SHAKESPEARE

November 2016, Nexus Theatre, Western Australia. Music by Nick Choo. Additional music by Melissa Da Silva. Additional lyrics by Sarah Courtis. Adapted and directed by Jenny de Reuck.

Kings and queens, pirates and shipwrecks, mistaken identities and betrayal, lost children – and above all, love. When Prince Pericles of Tyre flees from the wrath of the King of Antioch, he sets off on a lifelong journey which will see him reach dizzying heights – and lose the very things that matter most again and again. Will the gods ultimately be kind to him? Or is he doomed to misfortune, and loneliness?

October 2014. Nexus Theatre, Western Australia. Original music and songs by Nick Choo. Additional lyrics by Sarah Courtis. Adapted and directed by Jenny de Reuck.

Disguises, mistaken identity, deceit, treachery and poison feature in this adaptation of Shakespeare's tragicomedy.

4-8 Nov 2003. Nexus Theatre, Western Australia. Original music and lyrics, musical adaptation, musical direction and arrangement by Nick Choo. Conceived and directed by Serge Tampalini.

A colourful, flamboyant and quirky take on the tragedy, this musical took on the dramatics and histrionics of the story of King Richard and turned it on its head by setting it in an Indian nightclub and giving it a pseudo-Bollywood, quasi-Middle Eastern Eurovision quality.

Take a synthesised sitar and shehnai, stir in some Broadway showtunes, hyper-emotional power ballads and send-ups of classic movie themes, add a nightclub baby grand and incredibly cheesy nightclub drum beats, and you get this—the Bard's dramatic masterpiece on acid. When a tyrannical ruler hell-bent on anarchy concludes his menacing monologue with a top-hat-and-tails vaudeville number, you know the end is near. 

With original songs by Nick as well as rearranged numbers such as Leo Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side and The Everly Brothers' Bye Bye Love, Richard III was performed to critical acclaim and loathing.