David Mitchell, John-Michael Howson & Melvyn Morrow
SHOUT! THE LEGEND OF THE WILD ONE
John Michael Howson, OAM Writer
John-Michael Howson worked as a journalist, starting in Mildura, Victoria, before moving to print and radio in Melbourne where he got involved writing comedy sketches and songs for revue clubs, theatres and television. After several years working in the UK and Europe he returned to Australia and created, wrote and performed in two of Australia’s most beloved children’s shows the multi-award winning The Magic Circle Club and Adventure Island. He also adapted the international stage hits Irene, No, No, Nanette and Norman Is That You? for Australian productions. He also wrote the hit 1970’s musical Razza Ma Tazz at a time when it was difficult to get locally written musicals produced. He has also written several successful children’s theatre productions including adapting Disney’s Pinnochio. For many years he wrote for, and appeared on, a score of variety shows which led to becoming a popular team member of one of Australia’s legendary shows The Mike Walsh Show where he first met and worked with producer David Mitchell (a co-writer of SHOUT! and Dusty).
John-Michael travelled the world covering international stories from The Academy Awards. Emmys, Tonys, world premieres and royal weddings. In 1989 he moved to Los Angeles to report on the entertainment industry for Australian print, radio and TV including Midday with Ray Martin and GMA with Bert Newton. He also appeared on a number of US television and radio shows. He was a regular on The Joan Rivers Show and The Gordon Elliott Show, appeared on LA based talks shows and also had small parts in comedy shows like The Tracey Ullmann Show. He also did news reports for SKY UK and other international news programs. He also wrote the best selling mystery novellas Once Upon a Nightmare and Deadly Dreams.
After seventeen years he returned to live in Melbourne from which he is heard on radio shows around the country and stars in the top rating political commentary show Sunday Morning on 3AW. John-Michael has co-written SHOUT! and Dusty – The musical (with David Mitchell and Mel Morrow), Pyjamas in Paradise (with Peter Pinne), Dream Lover -The Bobby Darin Story (with Frank Howson) which opens in 2013 and More Sex Please, We’re Seniors. John-Michael was awarded an OAM in 2009 for services to writing and children’s television. He is proudly a patron of a number of organisations involved in the arts and charity.
David Mitchell Writer
David Mitchell has been working in the arts and entertainment industry as a writer, director and producer for over twenty years. Over the years he has written material for Barbara Streisand, Bob Hope, Michael Parkinson, Barry Humphries, Clive James, Gerry Connolly, Geraldine Turner, Maggie Kirkpatrick, Danny La Rue and Jane Rutter.
David is one of the writers of the stage musical Shout! The Legend of the Wild One, which broke box-office records around Australia. He also wrote the musical Better Known as Bee, about Sydney eccentric Bee Miles starring Jan Adele followed by Toni Lamond and he wrote and directed Tropical Nights starring Chelsea Brown at Conrad Jupiters, where his spectacular Jewel of the Orient Express ran for 14 months.
David has co-written the Helpmann Awards since their inception and for eleven years was Executive Producer of the top-rating series, "This is Your Life”.
The second collaboration with Howson and Morrow resulted in the hugely successful Dusty: The Original Pop Diva, which took $25 million at the box office during its initial run and has been performed by theatre groups all over Australian and New Zealand. A London production is in the offing.
Most recently David co-wrote Doris Day: So Much More Than the Girl Next Door which toured Australia in 2011/12 starring country music queen, Melinda Schneider.
Melvyn Morrow Writer
Melvyn Morrow’s first scripts were performed by Gordon Chater and Jill Perryman at the Phillip Theatre, the Downstairs Revue and in The Mavis Bramston Show. His musicals (book & lyrics) include: Morality! (Edinburgh Festival, London Fringe, off-off-Broadway and Sydney (retitled Between Earth and Sky); Postcards From Provence, (starring Opera Australia baritone, John Pringle - Zenith Theatre and ABC Radio); Vroom Vroom (Theatre South); Mad Louisa Lawson (Stables); Offenbach In The Underworld and When It Happens (Café Basilica); and seven Christmas at The Opera House pantomimes including the nationally popular Santa Meets The Bushrangers.
Melvyn’s TV credits include Sons and Daughters, The Mike Walsh Show, Star Search and many ABC/Opera Australia simulcasts including the Tribute to Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge. His musical A Song To Sing, O, the story of Gilbert and Sullivan and George Grossmith, was produced by Dame Bridget D’Oyly Carte at London’s Savoy Theatre and directed by the author. Australian productions have starred Anthony Warlow, Dennis Olsen and Christopher Hamilton. Over the years, Melvyn has updated book and lyrics for Opera Australia’s The Gondoliers (four productions) and The Mikado, and for Simon Gallaher’s Gilbert and Sullivan trilogy, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore.
With David Mitchell, Melvyn wrote the musicals Peter Dawson - Off The Record (Adelaide Festival 1988) and Jack O’Hagan’s Here Comes Showtime (Marian St) and the lyrics for the song 'Lest I Forget' (Rebel) recorded by Debra Byrne and Judi Connelli. With Justin Fleming, Melvyn wrote Something Out Of Heaven, a play about Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint. His plays include Beating A Retreat (Stables 1995) and A Touch Of Paradise (Downstairs Belvoir St 2000). He devised and directed the cabarets Broadway Bard (Bell Shakespeare Company, Café Basilica, Teatro Vivaldi) Tae Kwon Shakespeare (festivals Australia wide) and High School Romeo which won the 2006 AWGIE for Music Theatre. In 1996, Melvyn was nominated for a Mo Award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Musical Theatre. He is the co-writer of the national hits, SHOUT! and Dusty – The Original Pop Diva.
Melvyn’s most recent works include the life story of the larger than life Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart’s principal librettist. Starring international Australian bass, Damian Whiteley, Mozart and ME has toured Australia and New Zealand. Melvyn’s scurrilous rewrite of The Mikado is called The BIG MAKado or Three Little Maids from Schoolies.
April 2012
John Michael Howson, OAM Writer
John-Michael Howson worked as a journalist, starting in Mildura, Victoria, before moving to print and radio in Melbourne where he got involved writing comedy sketches and songs for revue clubs, theatres and television. After several years working in the UK and Europe he returned to Australia and created, wrote and performed in two of Australia’s most beloved children’s shows the multi-award winning The Magic Circle Club and Adventure Island. He also adapted the international stage hits Irene, No, No, Nanette and Norman Is That You? for Australian productions. He also wrote the hit 1970’s musical Razza Ma Tazz at a time when it was difficult to get locally written musicals produced. He has also written several successful children’s theatre productions including adapting Disney’s Pinnochio. For many years he wrote for, and appeared on, a score of variety shows which led to becoming a popular team member of one of Australia’s legendary shows The Mike Walsh Show where he first met and worked with producer David Mitchell (a co-writer of SHOUT! and Dusty).
John-Michael travelled the world covering international stories from The Academy Awards. Emmys, Tonys, world premieres and royal weddings. In 1989 he moved to Los Angeles to report on the entertainment industry for Australian print, radio and TV including Midday with Ray Martin and GMA with Bert Newton. He also appeared on a number of US television and radio shows. He was a regular on The Joan Rivers Show and The Gordon Elliott Show, appeared on LA based talks shows and also had small parts in comedy shows like The Tracey Ullmann Show. He also did news reports for SKY UK and other international news programs. He also wrote the best selling mystery novellas Once Upon a Nightmare and Deadly Dreams.
After seventeen years he returned to live in Melbourne from which he is heard on radio shows around the country and stars in the top rating political commentary show Sunday Morning on 3AW. John-Michael has co-written SHOUT! and Dusty – The musical (with David Mitchell and Mel Morrow), Pyjamas in Paradise (with Peter Pinne), Dream Lover -The Bobby Darin Story (with Frank Howson) which opens in 2013 and More Sex Please, We’re Seniors. John-Michael was awarded an OAM in 2009 for services to writing and children’s television. He is proudly a patron of a number of organisations involved in the arts and charity.
David Mitchell Writer
David Mitchell has been working in the arts and entertainment industry as a writer, director and producer for over twenty years. Over the years he has written material for Barbara Streisand, Bob Hope, Michael Parkinson, Barry Humphries, Clive James, Gerry Connolly, Geraldine Turner, Maggie Kirkpatrick, Danny La Rue and Jane Rutter.
David is one of the writers of the stage musical Shout! The Legend of the Wild One, which broke box-office records around Australia. He also wrote the musical Better Known as Bee, about Sydney eccentric Bee Miles starring Jan Adele followed by Toni Lamond and he wrote and directed Tropical Nights starring Chelsea Brown at Conrad Jupiters, where his spectacular Jewel of the Orient Express ran for 14 months.
David has co-written the Helpmann Awards since their inception and for eleven years was Executive Producer of the top-rating series, "This is Your Life”.
The second collaboration with Howson and Morrow resulted in the hugely successful Dusty: The Original Pop Diva, which took $25 million at the box office during its initial run and has been performed by theatre groups all over Australian and New Zealand. A London production is in the offing.
Most recently David co-wrote Doris Day: So Much More Than the Girl Next Door which toured Australia in 2011/12 starring country music queen, Melinda Schneider.
Melvyn Morrow Writer
Melvyn Morrow’s first scripts were performed by Gordon Chater and Jill Perryman at the Phillip Theatre, the Downstairs Revue and in The Mavis Bramston Show. His musicals (book & lyrics) include: Morality! (Edinburgh Festival, London Fringe, off-off-Broadway and Sydney (retitled Between Earth and Sky); Postcards From Provence, (starring Opera Australia baritone, John Pringle - Zenith Theatre and ABC Radio); Vroom Vroom (Theatre South); Mad Louisa Lawson (Stables); Offenbach In The Underworld and When It Happens (Café Basilica); and seven Christmas at The Opera House pantomimes including the nationally popular Santa Meets The Bushrangers.
Melvyn’s TV credits include Sons and Daughters, The Mike Walsh Show, Star Search and many ABC/Opera Australia simulcasts including the Tribute to Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge. His musical A Song To Sing, O, the story of Gilbert and Sullivan and George Grossmith, was produced by Dame Bridget D’Oyly Carte at London’s Savoy Theatre and directed by the author. Australian productions have starred Anthony Warlow, Dennis Olsen and Christopher Hamilton. Over the years, Melvyn has updated book and lyrics for Opera Australia’s The Gondoliers (four productions) and The Mikado, and for Simon Gallaher’s Gilbert and Sullivan trilogy, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore.
With David Mitchell, Melvyn wrote the musicals Peter Dawson - Off The Record (Adelaide Festival 1988) and Jack O’Hagan’s Here Comes Showtime (Marian St) and the lyrics for the song 'Lest I Forget' (Rebel) recorded by Debra Byrne and Judi Connelli. With Justin Fleming, Melvyn wrote Something Out Of Heaven, a play about Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint. His plays include Beating A Retreat (Stables 1995) and A Touch Of Paradise (Downstairs Belvoir St 2000). He devised and directed the cabarets Broadway Bard (Bell Shakespeare Company, Café Basilica, Teatro Vivaldi) Tae Kwon Shakespeare (festivals Australia wide) and High School Romeo which won the 2006 AWGIE for Music Theatre. In 1996, Melvyn was nominated for a Mo Award for Outstanding Contribution to Australian Musical Theatre. He is the co-writer of the national hits, SHOUT! and Dusty – The Original Pop Diva.
Melvyn’s most recent works include the life story of the larger than life Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart’s principal librettist. Starring international Australian bass, Damian Whiteley, Mozart and ME has toured Australia and New Zealand. Melvyn’s scurrilous rewrite of The Mikado is called The BIG MAKado or Three Little Maids from Schoolies.
April 2012