AustLit

Writer, lyricist, director, teacher.

A graduate of St Aloysius' College, Sydney, Melvyn Morrow was actively involved in theatre while studying at English and drama at university during the 1960s. In addition to appearing in a number of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas he contributed scripts to the Mavis Bramston television show, the Downstairs Revue and several Phillip Street Revue productions - notably At it Again (1962) and Do You Mind! (1963). In the early 1970s he moved to the United Kingdom to take up a position as Director of Drama at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire. While there he directed and wrote the libretto for the musical Frank Ass, based on the life of Francis of Assisi. The musical was also taken to the Edinburgh Festival in 1974. The year before he left England Morrow wrote and directed A Song To Sing, O, the story of Gilbert and Sullivan and George Grossmith. Starring D'Oyly Carte doyen, John Reed, it played in England. The Australian production starred Anthony Warlow. After returning to Australia he taught at St Ignatius' College, Riverview. Two of his students there were playwright Nick Enright and author Gerard Windsor.

Morrow's theatre works since the mid-1980s include : Peter Dawson - Off the Record (1988, with David Mitchell), Song to Sing O (1991); Vroom, Vroom (1991, with Paul Coombes and Jim McCallum); Postcards from Provence (1993, with John Mallord); I'm Not Henry Lawson's Mother (1994, with James Long); Jack O'Hagan's Here Comes Showtime! (1997, with David Mitchell - later staged as Jack O'Hagan's Humdingers); When it Happens (1998, with James Long); Shout! The Legend of the Wild One (2001, with John Michael-Howson and David Mitchell); Shakespearian Idol (2005, with Joe Kelly), and Dusty - The Original Pop Diva (2006, with John Michael-Howson and David Mitchell). Another of Morrow's productions, Tae Kwon Shakespeare, was the hit of the 1999, 2000 and 2001 Shakespeare on the Mount Festival at Thredbo and the centrepiece of the 2000 Shakespeare on the River Festival at Stratford on Avon (Victoria). Sydney seasons were later staged at Cafe Basilica, Fox Studios, Café Nine and La Bar.

As yet undated music theatre works also include: Morality! (later produced as Between Earth and Sky); Dare! - The Musical, (a musical celebrating 125 years of St Ignatius'" College); Dickens' Down Under; Cuckoo (a musical of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost); Jack Point (a musical sequel to Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard); Disco; Letters From My Windmill; and The Other Side of the Water (Lane Cove's Bicentennial Pageant).

Since the early 1980s Morrow has also contributed scripts to television series like Sons and Daughters and additional material to four Gilbert and Sullivan telemovies in the 1990s -The Gondoliers (1990), The Pirates of Penzance (1994), The Mikado (1996) and H.M.S. Pinafore (1997) - as well as shows such as The Mike Walsh Show and Star Search. He additionally scripted the ABC simulcasts of the Sutherland-Horne-Bonynge Gala, A Masked Ball, and the ABC-Australian Opera's Tribute to Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge.

As a lyricist he collaborated with David Mitchell and composer, Ray Cook to write the ballad 'Lest I Forget' sung by Debbie Byrne in the film, Rebel. The trio later wrote 'There's Gonna Be a Day,' the official song of the AIDS Trust of Australia. With composer James Long he also wrote 'Sydney Symphony,' which won the 1992 Song For Sydney Competition.

In 2008 Morrow and Justin Fleming had their play Her Holiness (about Mary McKillop) premiere at The Seymour Centre (Sydney), and in 2009 Morrow directed Mozart and Me, a new solo show written for Damian Whiteley, which tells the life story of Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's principal librettist (Sydney's Independent Theatre). His cabaret show Broadway Bard, written and directed by Morrow, was performed in [2011].