Canberra playwright Jim McGrath says his musical Heart of a Dog ''is a bit Frankenstein, a bit My Fair Lady and a bit Carry On Up the Kremlin.
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He and composer Marc Robertson have received a $50,000 Creative Australia grant from the Australia Council to premiere the show, based on a novella by Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov, in Canberra in May next year.
''It covers the salaries - it's about half of the budget needed to stage it, but it ensures everyone working will get paid,'' McGrath said.
''The rest of the money will have to be raised through commercial sponsorship, in-kind support and crowd funding.''
Heart of a Dog has been developed in the Street Theatre's Hive program for new works. Impro ACT artistic director Nick Byrne will direct the production.
''His ex was Russian and he's got the right cultural feeling and knows the material and the sense of humour,'' McGrath said.
McGrath has been working on Heart of a Dog for four years. The story tells of the downfall of a doctor living a life of privilege in revolutionary Moscow.
''Dr Preobrazhensky is world-renowned for his innovative skills in reproductive surgery and his clients are the Communist Party elite,'' McGrath said. ''But when he successfully transplants the brains and testicles of a drunkard onto a scampish stray dog, it all goes downhill from there.''
The dog, Sharik, quickly morphs into human form with the personality of an obnoxious teenager and healthy appetites for food and sex.
''He throws out the doctor's equilibrium and wipes out his position of privilege.''
McGrath has introduced a new element into the story. The doctor's lab assistant was male in the novella but McGrath has turned her into a female character, Zina. Both are caught up in their work but as the doctor's fortunes change they discover there is more to life.
''That's what the play is about - life can't be lived by the rules,'' McGrath said. They don't see what they are missing out on until their world is turned upside down by Sharik - and they discover an attraction to each other.
Robertson's score was inspired by industrial bands such as Laibach and These New Puritans, as well as Russian classical composers Shostakovich and Rachmaninov. McGrath said it is more in the rock-musical vein than operatic style, and he hoped it would attract an audience that might not normally be interested in musical theatre.
His own inspiration was Keating! the Musical.
''I thought, 'This is awesome: I could do something like this.'''
He has long been a fan of musical shows and acknowledges the challenges facing anyone writing a new musical in Australia: they are expensive to put on, so entrepreneurs tend to be risk-averse.
With its small cast and darkly funny story, he hoped Heart of a Dog would defy the odds.
