30 Days of NYMF 2008: The Hatpin by James Miller

By James Millar (Book and Lyrics) It's five days until I fly to New York for the first time in my life. As a keen lover of theatre- this is how it felt as a kid to see pictures of Disneyland (which, incidentally, I have never been to either!) My bag is packed, my passport is ready and a new draft of the show I wrote with Peter Rutherford- The Hatpin- is wedged firmly under my shaking arm. It's been a fascinating journey. This piece was the first that Peter Rutherford and I ever wrote- so the opportunity to see it have a life with an American cast in a New York theatre is exhilarating.

Let me tell you a little bit about it. My journey with The Hatpin began when I was thirteen and my mother bought me a copy of 'The Australian Murder Almanac'. Seriously. She found it in a bargain-bin at the local shops and brought it home for me! She really is a nice lady! I swear! I treasured this book and was fascinated by the collection of true stories in it. Stories so spooky I could not believe I hadn't heard them before. Stories that happened in the country I lived in and that made the old houses and buildings seem like time machines – staring silently onto the streets and colouring, in new ways, the faces of the suburbs. Stories that read, in a strange way, like dark fairy tales. Just more literal.

Whenever I picked up that book, the tale I read and re-read was that of Amber Murray. For me, there was so much more to it than just the 'spook-factor' of True Crime; the image of a frightened and lonely young mother going through something so terrifying (and terrifyingly exposed) was what captivated, moved and inspired me. Amber Murray had a haunting and important story to tell about painful and private choices being publicly judged, about a pretense of care being twisted into gross manipulation, about protection through sacrifice, about blind trust and broken promises… and about the humanity of always looking, with compassion, past your own front doorstep. It was also a great yarn that seemed to work a treat when I told it at parties. So when Peter Rutherford called me one afternoon in 2003 and asked if I had any ideas for a musical I thought, "What’s light, funny and immediately screams SHOWTUNES?" Hehe. Well…not quite.

After hearing the beautiful, suspense-filled and deeply character-driven way Pete composes…the story, the character and the music all seemed to drive us towards telling this particular story this particular way…so we did. And now, in five days, we bring that curious little beast to New York. Gulp. On opening night, I'll be the one in a dark corner of the foyer of the American Theatre of Actors trembling and downing white wine while fantasizing about spinning in a teacup at Disneyland. But I can't wait.