Tim Finn On The "Woman-Power Moment" In His Musical 'Ladies In Black'

"I fell in love with the characters, I think," Tim Finn ponders when asked what initially attracted him to take on the Ladies In Black project. "I also fell in love with Madeleine St John's prose, because it's not a '50s kind of piss-take or satire... there's humour, a lot of humour. It's very tender as well, which I loved." Finn composed and wrote the music for this musical, which is based on St John's 1993 novel The Women In Black. Set in the late 1950s, Ladies In Black follows central character Lisa, a school-leaver contemplating her own aspirations within society's expectations. When Lisa accepts a summer temp position at Goode's Department store in Sydney, her colleagues — particularly Lisa's mentor, a Hungarian fashionista called Magda — help shape her. On this pivotal relationship, Finn reveals, "Magda encourages her to be who she really wants to be."

"The door's usually open so the family  — our two kids and my wife, I mean  — were all sort of aware that there was this world growing in the house."

He composed the music for Dein Perry's Steel City (Sydney Dance Company), but Ladies In Black, which was awarded Best New Australian Work at the 2016 Helpmann Awards, is Finn's debut musical. When asked how writing songs specifically for a show differs from conventional songwriting, Finn points out, "Well you're writing for character and you're writing for story... it is a different kind of craft to write a song where you've gotta sort of pull the story along or you've gotta tell us what this character is thinking — or feeling — at any given moment. So for months and months I'd be sitting in my room, my little studio at home, and I'd be inhabiting the world of the book and singing as the characters. So it was a huge amount of fun and all these different voices were issuing forth and, you know, the door's usually open so the family  — our two kids and my wife, I mean  — were all sort of aware that there was this world growing in the house [laughs]. And sometimes it must've sounded quite bizarre." 

The world of theatre has always appealed to Finn, who recalls, "As a kid I used to write plays and make people be in them." So did he cast himself in them as well? "Often not," he laughs, before recalling a show he was putting on for school when he was "about 12 years old". After Finn's lead actor got the mumps, he had to "step in and give a slightly hammy performance". "And that wasn't the idea at all, because I'm no actor!" he chuckles.

When internationally renowned choreographer Andrew Hallsworth starting working with the Ladies In Black cast, Finn observes "everything just connected up". And Finn's particularly impressed with Hallsworth's chorey during this musical's title song. "All the women in the store sort of walk towards you — on stage, in their black dresses — and the dance moves that he created are so subtle and beautiful, and it's just, like, a powerful moment, you know? I remember our 18-year-old son came to the Melbourne premiere and he just couldn't believe that moment — it blew him away, which was really lovely because it's not as if he's well into musicals or anything... But it knocked him for dead; the kind of woman-power moment that wasn't overstated."