Hi, I'm Josh 👋🏼

I am a musical theatre writer and cabaret artist who has is currently studying my Master of Fine Arts at the Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at Tisch NYU on a Fulbright Scholarship. I am fundamentally a maximalist – in every sense of that word and every sphere to which that word pertains: fashion, storytelling, music and the dramatic arts. I could not and can never be brief. Except for in that last sentence. And in that one too. 

My latest project in development is turning a footnote in history – Maria Anna (Nannerl) Mozart (sister of the great composer) – into a 2.5 hour Broadway-sized musical, because I believe that any story, however small or well-defined, is connected to things so much larger than itself; we are all pluralistic and contain multitudes and everything is about everything.

I studied the Masters degree in playwriting at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, and prior to that, the Bachelor of music composition the Elder Conservatorium, Adelaide. I have created four original cabaret shows presented in the Adelaide Fringe and beyond: Scarred For Life (2017), 30,000 Notes (2019), Right Here, Right Now (2020) and Awkward Activists (2021, co-created with Millicent Sarre). Awards for my work include the Adelaide Theatre Guide Curtain Call Award for Best Cabaret (2019), the Adelaide Festival Centre InSpace Development Award (2019) and the Helpmann Academy Stay at Home Film Competition People’s Choice Award (2020).

[Work in Progress]

Mozart's Sister

This project began as my graduate show for my Master of Theatre (Writing) degree at the VCA. It's a Broadway-sized musical. I suspect I will be working on it for the next decade. Here's the blurb:

What if I told you Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had a sister?

In real history, Maria Anna Mozart was the toast of Europe, lauded by Kings and Queens and even a young Marie-Antoinette, who gifted Maria her embroidered cast-off dress.

But then, Maria turned a marriageable age, and her musical career was over.

Maria retreated from the limelight, settling down in the sleepy lakeside town of St Gligen, Austria, where she married and raised children. She also composed, very well according to her brother, but none of her original compositions survive.  

In my musical, Maria is rescued by a drag queen, who takes her to the centre of the Universe: Vienna. There, she becomes famous in an underground gay bar, inventing pop music in the 18th Century, and developing her superhero-drag-persona: Lady Caca. Think a Rococo Lady Gaga.

I'll let you hear a little bit of one of my demo songs ‘Where There is Silence’ – this is what Maria plays to a salon audience at the age of 16 after learning about her future and starting to develop contemporary feminist leanings.

In Time

This was my big pandemic project. I gathered 23 artists from 8 cities across 4 different countries to sing an anthem for hope for a post-pandemic future. My naive optimism doesn't quite hit all the right notes for me anymore, but I remember that at the time I wasn't trying to paint a realistic depiction of the future; more an unattainable paradise, like ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story. It was a future I needed to believe in at the time, even if it never came to pass.

This was created for submission to the Helpmann Academy Stay at Home Short Film Competition. It won the people's choice award ($3,000).

You can buy an mp3 download of this song here. All proceeds from sales of this song have gone to and will go to the Dhadjowa Foundation, which supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families whose loved ones have died in custody.

In Time

Josh Belperio

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In Time

Josh Belperio

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The singers, organised according to their location, are:

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
New York City: Jade Delos Santos, Benny James, Vaibhavi Mohan
Chicago: Carrie Caffrey
Cincinatti: Matthew Nassida
Philadelphia: Tim Waurick

THE UNITED KINGDOM
London: Emily McGlynn

IRELAND
Dublin: Michaela Murphy

AUSTRALIA 
Birrarunga / Naarm / Melbourne (land of the Kulin Nations): Mama Alto, Mitchell Smith
Tandanya / Adelaide (Kaurna Yerta): Raymund MontePio de la Cruz, Jemma Allen, Lindsay Prodea, Bianca Levai, Jamie Burgess, Oliver John, Lena Eversheim, Blake Ascione, Ben Gillard, Amy Hein, Charmaine Jones, Kelsey McCormack, Josh Boyce

30,000 Notes [2019]

Poster

Here's the poster. It has me very looking very masc and calls me a 'man'. Lol.

A little about the show . . .

30,000 Notes was a cross-artform theatrical experiment with surround-sound choir and string quartet, a bunch of monologues, and everything I’d ever written (and saved) across my entire life to that point (23 years), spread out on the walls of a little-known art gallery in the Tandanya/Adelaide CBD.

The show was about memory, how to capture the past, and an ode to my late Nonna. 

In original music and words, I tried to capture everything she meant to me. 

I came up embarrassingly short. But in collaboration with the brilliant designer Mark Oakley, we ended up making something along the way that I still think was a little bit pretty.

30,000 Notes premiered at the 2019 Adelaide Fringe. At the Adelaide Fringe Awards, it won the Adelaide Festival Centre InSpace Development Award, the Holden Street Theatres Award, and was nominated for the John Chataway Innovation Award.

It also won the Adelaide Theatre Guide Award for Best Cabaret in Adelaide, 2019 season. The show was nominated for the Adelaide Critics Circle Innovation Award.

The studio album

You can purchase 30,000 Notes as an online download or hardcopy CD (which I will mail to you), or both.

30,000 Notes

Josh Belperio

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    Prologue 0:53
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    Magna Gloria 7:39
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    A Thousand Winds 6:36
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    Finale (Where Nonna and Nonno Are) 9:48
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    [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] 4:53
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Where Nonna and Nonno Are

To make this music video, which was the finale of the show, I did the following: 

- Composed & orchestrated it 
- Made the parts (with a lot of help from the fantastic Patrick Baker) 
- Conducted it (poorly – but I had an excellent mentor, being Carl Crossin OAM) 
- It was recorded by the late, great Neville Clark of Disk-Edits. He did a brilliant surround-sound recording as we sung it in a circle in the middle of a church (thank you, Calvary, North Adelaide).
- I raided the family archives of home movies taken by my late Nonna, mostly in the 90s and early 2000s. 
- I then taught myself how to use Premiere Pro and edited the footage together and kept going for two weeks until I gave myself my first migraine. 
- Mark Oakley picked up the pieces, projecting it beautifully as he did, and adding a few brilliant finishing touches (he's a genius).

I then saw this thing only become successful thanks to the brilliant artists around me. So I vowed never to do so many different jobs on the same creative project again.

I struggle to keep that vow, but I am trying!

The Promotional Reel

The Gallery

The sheet music

This purchase is designed for choir conductors. The scores are available in multiple versions: for SATB choir, with or without string quartet or piano accompaniment.

If navigating all of this online is too confusing, just get in touch with me below and I'll sort you out with the right score.

Scarred For Life (2017)

My Spiel

Scarred for Life was my debut cabaret show. 

I filled it with original songs about the time I fell off my bicycle, ruptured my spleen,
 and almost bled to death. A classic musical comedy. 

It premiered at the 2017 Adelaide Cabaret Fringe Festival, and it caused something unexpected: a tide of people were compelled to share with me their own stories of becoming ill. 
Many showed me their scar(s). We shared a connection that was quite special, as we reflected on our fragility and mortality – topics that we seem to be facing communally in the 2020s.

I performed the show around a bit, and it won a few awards. I then recorded an album, with all the patter that you need to be able to follow along with the story, even if you haven't seen the show.

Studio Album

Scarred For Life

Josh Belperio

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    Underneath My Shirt 1:58
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    I Stuffed Up 5:25
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    Rushing 6:49
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    I.C.U. 2:56
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    Sample Pack of Information for Families of Deceased Patients (Spare Copies) 3:48
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    Watching Me Pee Into A Bottle 4:52
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    Fine 7:47
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    Get Back on Your Bike 1:46
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Gallery

Promotional reel

Theatre / Film Scores

Occasionally, I will score the odd film or play. These are two that I had immense fun working on.

19 Weeks [Score]

Josh Belperio

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This was a one-person Adelaide Fringe play by Emily Steel, performed by Tiffany Lyndall Knight. It's set in a swimming pool. It tells Emily's story about the time leading up to her late-stage abortion, at 19 weeks.

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    If I heard about someone who'd had a 'late' abortion . . . 5:07
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    I have morning sickness upside down. 1:51
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    His mam, my nan, looked after Rich for more than fifty years 0:51
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    The twelve week scan 0:56
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    And then I cry. 1:46
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    I don't know anyone who's been through this. 0:46
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    19 Weeks 1:18
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    It would have been my due date today 1:38
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Rising Sails (fanfare for the Sydney Opera House)

Josh Belperio

Download

Composed and orchestrated by Cadence Chaos. Performed by the Australian Youth Orchestra. Conducted by Nicholas Carter.

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    Rising Sails (fanfare for the Sydney Opera House) 0:40
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Reviews

“Josh grows as a composer every year, and any of the songs, raps and recitations that make up the show would happily grace an off- (and on a good day, on-) Broadway theatre… The music runs the gamut from show stoppers and power ballads via a cheeky habanera and even a patter song, while the lyrics are consistently first rate.” - The Advertiser

— review of “Awkward Activists”

“Enthusiasm, charisma and eccentricity, when coupled with the world-class compositions and visual effects, ensured audience engagement and immersion… This is a show which, like Josh, defies arbitrary categorisation, and in doing so, asks us, what are the consequences of remaining within externally imposed boundaries and what are the costs of breaking free?” - Scenestr

— review of “30,000 Notes”

“Josh is an astonishingly accomplished wordsmith and matches that skill with inventive keyboard work… [Their] bonhomie is contrasted with [their] sincere concern for the world and especially [their] personal movement toward self-assertion.” - The Barefoot Review

— Review of Right Here, Right Now

“Josh's messages are rooted in a keen sense of social justice, with a focus on issues facing marginalised peoples… One detects a sharp self-awareness on Josh's part in both [their] own social filtering (as [they] identifies, [their] witty lyrical writing) and constructive response through [their] work as an activist-composer… Musically, Josh demonstrates a keen awareness of contemporary musical theatre styles coupled with clever wordsmithery.” - The Serenade Files

— Review of "Right Here, Right Now"

“And now, a word about the accompanist. Cadence is the associate artist every music theatre performer prays for. They do not simply play the piano; they react intuitively and continuously in response to the singer’s interpretative choices, whilst maintaining musical sense and consistent flow. Faithful to the composer’s intentions whilst constantly serving the singer’s needs, Cadence is a gem.” - Glam Adelaide

— – Review for Ellis Dolan Sings Sondheim (a show that I accompanied)

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