced with skill and imagination."^[12]