As Rick Springfield fans are awaiting news of a new album (based on mentions in interviews over the past few months), something else has been brewing Down Under.
According to a Bayside News article that showed up today in my Google feed, “One man show tells Springfield tale,” an Australian pop singer and actor from Sydney will be performing a one-man musical based on RS’s autobiography “Late, Late at Night.” The play was written by award-winning playwright Kieran Carroll and is described as “the epic journey of a suburban boy whose journey to fame and fortune came with enormous personal costs.”
The mention on kingstonarts.com.au also describes it as “a tumultuous and exhilarating journey of a songwriter whose 17 top 40 hits in America with sales of 25 million albums worldwide make him one of Australia’s most successful musical exports of all time.”
Moving between the incredible stories and Springfield’s large body of hit songs over 50 years, Late Late At Night traces Springfield’s Australian and British childhood, his early music days in Australia, his rollercoaster ride in 1970s America and the huge pop and acting successes of the 1980s. This is followed by his fall from public view, his mental health demise, and finally, the resurrection of Rick Springfield as an artist in the 21st century.
Kingston Arts
According to the playwright’s website, as of today, the “Late, Late at Night” has six dates scheduled in April-May 2022 in Melbourne and Victoria.
The play is directed by Robert Johnson, the artist director of Burning House, a nonprofit theater company “dedicated to bringing bold interpretations of rarely performed classic texts to audiences,” according to its website, burninghousetheatre.com.
Judging from Jackson Carroll’s music videos, this looks like it’s going to be GREAT! If any RS fans in Australia are reading this blog and make it to the show, let us know how it is!
(Disclaimer, so far I haven’t seen any online mention that connects the Sydney singer-actor Jackson Carrrol scheduled to be in this musical to the below Sydney musician Jackson Carroll and am only assuming it’s the same person. Also not sure if there’s any relation between the “Late, Late at Night” playwright and the musical’s singer-actor but hopefully the Australian press will share more details as it gets closer. Meanwhile, enjoy the following videos…)
My Rick Springfield crush 