The ABBA-driven journey of Muriel burst onto Australian film in the year 1994 as a part of a cultural moment where Australian peculiarities became the subject of affectionate and tender laughing on the large screen (alongside Priscilla: Queen of the Desert and Strictly Ballroom). The last and most challenging member of this trio to receive the treatment in music – possibly because the emotional context of the tale is more complicated.
The basic outlines of the plot are the same on stage and screen as they were on screen. However, the action has moved to the present. The sexy and unpopular Muriel is confined to Porpoise Spit, where she listens to ABBA and dreams of an event that the popular girls, as well as their families, will view her as successful. Instead of finding her true love, Muriel meets Rhonda – another outcast with whom she flees to Sydney.
Away from the judging eye of her father and aided by the playful Rhonda, Muriel transforms herself into the person she’s always wanted to be. The truth of her former life as well as the reality of her present one, but, in the end, they both infringe on the fantasy world to render it unsustainable, which is when Porpoise Spit begins exerting its influence upon her once again.
Although it is satirical, Muriel’s wedding is also full of sadness. It is a sad story about the Heslops, a clan that is bullied and smacked down to a pitiful state by their patriarch, who is an intelligent, egotistical Bill. I was slightly worried about how Kate Miller Heidke or Keir Nuttall would play the complex interplay of their lyrics and music; they’ve mastered the balance of these aesthetics without ever going into the realm of melodrama or cliche. The lyrics are whip-smart and totally loveable.
Like in the film, the music of ABBA serves as the foundation for Muriel’s personal story and, more importantly, her mother. Miller-Heidke and Nuttall have mastered the art of weaving several ABBA tracks and lyrics and ad music. When Muriel is able to escape into her dream world, ABBA bursts out of the cupboards or the windows of shops to recount Muriel’s tale to her.
Maggie McKenna’s Muriel will make us fall in love with her over and over. Like Madeleine Jones, Rhonda is a person we wish would help us overcome the limitations of what we think of ourselves as. Love song “you’re fucking Amazing”, which is sung in strong Australian accents by this couple in the very first act, is a song that celebrates the benefits and strength that female friends can bring. This friendship is a revelation and the savior. It’s a bonding that has a feminist perspective.
In fact, the most beautiful aspect of Muriel’s story is that in the film, at a minimum, she ends up with her female best friend rather than the man of her dreams. The musical is able to maintain the centrality of the plot and accentuates the romantic chemistry between her while also enhancing her romantic chemistry. For me, it slowed down the impact of the story.
The show also offers the joy of recognition when these sketches of Australian life get music. The audience shivered with pleasure as “you’re terrible, Muriel” is said by Muriel’s sister, and then laughed when Tania shouts, “but I’m a bride.” (Tania is given a dazzling stage performance by Christie Whelan Browne, who manages to pop out of the shadow created by Sophie Lee’s cinematic version).
In bringing Muriel’s story to current times, Muriel’s fears of inadequacy, as well as hopes to be reborn, are interspersed with the psychological trap associated with social media. Popularity in a 1994 novel was as an emotion in the same way as a tangible actuality but is now something that is tracked via “reposts” and “likes.”
The musical also serves as an ode to love for Sydney. The moment Muriel. She is able to escape her friends and family at Porpoise Spit; she arrives in a place where there is a possibility to “be the me” she would like to be. Sydney has been a long-standing facilitator of this remaking of the self – not only because gay life is an integral part of Sydney’s culture.
The musical transforms gay Sydney into a larger aspect of the story. The urban landscape of Sydney on stage is awash with sexual desire, and one particular character (not the one you’d imagine) is revealed in a series of charming plot twists in the final scene. In light of the way the survey on marriages between gay and straight showed the divisions in support across Australia, It is difficult not to see this musical as a thoughtful review of the persistent attitudes and phobias that rule in some areas of the country.
