Kate Miller-Heidke, Keir Nuttall, win theatre award for ‘Muriel’s Wedding The Musical’ score

Kate Miller-Heidke and Keir Nuttall have won Best Original Score In A Mainstage Production at the Sydney Theatre Awards for the Sydney Theatre Company and Global Creatures co-production Muriel’s Wedding The Musical.

The score was one of the seven awards that the show took out on the night.

Muriel’s Wedding also won Best Mainstage Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Simon Phillips), Best Choreography (Andrew Hallsworth), Best Musical Direction (Isaac Hayward) and Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical (Madeleine Jones) while Maggie McKenna shared Best Newcomer with Zoe Terakes of Red Line Productions’ A View From The Bridge.

The awards were held at the Everest Theatre at the Seymour Centre before 450 guests.

When the original cast recording ofMuriel’s Wedding was recently released through Sony Music Entertainment Australia, Miller-Heidke posted on her Facebook page: “Keir and I have busted our guts writing these songs for more than two years, and we are so proud of how the show has turned out.

“The cast and band have done an incredible job with this recording. They’re fucking amazing.”

The album also included songs that Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and their late manager Stig Anderson had written for ABBAand featured heavily in the movie.

When Miller-Heidke and Nuttall heard that writer and director PJ Hogan was updating his ‘90s movie, they were desperate to do it.

They were drawn by the film’s strong believable characters and narrative and Abba’s catchy tunes and the darkness in the personality of ABBA-obsessed Muriel Heslop desperate to escape her family and Australian small-town attitudes.

But they had two challenges. One neither had done a musical before, although they’d done an opera.

They were apprehensive if their songs would stack up to ABBA’s pop gems. As ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Mamma Moa’ and ‘Waterloo’.

But the challenges turned out to be a blessing for the duo.

Miller-Heidke told one interviewer, “Actually sort of explodes the whole thing and it [the work] transcends.”

They decided that the Abba tunes would represent Muriel’s dreams and ambitions, and their words and music would soundtrack the sobering reality of her life.

The album has debuted at #17 on the ARIA Top 100 and #6 on the Digital Chart.

This week the producers announced that with its successful run at the Roslyn Packer Theatre finishing up on the weekend – it was a total sell-out and injected $3 million into the NSW economy, according to NSW Minister for Tourism and Major Events Adam Marshall – it would return to the city in July 2019 at the Sydney Lyric.

As a PS, the Sydney Theatre Award for Lifetime Achievement went to designer Brian Thomson.

His work since 1971 have included assorted productions of the music-themed The Rocky Horror Show, Jesus Christ Superstar, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Dream Lover – The Bobby Darin Musical.