*We regret to inform you that this show is no longer available for sale due to the cancellation of Melbourne International Comedy Festival. We will be in contact in the coming days to all existing ticket buyers with information on refunds. Thank you for your patience and understanding.*
Bigger than Broadway, wider than the West End!
Bigger than Broadway, wider than the West End, join critically acclaimed cabaret stars Maeve Marsden and Libby Wood for a satirical look at musical theatre and its greatest (thinnest) leading ladies. With dry wit, stunning harmonies, ridiculous choreography, a jar of cookies and a good helping of feminist rage, Marsden & Wood deliver an irreverent exploration of body image, tongues planted firmly in cheek.
Why can't fat people fall in love, go on a hero's journey, take centre stage? Why are we always the motherly matrons or comic relief? And why when we finally have a moment to shine, do producers so often cast a thin woman in a fat suit? (*ahem* Hairspray).
Littered with songs from musicals that feature two leading ladies, Fat Musicals takes on Chicago, Calamity Jane, Frozen, Sideshow, A Chorus Line, Wicked and Cats (ok, Cats doesn’t exactly have two female leads, but there’s so much to make fun of in Cats).
Marsden & Wood are ready to clap back at every reviewer who’s called them 'buxom' and that dude who called them 'appropriately curvacious' (appropriate for what?!), the friend’s boyfriend who said they’d sell more tickets if they were hotter, or their personal favourite from an Adelaide blogger: 'the singers moved about the stage in ill-managed bodies.'
With award-winning director Anthea Williams at the helm, Fat Musicals sold out at Sydney Mardi Gras and Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the latest from the women who brought you festival sensation Mother’s Ruin: A Cabaret about Gin and comedy cabaret troupe Lady Sings it Better.
"Savagely hysterical… My hands were sore from clapping so much. A plus size triumph!"
"Fat Musicals is Marsden and Wood stripped back and at their best... We need more of these women on our mainstages!"
"Marsden and Wood manage to have the audience simultaneously in stitches of laughter and marvelling at their almost symbiotic harmonies."
"Blisteringly entertaining… Marsden and Wood’s voices blend into a single, warm and bright sound"
"Marsden and Wood maintain a spot-on balance of larky humour, bolshy political consciousness, palpable passion for their subject and sheer joie de vivre."
"To say Marsden and Libby work well together is an understatement. Together, they are a force to be reckoned with."
WRITTEN BY / | Maeve Marsden & Libby Wood |
DIRECTION / | Anthea Williams |
MUSICAL DIRECTION / | Benjamin Kiehne |
DANCE CAPTAIN / | Shondelle Pratt |
PRODUCED BY / | MILKE |
PHOTOGRAPHY / | Patrick Boland |
Event & ticketing details
Accessibility
Tickets
Standard | $28.00 - Wed, Thu, Sun |
Standard | $30.00 - Fri & Sat |
Concession | $26.00 - Wed, Thu, Sun |
Concession | $30.00 - Fri & Sat |
Preview | $25.00 |
Tightarse Tuesday | $25.00 |
Location
Beckett Theatre
The Malthouse, 113 Sturt St, Southbank 3006
Get directionsTrain
Any train to Flinders Street, then a 12-minute stroll through Melbourne’s sparkling Arts Precinct.Tram
The No. 1 South Melbourne tram goes right past our door. Get off at Stop 18. Any tram down St Kilda Road—jump off at Grant Street, Stop 17 and take a 3-minute walk.Event notes
DURATION /
60 minutes (no interval)
WARNINGS /
Coarse Language