Have you ever… ever felt like this?
The answer to that question is most likely no, as this is the very first time you’ve been balls-deep in a global pandemic and learned the news that iconic Aussie 90’s tele show Round The Twist is being turned into a musical.
As The Guardian reports, the ABC show, based on the beloved book series by Aussie author Paul Jennings, is being adapted for the stage by writer-composer, Paul Hodge.
And Jennings himself is totally on board with the concept.
He reckons Hodge has taken “the original stories and scripts and combined them with some wonderful new ideas”.
If you need a quick re-cap, Round The Twist tells the story of a single dad trying to raise his three kids alone inside a haunted lighthouse in coastal Victoria as increasingly batshit crazy paranormal events unfold, leaving the children encumbered with a lifetime worth of psychological trauma that no therapist will ever believe.
“I loved the show as a kid,” Hodge tells the paper. “I think the great thing about it is that you can identify with different Twist kids or Tony, their Dad, and it was made in that way so that everyone could see themselves in it. One thing that makes Paul Jennings fantastic is that he remembers not only the good parts of being a kid but also when it’s lonely and scared and embarrassing.”
The forthcoming musical has been cashed up by Canberra’s multimillion-dollar Covid recovery scheme, the (RISE) fund. It’ll be produced by Garry Quinn from RGM Productions and directed by Simon Phillips (Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Shakespeare in Love).
Let’s just hope they leave out that one storyline from the Little Squirt episode, otherwise it may turn into one of those “first three rows will get wet” kind of shows.
