Meet Musical Producer John Frost
24 Mar 2018
Musical producer John Frost has been the force behind some of the most beloved musical productions of the past 30 years. His productions include, among others, revivals of The Sound of Music Annie The Wizard of Oz, Dirty Dancing and most recently, Evita starring Tina Arena.
“I’m here to entertain” John Frost says, “I’m not here to educate”.
It’s his love for pure entertainment has seen him morph from a 16-year-old dresser in Adelaide into a two-time Tony Award winning producer and the recipient of an AM in the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
And whether he wants to admit it or not, his productions have offered a public service. He has found that his productions, which are often revivals of classic musicals, have the unique capacity to unite broad, diverse groups of people.
“Say you see Annie,” he says, “and then eventually you get married, have children and you take them to see it, and you pass that experience onto your kids or your grandkids.
“We’ll do Annie again, we’ll do Grease again, we’ll do Dirty Dancing again, all those favourites, when those times have lapsed and a new generation of people have come into the marketplace.”
His recent production of My Fair Lady proved to be the perfect encapsulation of the rewards of producing classic musicals. It was, he says, “an extraordinary, extraordinary experience. I put a lot of personal effort into that production and I am so proud of it. Even without the Julie factor ... it was a recreation of the original 1950’s production, and to track down those original set designs, those original costumes from archives all around the world, I loved doing it.”
The ‘Julie factor’ is, of course, Julie Andrews who returned to direct the production after starring in the original in 1956. Even after years of working with some of the most prominent actors and actresses in the world, the experience of working with her was particularly special for Frost.
“Julie is extraordinary. She is everything you hoped Julie Andrews would be. She’s even more. She’s very special,” he says.
But while he has an obvious love for classic musicals, he has also championed contemporary, often controversial material. Recently, he brought the popular and controversial musical Book of Mormon to Australia, and speaks highly of the recent musical phenomenon Hamilton.
“You just have to be open minded, because who knows what’s coming over the hill. Someone’s working on something right now that’s probably going to be bigger than Hamilton or the Book of Mormon. And different. Totally different again.”
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