Dean Bryant & Mathew Frank
Dean Bryant and Mathew Frank met at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where they workshopped their first musical, Prodigal, which was produced at Chapel off Chapel in 2000, winning the Green Room Award for Best Original Score. In 2002 the show premiered off-Broadway at the York Theatre Company and was recorded by JAY (available on iTunes).
Virgins: A Musical Threesome premiered at the Tower Theatre, Malthouse in 2006 and toured to the New York Music Theatre Festival later that year.
Once We Lived Here premiered at fortyfivedownstairs in 2009, winning the Green Room Award for Best New Musical, has played in NYC and at the prestigious Kings Head Theatre in London.
The Silver Donkey, based on Sonya Hartnett’s award-winning novel, received Anzac Centenary funding for a future production.
Their adaptation of Miles Franklin’s novel My Brilliant Career (with co-writer Sheridan Harbridge) was a critical and commercial smash when it debuted at Melbourne Theatre Company in 2024, winning 5 Green Room Awards, including Outstanding Production and Writing. The piece was commissioned as part of the Jeanne Pratt Artist in Residence program at Monash University, where it received a development production and was further developed by Stonnington Council.
An evening of their work, All Roads Lead to Home, was part of the 2004 Melbourne Festival and their songs were featured in the Amy Winehouse-inspired episode of Channel Ten’s Mr & Mrs Murder.
Dean and Mathew created smash-hit Britney Spears: The Cabaret for Christie Whelan-Browne which has played across a decade to rave reviews around the country and at The Other Palace, London. They created Show People for Whelan-Browne, which debuted at Adelaide Cabaret Festival and was an ABC Festival Highlight for Sydney Festival.
Dean’s other cabaret work includes Liza (on an E) and I’m Every Woman for Trevor Ashley, which played seasons from the Sydney Opera House to the West End, Newley Discovered for Hugh Sheridan (Opera House and Festival Theatre), Experiment: Cole Porter for Alex Rathgeber, and Josie in the Bathhouse for Josie Lane (Spiegeltent) while Mathew created Josie’s new cabaret, Asian Provocateur with Josie for the Hayes (Sydney Theatre Award – Best Cabaret).
With performer Michael Griffiths, Dean created In Vogue: Songs by Madonna, which has played Australia, NZ, NYC, Edinburgh and London and Sweet Dreams: Songs by Annie Lennox, which received Best Cabaret at Adelaide Fringe Festival and played Edinburgh Festival. Both pieces continue to tour the world, along with the last piece of the diva trilogy, Lucky: Songs by Kylie which premiered at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. This year they created It’s A Sin: Songs of Love and Shame for Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
Dean created Gaybies for the Midsumma 25th Anniversary, which played a triumphant season at the Sumner Theatre featuring Magda Szubanski, Todd McKenney and Virginia Gay and made it’s Sydney premiere at the Eternity Theatre (Darlinghurst Theatre Company) in 2015. It is published through Playlab. He created Well, That Happened for MTC’s return to theatre post-pandemic, a verbatim piece that explored how actors survived the 2020 crisis.
As musical director Mathew’s credits include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Her Majesty’s Theatre), The Drowsy Chaperone and Next to Normal (Melbourne Theatre Company) and The Pirates of Penzance, La Cage Aux Folles and Jerry’s Girls (The Production Company). He composed the score and did sound design for the MTC’s Private Lives, Skylight, Born Yesterday, An Ideal Husband and The Lady in the Van. He has a passion for teaching music theatre and is Head of Music at Showfit.
The pair most recently worked together on Hubris & Humiliation for STC and the Melbourne season of Fun Home (MTC/STC) for which Dean won the Green Room and Sydney Theatre Awards.
Dean recently won Best Director and Production for Victorian Opera’s Candide, which transferred to Sydney Opera House with Opera Australia. Other recent credits include Dear Evan Hansen (STC/Michael Cassel Group), Bloom (MTC/STC), La Boheme (Opera Australia), A Little Night Music (Hayes Theatre, Sydney Theatre Award). He was Associate Director at Melbourne Theatre Company 2016-19 and has received a Helpmann, 3 Sydney Theatre and 5 Green Room Awards. A full biography is available here.
