Australian Premiere Of TOP GUN! THE MUSICAL Comes to Melbourne Fringe

Salty Theatre presents the Australian Premiere of Top Gun! The Musical for TWO NIGHTS ONLY at Chapel Off Chapel! Originally produced during the Toronto Fringe, TG!TM was nominated for multiple Dora Awards, including Outstanding New Musical. In 2004, Top Gun! The Musical was selected to be part of the inaugural New York Musical Theatre Festival, alongside featured new musicals by Stephen Schwartz, Avenue Q's Marx and Lopez and Chicago's Kander and Ebb. Now, Salty Theatre is bringing together a stellar group of International Artists to introduce Top Gun! The Musical to Melbourne.

If you see only one musical comedy about mounting a mega-musical based on the movie Top Gun, make it Top Gun! The Musical. For anyone who's ever cringed through Cats, felt the need for speed, or wondered "who thought that would be a good idea?", comes this new satirical musical. Writer Billy Palmer is about to crash and burn. His musical adaptation of Top Gun is going off the rails and he really needs a hit ... especially after the debacle of Apocalypse Wow! Instead, he's saddled with a quarrelling cast, a shady ex-military producer, and a bit of bad luck. Now if only everyone would stop singing!

Salty Theatre is co-founded by Melbourne theatre, dance and cabaret veteran Sarah Louise Younger and Canadian theatre and screen vet Ashley Taylor. Their first production, People Suck: A Musical Airing of Grievances, had a hugely successful run and Australian Premiere at The Butterfly Club in March 2019. (You Should See It, ArtsHub) Younger and Taylor explain with a grin, "We want to bring together global artists and introduce new works that have never before been seen in Australia. And we want to make people laugh. A lot. And maybe squirm a little bit, too."

Taylor has over 20 years of theatrical experience as a performer in Canada at the reputable Stratford Festival (Alice in Alice Through the Looking Glass) and Shaw Festival (Pal Joey, Pygmalion) as well as for Mirvish Productions and Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Really Useful Group (The Sound of Music) plus other theatre and film projects across the US and Canada (Belle, Beauty and the Beast; Cosette, Les Miserables; Little Bear; Goosebumps). Younger is an alumni of the Arts Academy and has performed professionally across Australia and New Zealand in WildWorld - The Cat Stevens Story as well as productions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show; City of Angels and Force Majeure's Nothing to Lose (Sydney Festival and Carraigeworks) to name a few.

Directed by Younger with a cast of 7 that includes Taylor as well as Joti Gore (Original Cast of Memphis), Eilannin Harris-Black (Nine, Stage Art), Belinda Jenkin (50 Shades! The Musical, Alex Theatre), Robbie Smith (Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Production Company), Guilly Urra (Evil Dead: The Musical, Canada) and Ashley Weidner (Strictly Ballroom, National Theatre), with musical direction by David Youings (Altar Boyz, PEPP, Muriel's Wedding, Music Assistant).