OBSERVER: The Forgotten Songbook


A new Australian musical, The Forgotten Songbook, opens at Chapel off Chapel, Prahran, from July 25 – 27.
The ambitious project is led by two talented young theatre makers – 23-year-old historian and composer Emerson Hurley and producer Dylan McBurney.
Under the direction of Mikey Halcrow, the cast features versatile Melbourne musical theatre performers Karla Hillam and Jonathan Guthrie-Jones, with Emerson Hurley on the piano.
Presented as the songs of a forgotten Golden-Age composer, the show comprises original songs written in the American Songbook style.
When Hurley first encountered the music of Broadway composer Wilbur Weissman, he was astonished to find that almost no information about this once-famous songsmith was publicly available.
Once at the heart of Tin Pan Alley in the thirties and forties, it seemed that Weissman, like many of his contemporaries, had fallen into complete obscurity.
Leading a passion project combining his love of music and history, Hurley is thrilled to be bringing Weissman’s work to the stage for the first time in decades.
Alongside Hurley’s new book, the product of painstaking research, and presented with humour and sensitivity, the music of The Forgotten Songbook is said to ‘make a heart- warming case for one overlooked artist’s reintegration into the musical theatre canon.’
Audiences will experience the swinging music of Broadway’s most iconic era ‘as never heard before’, and are invited to decide whether Weissman’s name should join the ranks of Broadway legends or be relegated to history.
Producer Dylan McBurney says: “With themes of authenticity and imitation, the show explores the anxieties that artists face in their professional lives, and asks the difficult question: what if our own art is forgotten?”
Performance Season: July 25 7.30pm (opening night), July 26 7.30pm, July 27 at 5pm.
Venue: Chapel off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel St., Prahran.
Bookings: chapeloffchapel.com.au/show/the-forgotten-songbook/
Cheryl Threadgold

Pictured: Jonathan Guthrie-Jones (left), Emerson Hurley and Karla Hillam in The Forgotten Songbook. Photo: Kris Wardhana.