Dean Bryant & Mathew Frank
Dean Bryant and Mathew Frank met at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where they workshopped their first musical, Prodigal, which was produced at Chapel off Chapel in 2000, winning the Green Room Award for Best Original Score. In 2002 the show premiered off-Broadway at the York Theatre Company and was recorded by JAY (available on iTunes).
Virgins: A Musical Threesome premiered at the Tower Theatre, Malthouse in 2006 and toured to the New York Music Theatre Festival later that year.
Once We Lived Here premiered at fortyfivedownstairs in 2009, winning the Green Room Award for Best New Musical, has played in NYC and at the prestigious Kings Head Theatre in London.
The Silver Donkey, based on Sonya Hartnett’s award-winning novel, received Anzac Centenary funding for a future production.
They adapted My Brilliant Career into a musical as Pratt Artists in Residence at Monash University, and released the cast recording the year after. The piece is currently being developed with writer Sheridan Harbridge joining the team.
An evening of their work, All Roads Lead to Home, was part of the 2004 Melbourne Festival and their songs were featured in the Amy Winehouse-inspired episode of Channel Ten’s Mr & Mrs Murder.
Dean and Mathew created smash-hit Britney Spears: The Cabaret for Christie Whelan-Browne which has played across a decade to rave reviews around the country and at The Other Palace, London. They created Show People for Whelan-Browne, which debuted at Adelaide Cabaret Festival and was an ABC Festival Highlight for Sydney Festival.
Dean’s other cabaret work includes Liza (on an E) and I’m Every Woman for Trevor Ashley, which played seasons from the Sydney Opera House to the West End, Newley Discovered for Hugh Sheridan (Opera House and Festival Theatre), Experiment: Cole Porter for Alex Rathgeber, and Josie in the Bathhouse for Josie Lane (Spiegeltent) while Mathew created Josie’s new cabaret, Asian Provocateur with Josie for the Hayes (Sydney Theatre Award – Best Cabaret).
With performer Michael Griffiths, Dean created In Vogue: Songs by Madonna, which has played Australia, NZ, NYC, Edinburgh and London and Sweet Dreams: Songs by Annie Lennox, which received Best Cabaret at Adelaide Fringe Festival and played Edinburgh Festival. Both pieces continue to tour the world, along with the last piece of the diva trilogy, Lucky: Songs by Kylie which premiered at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. This year they created It’s A Sin: Songs of Love and Shame for Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
Dean created Gaybies for the Midsumma 25th Anniversary, which played a triumphant season at the Sumner Theatre featuring Magda Szubanski, Todd McKenney and Virginia Gay and made it’s Sydney premiere at the Eternity Theatre (Darlinghurst Theatre Company) in 2015. It is published through Playlab. He created Well, That Happened for MTC’s return to theatre post-pandemic, a verbatim piece that explored how actors survived the 2020 crisis.
As musical director Mathew’s credits include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Her Majesty’s Theatre), The Drowsy Chaperone and Next to Normal (Melbourne Theatre Company) and The Pirates of Penzance, La Cage Aux Folles and Jerry’s Girls (The Production Company). He composed the score and did sound design for the MTC’s Private Lives, Skylight, Born Yesterday, An Ideal Husband and The Lady in the Van. He has a passion for teaching music theatre and is Head of Music at Showfit.
The pair most recently worked together on Hubris & Humiliation for STC and the Melbourne season of Fun Home (MTC/STC) for which Dean won the Green Room and Sydney Theatre Awards.
Dean was Associate Director at Melbourne Theatre Company 2016-19, where he directed Torch the Place, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Lady in the Van, Wild, An Ideal Husband, Vivid White, Born Yesterday, Skylight, I’ll Eat You Last and Next to Normal. For Hayes Theatre he directed Assassins, which transferred to Sydney Opera House, as well as their debut production Sweet Charity (Helpmann Award) and Little Shop of Horrors (Sydney Theatre Award), both of which toured the country (Luckiest/Tinderbox) and most recently directed their triumphant Merrily We Roll Along. For Opera Australia he directed Two Weddings, One Bride and Anything Goes (also GFO). Other credits include Gaybies (Darlinghurst Theatre), The Skin of Our Teeth (Victorian College of the Arts), Once We Lived Here (Kings Head Theatre), DreamSong (Theatreworks), Straight (Red Stitch), The Last Five Years, Prodigal, and Virgins: A Musical Threesome (NYMF) and for the Production Company - Jerry’s Girls, La Cage Aux Folles, The Pirates of Penzance, The Producers and Anything Goes. He is worldwide Associate Director on Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – the Musical (Australia, NZ, West End, Broadway, Italy, Brazil, UK tour, Sweden, Korea, Spain, South Africa and NCL cruise).
Most recently he directed Bloom (MTC) and Giustino (Pinchgut). More info at www.deanjamesbryant.com
