“It’s about the randomness of life … of how you’re here one
minute and gone the next, and how you’d better get relationships established
because there’s not much else that you can rely on,” recalls composer Chris
Neal. “It was hippy, it was flower power, it was joy, joy, joy.” Neal first hit upon the idea for “Man-child”
while he was working in Vietnam in 1968. He had a lot of free time on his hands
because he was there as a kind of coach- writer for incoming acts that were
working for this American agency ... he’d been brought up on musicals by his
parents who were all into Gilbert and Sullivan and Rodgers and Hammerstein and
he’d always thought it would be a good idea to write a rock musical. Upon
returning to Sydney, Neal became aware of “Hair” and its trailblazing run at
the Metro Theatre. His brother Jim put up some money for the production and
Chris went about putting together a team to make it happen. A key member was
director Michael O’Reilly. “Michael could see straight away that he could bring
a lot to the show and everybody was very impressed by his credentials. “He’d
choreographed and directed quite a few shows in and around Sydney at the Old
Tote and Ensemble and so on. The production struggled to find a suitable venue
that was available in Sydney, which drove them to a unique but expensive
solution. They ended up getting a plastic bubble tent built by an organisation
in Adelaide who had just developed this technology. It was a 600 seat theatre
which was called the Bubble Theatre. The $40,000 tent was erected at the Sydney
Showground and final rehearsals began. However, they soon realised that while
the bubble made an amazing space for theatre productions, it didn’t have the
best acoustics for a rock concert. The preview week in early August 1971 saw a
positive response from the critics. Then, just as it seemed “Man-child” would
be off to a flying start, a freak accident held them back: a massive storm tore
a hole in the bubble. With the Bubble Theatre gone, the production was forced
on to the road. Their first stop was Brisbane, where “Man-child” proved a great
success. In their first week at the SGIO theatre they broke the box office
attendance record. Things only got better when they moved to Perth. More
sold-out shows followed in Adelaide and there was momentum for “Man-child” to
move on to Melbourne, where they planned to record an album and start a season
at the Metro Theatre. Things didn’t go to plan, though. The company was
informed by their promoter that the theatre wouldn’t need their services: they’d
got Grease instead. So they just had to pack their bags and go back to Sydney
and that was the end of that. For all
the success it had enjoyed on the road, awareness for “Man-child” fell away
quickly. The soundtrack sold around 5000 copies and cracked the lower end of
the top 40 charts but stalled without the show on the road to promote it. As
far as Neal can recall there has never been another production. Chris Neal once said…”I wouldn’t allow it to
be put on now, Its relevance is
completely gone ... it thrived on joy, joie de vivre, the smile ... if it was
going to be redone again I’d probably write about another three drafts and give
it a bit of sophistication.” The LP was produced by Spencer Lee with arrangement
by Ken Tait & Chris Neal with all lyrics & music by Chris Neal. “Man-Child”
(ML OO2) was recorded at TCS Studios Melbourne for M7 Records in 1972. I love
when I get a record to fix up for the Blog that I’ve never heard or heard of as
the case with this LP. But I must say I was very impressed and like the LP very
much. Big thank you to Rex for sending me this album for the Blog.Flac
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