Abstract
This exegesis is an examination of the New Zealand musical and serves to contextualise it in comparison to its progenitor the American musical, as well as in comparison to other New Zealand music and media. As a starting point, this study examines the arguments set out in “Sing Out, Dave! The Search For The New Zealand Musical”, a 2016 article by notable New Zealand musical theatre composer Luke Di Somma, and uses four significant New Zealand musicals as case studies for comparisons: Footrot Flats (1983), Rush! (1998), Once Were Warriors (2004), and That Bloody Woman (2017). In addition to the examination of the case studies, interviews were conducted with authors of the case studies; Philip Norman (Footrot Flats, music), David John (Rush!, libretto), Richard Marrett (Once Were Warriors, music), and Luke Di Somma (That Bloody Woman, music and co-writer for lyrics). This exegesis argues that what the New Zealand musical borrows from the American musical is structural, and the content with which it fills this structure reflects its own sense of New Zealand identity, and explores the relationship between this identity (or identities) and other New Zealand music and media. In particular, the content of the New Zealand musical is notable for its use of eclecticism, a-virtuosity, and utopian disillusionment. This knowledge is then reflected in the creative component of this DMA, the composition of the score of Daughters of Heaven, an adaptation of the play of the same name by Michelanne Forster which premiered in 1991 at the Court Theatre in Christchurch. This musical adaptation has been written in collaboration with Forster and was presented in workshop and recorded at the University of Otago in 2022.