Katie Cole jumps onstage with a new spectacular marsupial musical!

Following on from a highly successful run of The Ukulele Man, shortlisted for ‘Best in Cabaret & Musical Theatre’ at Sydney Fringe in 2024, Australian performer Katie Cole is returning to Fringe World in 2025. Featuring original songs and a comedic script written by Cole herself, Kangaroo: The Musical! hops onto the Evergreens stage at The Leederville Precinct from Wednesday, January 22, to Saturday, January 25—with tickets on sale now. BEC WELDON spoke to performer Katie Cole to find out more.

Hi Katie, thanks so much for talking to us! You’re returning to the Fringe stage with a brand new comedy, Kangaroo: The Musical! Can you tell us about the musical?

This show tells the story of Odette—a kangaroo who breaks away from the mob when she gets a job with Tourism Australia and becomes an award-winning celebrity overnight! All is going well… until she pops back home to the bush for a visit, only to find there’s no one there because her whole mob’s been shot dead in the annual Canberra kangaroo cull! What happens next? Come and find out!

What inspired you to tell this story?

I’m inspired, in the first place, by the scope it provides for a laugh, and a cry, and a song and dance! Kangaroos are star performers—as Raygun understood!

 In the second place, I think the subject matter is actually chunky. For me, the gap between our love and our hatred of kangaroos is full of dramatic irony, and the way we treat our roos now pretty much spells the way we’ve treated everything indigenous in the past. It’s care factor nullius… which was the original title for this show, at the Sydney fringe.

In the third place, this show comes straight from the heart. I live in Canberra and stand by helplessly as thousands of roos are shot and buried in a ditch every winter—a process of elimination that has already taken place a long time ago in every other major city of Australia.

I, personally, could not cull a kangaroo; I love them—and they were here first.

The show is toting an exciting line-up of original songs and writing. Tell us about the writing process!

I have been singing my ‘Who could cull a kangaroo’ song for years now and wasn’t going to include it in the show at all—too explicit—but it’s now back in! I’ve found a way. I think, if a show is about something, at the end of the day it’s best to pack the punch rather than leave people underwhelmed. ‘I could be, you could be, together we could be the rookeleles’ is one of the theme songs of the show; and symbolises the urge to be ‘part of the mob’—something Odette rebels against at the start of the show. The other main theme song is called ‘Eastern Grey Kangaroo—That’s What I Am, That’s What I Do.’

Other songs I’ve written just for the show, including a number called ‘Care Factor Nullius,’ sung by BigRedFurRod—a big red kangaroo who is the ‘love interest’ in the show.

The narrative has been slowly unfolding in my mind for years! My first version started and ended in the zoo, but that’s out now. Zoos are pretty boring places. So I had to do better than that ‘story-wise,’ I told myself after the Sydney fringe run of the show. We’ll see!

You’re a seasoned performer and fringe veteran. Tell us about yourself as a performer!

I have a bachelor’s degree in music performance, majoring in viola, from Sydney Uni, and a postgrad degree in singing from ANU. I currently teach music at Music For Canberra. I direct the Abba Choir of Canberra, which involves a lot of performing and arranging all the songs! And in 2019 my original musical farce, called The Auction, was performed in my local park amphitheatre with young actors drawn from the local community.

Busking is what I do when there’s nothing else happening. I love busking.

You’re returning to Fringe after the success of The Ukulele Man, which you performed in with Marcel Cole. How do you feel going from a two-hander to a one-woman show?

Great question. I don’t think this is actually a one-person show. I need Marcel big-time on tech, etc. But it’s quite a different thing to be the sole storyteller. And that, plus the business of taking full responsibility for the quality of your show, is a challenge I’m up for!

There’s a lot of controversy about kangaroo-related musicals at the moment. Do you have a legal team on standby in case you accidentally strike the forbidden pose?

Ha! I think my show is controversial in a different way from the Raygun parody. But only controversial inside Canberra, and so far, I haven’t needed a legal team! My sister is the number one animal lawyer in Australia, so hopefully I’ll be fine!

What are you excited to bring to the Perth Fringe Festival this year? And what are you excited to get out of it?

I’m excited to bring a Canberra story to Perth, since we don’t have our own Fringe Fest, and I’m excited to embrace the challenge of bringing people together with music and—hopefully—a relatable, truly Aussie story.

What are you hoping audiences take away from the show?

The main theme song! My dream is to write a number one hit song.

Kangaroo: The Musical! hits the Evergreens stage at The Leederville Precinct from Wednesday, January 22, to Saturday, January 25, 2025. Tickets are on sale now at fringeworld.com.au