Dreams come true on the world stage
IT was 12 years ago that American author and producer Sharleen Cooper Cohen first wanted to bring the hit 1982 movie An Officer and a Gentleman to the stage.
Last week the musical had its world premiere at Sydney’s Lyric Theatre in a multimillion-dollar production in conjunction with John Frost, and Cohen could not be more excited.
“The wow factor and the exciting story and romance is there,” she says of the romantic drama about US Navy officer school hopeful Zack Mayo and his relationship with a local factory girl as they both strive to achieve their dreams.
It features the Academy Award-winning song Up Where We Belong and a cast led by Ben Mingay, Amanda Harrison, Alex Rathgeber, Kate Kendall and Josh Piterman.
Cohen, who lives in Los Angeles with her husband Martin and is a member of Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue, is the author of seven novels and producer of numerous stage productions. She has been based in Sydney for the past nine weeks working on An Officer and a Gentleman.
She has produced shows on Broadway and the West End and recalls her first musical, Sheba, for the Jewish Repertory Theatre in an Off-Broadway production in 1996.
“It was a love story between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and was a wonderful musical to work on,” she says.
“I first tried to get the rights to An Officer and a Gentleman in 2000. I wanted to do a musical in the style of South Pacific and Oklahoma – something that had a strong timeless story and romance.”
When the rights to An Officer and a Gentleman became available, Cohen teamed up with the film’s original screenwriter, Douglas Day Stewart, to work on the musical.
“When you are creating a musical you can’t just put a movie on the stage and add songs. You have to work it through in a completely different medium,” Cohen says.
“We wanted to be faithful to the original movie because people expect its working-class love story, but we needed to add another dimension. And once we added music and dance, the whole story lifted to a new level.”
A new score was written by Jewish composers Ken Hirsch and Robin Lerner, who have also been in Sydney throughout the rehearsal period.
Cohen is a regular visitor to Australia, attending the show’s workshops, readings and casting sessions in 2009 and 2011.
And she was in Sydney last year for the premiere of Dr Zhivago – The Musical, produced by Frost and her friend, American producer Anita Waxman.
Cohen says it is a big thrill staging the world premiere in Australia, but there are also strong commercial reasons.
“When you try to mount a large musical you need to see it before you put it on Broadway or the West End. Normally you can only do it as part of a short regional season for four to five weeks, but still have to raise a lot of money to stage it,” she explains.
“By doing a commercial production in Australia as the premiere, our investors have a chance to recoup their money. Here, it is commercially much more advantageous to stage a major show, and we have a large professional team available. And we have more rehearsal time, more preview time and running time to perfect it.
“I have never worked with more talented actors anywhere in the world.”
Cohen says that An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical will tour around Australia and hopes future productions will be staged in Asia, Europe, the West End and Broadway.
An Officer and a Gentleman is currently at the Lyric Theatre, Sydney.
REPORT by Danny Gocs
PHOTO of Ben Mingay and Amanda Harrison in An Officer and a Gentleman: The Musical. Photo by Brian Geach