Miss Westralia

A musical comedy about Beryl Mills, a country girl who is crowned the unlikely winner of the first Miss Australia competition and embarks on a promotional tour of the USA, where her humble roots collide with her newfound celebrity status.

This story is a coming of age musical comedy about plucky farm girl Beryl Mills who is anxious for her life to begin. After being crowned the unlikely winner of the first Miss Australia competition, Beryl embarks on a promotional tour of the United States with Frank Packer and her mother Kitty as chaperones. Upon their arrival, they are greeted by Miss America who quickly becomes jealous of Beryl’s popularity and plans to jeopardise her reputation, but ultimately impacts her own. As Beryl struggles to reconcile her newfound celebrity status with her country roots, she is confronted with the knowledge that she has been used to encourage immigration to Australia. With a nation-wide broadcast on the horizon, she must decide whether to uphold the role she has been given or stay true to herself. Ultimately Beryl writes her own speech, earning the respect and admiration of the nation.

Form and Style:
A small cast of four performers bring this tale to life, providing an intimate viewing experience so rarely afforded in musical theatre, where the audience’s toes will be tapping just inches from the tap dancing! The show blends new and old, fusing a nostalgic design with a quick witted, tongue in cheek, contemporary delivery. Set in 1926, the design elements of the show juxtapose the glamour of the USA in the roaring 20s with the dusty reality of Australian rural living. The book and lyrics draw from the seemingly endless supply of archived materials about Beryl Mills. Often using verbatim text, the show examines the parallels between the 1920s and now in terms of female media scrutiny, Australian/American relations, and institutional power abuse.