SYNOPSIS
“Starstruck” is the first Aussie modern musical comedy, set in Sydney.
Jackie Mullens, is a reluctant barmaid in her family’s working class pub, which is going downhill fast.
Determined to be a singing star, Jackie is assisted in her attempts by her crazy, oddball cousin, 14 year-old Angus. Angus, disinterested in the mundane task of learning at school, lets rip with all his crazy showbiz ideas, in his attempts to make Jackie famous.
Angus manipulates the media, pulling off a brazen publicity stunt which turns Jackie into the celebrity of the day.
Throughout this the pub continues to deteriorate, and as Jackie continues to run into obstacles in her career, she begins to realise that without a place to live she will have to get a job and forget her career, to say nothing of her broken family.
Angus pulls off another amazing stunt at the Opera House on New Year’s Eve, and Jackie saves the pub and realises her dream on one magical evening.
“Starstuck – what a marvellously apt title for this exuberant, fast, fresh, funny and unselfconscious film using a formidable aggregation of young talent. You would have to go back to the beginning to allot the credits for Starstruck: it was a gleam in Stephen Maclean’s eye for several years, until everything came together – idea, producers David Elfick and Richard Brennan, the director Gillian Armstrong, Mark Moffatt’s musical direction, half a dozen good songs, beautiful and lively cinematography under the direction of Russell Boyd, costume and production design by Luciana Arrighi.”
Theatre Australia
