After sell-out seasons in 2009 and 2013, Everyman Theatre is remounting its Broadway parody The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) by Joanne Bogart and Eric Rockwell.

Most of the original cast are back, reuniting to bring the house down all over again, but there’s one “fabulous new recruit” – Will Collett, returning from South Korea to join Hannah Ley, Louiza Blomfield, Duncan Driver, Jarrad West and musical director Nick Griffin in making his Everyman debut.

Collett is no stranger to the Canberra stage. Since graduating from the ANU in psychology and composition, where he studied with Jim Cotter. He’s appeared in shows as varied as Hello Dolly, Assassins, Dogfight and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

He’s been living in Seoul since 2023 as a diplomatic husband, having taken leave without pay from the public service, and is busy mastering Korean. 

Collett says he’s been acting in musicals since high school in Orange, so when he arrived at the ANU he naturally sought out opportunities and found himself in Gowrie Varma’s memorable 2016 production of Sweeney Todd at the ANU Arts Centre.

He’s never seen the whole of Musical of Musicals before, but after listening closely he decided it too is “a really fun show… written for audiences who are in the know about musicals and who will notice every new joke or melody. It’s essentially a celebration of musicals, from a place of love”.

Each vignette (15 to 20 minutes) is inspired by a famous musical theatre writer – Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, Jerry Herman and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

“I’m a big Stephen Sondheim lover, and in his section you’ll feel a bit of Sweeney Todd, a bit of Company, a bit of A Little Night Music. The way it works is great… the Sondheim section is a little complex,” he says, noting how some melodies sound instantly familiar because they’re clever echoes of classics.

Another surprise inclusion is Hannah Ley. Like Collett, she is no stranger to the Canberra stage, having played leading roles for many years. She  left for England in 2015 with husband Duncan.

In 2023, she followed him into the Chesil Theatre Company in Winchester, where she performed in Nasty Neighbours and Private Lives, as well as working as movement director and choreographer on productions including A Christmas Carol, Shakespeare in Love, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Home, I’m Darling, and 5 Stories from 15 Heroines.

Ley returned to the stage in 2024 to play Brooke in Legally Blonde, then Sandra in Made in Dagenham, and is currently rehearsing for The Wizard of Oz as Glinda.

“Returning to Canberra after a 10-year absence and to be performing Musical of Musicals again after 12 years is a dream come true,” she says, adding how excited she is to see old friends, drink good coffee, walk around Lake Burley-Griffin, reconnect with the mums’ group she joined 13 years ago, and visit her old workplace, the Canberra Theatre Centre.

In the meantime, it’s a case of dusting off the sequins and polishing the chorus shoes for what Everyman director Jarrad West describes as “five musicals for the price of one”.

The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!), ACT Hub, Kingston, October 15–25.