Mel Atkey was born in Vancouver. He had a two-year stint as Georgia Straight theatre critic in 1981-82. His first musical Shikara was broadcast on radio in Toronto in 1988. He wrote music and lyrics for an adaptation of Willa Cather's Oh Pioneers presented at Producer's Club II in New York in 1991, and wrote the score for a musical version of A Little Princess.

Mel Atkey's A Million Miles from Broadway - Musical Theatre Beyond New York and London explores musical theatre that arose beyond Broadway, and "Not the many franchised versions of Fiddler on the Roof and Grease that have played everywhere from Tel Aviv to Abu Dabi, but indigenous musical theatre created in places other than New York by people other than New Yorkers and drawing on traditions other than just those of Broadway."

The opening sentence of Mel Atkey's memoir about what happens when people from different cultures try to work together, Running Away With the Circus (Friendlysong $16.95) is: If some clairvoyant had told me that I'd be spending my nights in a shipping container in Taiwan, guarding seven tigers, six Chihuahuas, five bears, four sea lions, three geese, two horses and a 'killer dog' named Ludwig, I'd have said "You're supposed to read the tea leaves, not smoke them."; The subtitle is: "Now is the Winter of Our Missing Tent."

Publications:

When We Both Got to Heaven: James Atkey Among the Anishnabek at Colpoy's Bay (Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2002).

Broadway North: The Dream of a Canadian Musical Theatre (Natural Heritage Books, 2006). ISBN-10: 1-897045-08-5 / ISBN-13: 978-1-897045-08-4 / trade paperback
328 pages / 8 x 10 / illustrated / appendices / notes / bibliography / index
$29.95 CAN / $23.95 US.

A Million Miles from Broadway - Musical Theatre Beyond New York and London (Friendlysong Books, 2012). ISBN-13: 9780991695706 / Trade Paperback, 296 Pages / 8.5 x 11/ / illustrated / appendices / notes / bibliography / index/ $23.74 CAN / $28.11 US

Running Away With the Circus (or "Now is the Winter of Our Missing Tent") (Friendlysong Books, 2013, List Price: $23.50 ; ePrice: $16.45 9780991695713

Awards:

Musical of the Year - 1006 (Aarhus, Denmark) Finalist.

[BCBW 2013] "Arctic" "Theatre"