The WA Academy of Performing Arts training environment is polar opposite to the drama school experience Liverpool-raised Alastair Knights encountered in the UK, and the visiting guest director could not be more approving.

“They’re building them up for careers here and the training is much more varied,” 36-year-old Knights says.

“What I love about these students here at WAAPA, and musical theatre training in Australia, is everyone is very individual, and that’s really encouraged here. Whereas when I was in the UK, it was very much a ‘Shut up and get in your box’ type of thing. That wasn’t really for me, so I escaped and very quickly discovered that I wanted to be a director.”

Enamoured by The Sound Of Music — he would watch the film at his grandmother’s house on repeat as a four-year-old — along with the vast catalogue of MGM musicals, the first live production Knights saw was The Phantom Of The Opera, which led him to briefly become a performer before pulling back the curtain on all the other creative roles in the theatrical realm.

“I was always wanting to know about the lighting, and I wanted to know about the costumes . . . I was a bit of a busybody,” he laughs.

“I haven’t performed now for years and years since realising I’m more of a director. I love sitting down in the auditorium and watching everyone else do the hard work.”

Having recently served as resident director on UK, Australia and Asia productions of Wicked The Musical, the honorary Australian — thanks to his Melburnian partner — is in Perth for six weeks to direct WAAPA’s third-year musical theatre students in & Juliet.

Featuring the songbook of Grammy-winning Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin, the coming-of-age jukebox musical gives Shakespeare’s classic a feminist twist as it joyfully flips the script on the famous tragic ending to grant Juliet another chance at life and love.

The meta-narrative sees William Shakespeare pitch the direction of the storyline before wife Anne Hathaway intervenes to provide Juliet with an independent and empowering second act.

“It’s silly and fun and fantastical, but then underneath has so much heart to it,” shares Knights as he makes his WAAPA directing debut.

“This show is a real protest and call to individuality and being yourself, and living your life how you want to live.

“The message that it puts out into the world is beautifully layered in there about self-acceptance, sexuality, gender, relationships and marriages, without being preachy or too shouty. It engages with an audience in a really exciting way.”

A significant dose of that engagement is thanks to the soundtrack of powerful pop anthems from the late 90s and 2000s that writer David West Read (Schitt’s Creek) has cleverly woven through the high-energy musical, where the narrative brings new meaning to songs including Britney Spears’ . . . Baby One More Time, Backstreet Boys’ Larger Than Life, Kelly Clarkson’s Since U Been Gone and Katy Perry’s Roar.

“The story is so well-connected to the songs in a really surprising way, and I just think they fit the story so well,” explains Knights in relation to the set list of bangers, also performed by music students under the musical direction of Vanitha Hart.

“Some of them are really funny when the needle drops and you go ‘Oh my God, it’s this one’.

“The cast just love performing them because they’re all such amazing songs, and we’ve got the incredible Jodie Bickle doing the choreography. She is smashing it in these huge numbers where we’re going to blow the roof off the Regal Theatre in Subiaco.”

Knights cannot rave enough about the talent he is working with in the cast, from their brilliant British accents and capacity for comedy to flexing their dramatic muscles in moments of pure emotion.

“I’m always just so impressed with Australian performers,” he adds.

“I feel like there’s something in the water down here that just creates these fantastic musical theatre performers.”

The perfect pairing works both ways with Knights sharing how & Juliet is an ideal training experience for musical theatre students, citing the diversity in the production’s individual roles.

“There’s a real chance to show off in this show, in the best way possible,” he says.

“Even if you’re in the ensemble, there’s some little character moments, little cameos in this show, and they’re coming on and absolutely stealing the scene. They’re just like biting into it, going ‘Right, I’ve only got two lines, what can I do with this?’

“They’re bringing their own sense of self and the characters are so vivid. They can really put their own spin on them, and that’s what everyone’s doing in this production.

“We just need more joy in the world and they’re really leaning into it.”

& Juliet is at Regal Theatre, Subiaco, September 11 to 17. Tickets at premier.ticketek.com.au.