Dangerous When Wet: The Musical
I recently attended the world premiere of Dangerous When Wet: The Musical in Sydney about two Australian women who, through the medium of swimming in the early days of the 20th century, changed the world.
The vaudeville style musical was backed by the Randwick City Council and tells the story of two local swimmers, Fanny Durack and Mina Wylie in their fierce struggles to be the first Australian women to compete in the 100m freestyle at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
The musical is an aquatic version of Muriel’s Wedding and is a clap-along, sing-along joy. The storyline was also impressively accurate from a factual-historical perspective.
The audience was peppered with swimmers from the various Coogee Beach clans who had traded their goggles and bathers for the sartorial accoutrements of polished theatre goers.
The musical was held under the glorious golden proscenium arch of the heritage-listed Randwick Town Hall which added lustre and significance to the historical context of the storyline.
Readers will recall my barely restrained fandom when it comes to these two women: they appeared in Newsletters 28th March 2024 (Fanny Durack) and 25th April2024 (Mina Wylie). After being largely written out of history for over a century these two remarkable Australians are finally receiving their dues - they smashed taboos, overcame barriers and continue to inspire women around the world.
By Ria Bleathman, (Reproduced from the Brighton Iceberger Newsletter 22 Oct 2026).
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