Paris (2003 Musical)

Paris (2003 Musical)

Paris is a rock musical written by Australian rock musician Jon English and David MacKay, based on the myth of the Trojan War.

The musical was preceded by a 1990 2-CD concept album, called Paris: A Love Story, recorded in London during 1989-1990. English sang the role of Hector, and the cast included John Parr as Paris, Sheila Parker as Helen, Terence Donovan as Priam, Sheryl Parker as Cassandra, Doc Neeson as Achilles, John Waters as Agamemnon, Philip Quast as Patroclus, Joe Fagin as Menelaus, as well as Demis Roussos, David Atkins and Barry Humphries, backed by the London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Choir. It sold 50,000 copies and won the 1991 ARIA Award for 'Best Original Soundtrack / Cast / Show Recording' for English and Mackay.

The stage version was first performed live in October 2003 by both The Regals Musical Society Inc (Sydney Australia), directed by Murray Stanton, and the amateur group, Laycock Street Theatre (Gosford, Australia), with English assisting in the direction of the production and appearing as the Fisherman in one performance of the Gosford Production. The Melbourne premier was on 29 January 2004 at the National Theatre, the Auckland premier was on 21 May 2005 at The Pumphouse, Takapuna, and the Adelaide premier was on 25 July 2008 at the Marie Clark Musical Theatre. In April 2008, a re-worked version was performed at Laycock St. Theatre with new orchestrations and several new songs by Central Coast musician Andrew Swan and a re-vamped script edited by director Stuart Smith. In this production, English appeared as Menelaus. School groups have also performed the musical including Ipswich Grammar School - Queensland, St Andrew's Cathedral School Sydney and Oakhill College Castle Hill, renowned for their professional standard productions. Golden River's Theatre Group in Barham NSW will perform "Paris" in June 2010.They are the first company to perform Paris outside a major city.

According to English, the concept for the musical began in a 1982 prank: he wrote a song called "Oh, Paris", about the mythic hero rather than the French capital, just to see how many people actually listened to the words. The musical focuses on the love story between Helen and Paris as it follows his participation in the Trojan War. Paris is about the struggle to maintain some balance between passion and order, law and chaos, head and heart.