INTERVIEW: New musical features harrowing story of ‘mothers of Australia’

Photo: Caitlin Cohn (Mary Reed) and Maddie Shea Baldwin (Alice Reed) star in LadyShip. Photo courtesy of Russ Rowland / Provided by Kampfire PR with permission.

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Linda Good and Laura Good, the creative forces behind the indie rock duo The Twigs, are set to premiere their new musical, LadyShip, which will play five performances at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City. The show tells the story of twin sisters Alice and Mary, who are convicted of petty crimes and forced to endure a hellish boat journey from London to Australia in 1789. They become two of the 25,000 “mothers of Australia.”

Linda and Laura, who wrote the music, lyrics and book, bring an alternative pop score to the musical. Their creative work, part of the New York Musical Festival’s Next Link Project, is directed by Samantha Saltzman.

Performances of LadyShip run July 10-14.

Hollywood Soapbox recently exchanged emails with Linda and Laura about the show. As The Twigs, they have released five albums and performed all over the world, and now they are tackling the world of musicals. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.

How did you come to know the history and stories that inspired LadyShip?

Laura used to live in Sydney, and many of her friends would mention family stories of a great-great grandmother who was transported for ‘stealing a loaf of bread.’

While most people have heard of British male convicts being sent to Australia, there is a lesser-known fact that the colony almost immediately failed due to many factors, one of which was the absence of enough women. Meanwhile, London’s streets were full of starving, poor young women, most of whom were committing petty crimes just to survive. Harshly sentencing these women to transportation provided the perfect excuse to send them to become ‘tamers and breeders’ for the male convicts running wild in the new colony.

Once we started finding out more about the convict women and thier incredible tales of survival, we couldn’t let their stories go. We were inspired by many historical sources, including real letters written from the women convicts themselves. Their personal stories are quite different from the sensationalized press of the time that said these women convicts were ‘stained’ and ‘whores’ and, therefore, disposable. We wanted to write the musical from the women’s point of view, so we could debunk those myths and start conversations about power dynamics between men and women.

Is the show based on any specific family, or is it just inspired by the history of the time period?

Many people can trace an ancestor who at some point in their family history, voluntarily or involuntarily, got on a boat to another place to start a new life. We’ve just begun to research our British and Irish ancestry, some whom we know made it to America, and others, to who knows where. One of our great-grandmothers got on a boat from Poland to America with five kids (including a baby carried on her back) to escape World War I. The amount of courage and fortitude it takes anyone to survive this kind of major challenge is very inspiring to us.

The musical has a contemporary alternative pop score. What was the songwriting and composing process like to achieve this sound and these lyrics?

We’ve been singing and writing songs since childhood and formed our band The Twigs over 20 years ago. Growing up, we loved listening to musicals including Pippin, Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar, and our older sisters’ record collection also played a big role, including Queen, Neil Young and Elvis Costello.

When writing together, usually one of us has an idea of a musical riff or lyrics, then runs it by the other one. We have a high bar for ideas, so if one actually gets past the other person, it’s usually good enough to spend time on developing it.

Is it interesting, fun, frustrating to work as twins on this creative project and in your band The Twigs? Is it always easy to mold together the personal and professional? (Full disclosure: I’m a twin.)

It’s all of the above. The positive part is that because we are twins, we have no filter with each other. And the down side is, we have no filter with each other! If we do creatively disagree on something, the nice thing is that at the end of the day, we are sisters above all else, and it’s usually quickly resolved. And it always makes the work better in the end.

What do you feel the story in LadyShip has to say to a 2019 audience?

To paraphrase Dorothy West, no matter who you are, every human being contributes to history. Our gender at birth and where we are born, our family, our choices, and how we respond to things beyond our control, all shape our own future and of those around us. So many women’s stories have been hidden or undervalued. It’s time to examine the past with a new lens.

What is your hope for the show beyond this limited engagement in New York City?

We’re going to make a cast recording and hope to see LadyShip have future long-term production runs, including off-Broadway, Broadway and ultimately, in Australia and all over the world.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

LadyShip, with music, lyrics and book by Laura Good and Linda Good, plays July 10-14 at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City. The production is part of the New York Musical Festival’s Next Link Project. Click here for more information and tickets.