This one has got to take the cake. How much more adored, idolized and imitated and emulated could cricketers be? The Australian cricketers, both, present and former, have engaged the Indians with their autobiographies even as Australia was relinquishing the Border Gavaskar trophy. But a new trend is perhaps on the way.
How big Shane Warne is in Australia will perhaps be realized in an ego trip of sorts. A musical, yes you read right, a musical, is being staged on Shane Warne’s rather colourful life thus far and while Warne himself may be less bemused after something like thirteen unofficial biographies, the show producers and the lead star are hoping that the Australian cricketing legend will still come to see the show. Warne was more critical of himself, stating that his image being tarnished or otherwise in the media was being exploited but also, that was primarily his fault for which he is now the subject matter of ridicule. His life though has not been as less encompassing as he has now switched over from a cricket player to a poker player.
Titled, “Shane Warne The Musical”, the theatre show now running at the Athenaeum in Melbourne, stars Eddie Perfect and encapsulated the Australian leg spinner’s beginnings to his retirement. Along the way are captured, his mullet style hair as a young kid, his encounter with his now ex-wife Simone, the ball to Mike Gatting that became a part of cricketing history and his many escapades brought on by scandals that involves strange ladies and even stranger ways of seducing them. It perhaps then explains the meaning of the song, now becoming legendary because of its lyrics, “When the credit’s roll, what matters is how I bowled.”
While Perfect himself is said to have found Warne’s personalities growing on him as he did his research, his advice to people was to remain non judgemental in order to truly enjoy Warne and subsequently the show. According to him, “Such ridiculous things have happened to Shane Warne, incredibly good things and incredibly disastrous things _ you couldn’t make this stuff up.” One can only hope Warne thinks of the show in similar terms.
The producer of the show, Kevin Whyte, certainly is optimistic that the show will run well in Sydney and Perth and in a couple of years’ time, hopefully attract crowds at London’s West End.
The legend of Warne continues…
