Scooby-Doo Live! Musical Mysteries

After a highly successful debut season in 2011, Scooby-Doo Live! Musical Mysteries returns in time for the school holidays. Writer and director Theresa Borg gives us ten compelling reasons to board the Mystery Machine.

1. It’s an easy introduction to the arts
“It’s a whole experience of the theatre as kids come and meet their local venue. They see technicians and wardrobe people on stage. They also get a look at the back stage area. It’s a fabulous introduction to all of the workings of the theatre as well as chance to meet Scooby and the gang.”

2. It may open up a career opportunity
“All kids will enjoy it but in that audience there’ll be one kid who says, ‘I want to do that when I grow up.’ You never know where those kids are going to be from. They could be in Alice Springs or Albany. They could be anywhere. That’s why we do what we do.”

3. Scooby-Doo won’t give you or your kids any nightmares
“Scooby-Doo is such a goofball and yet he actually knows what’s going and often saves the day. Scooby is beloved and we just tried to do him justice.”

4. No sleazy double entendres that you’ll have trouble explaining at the dinner table
“There’s no entendre at all because I don’t think that’s what parents come expecting. There are a lot of references to the formula that we know from the television and parents tend to love that real tickle of familiarity where somebody says something like, ‘If it wasn’t for those meddling kids.’” 

5. There’s no inappropriate role modelling for impressionable minds
“One of the great things about the Scooby Gang is that they themselves are such nice kids. You wouldn’t mind having those kids as your teenagers.” 

6. No dodgy clown costumes or miming to distorted backing tracks
“Life Like Touring do a lot of branded character activity and we are so lucky to have access to fabulous music theatre performers. Parents love the opportunity to take their kids to something that has high quality singing and dancing with really decent production values.” 

7. No dub-step or brain piercing techno in the score
“If you like live music, we have written the songs in ’60s retro pop style. So it’s very good fun to listen to as there’s lots of harmony.”

8. There’s a mystery to solve
“The Mystery Machine comes to Australia on the invitation of a theatre ghost. The gang try to double bluff the ghost by touring in the alibi of a band and the mystery unfolds from there. They’re trying to work out why the ghost is haunting the theatre and as always to unmask him.”

9. The writer is a long-time Scooby-Doo fan and has three Scooby fans of her own
“When Scooby-Doo came on television my kids were absolutely obsessed and I was delighted because it was something [from my childhood] that I could wake up to on a Saturday morning and share with them.”

10. It’s a whole lot of fun
“I think that animation really lends itself to camp in its best form. The characters are loveable and recognisable and we know what to expect from them. Because the style is so exaggerated it lends itself to the heightened realty of musical theatre.”