Canberra couple Shell Abdoo and Berin Denham have written a musical about their relationship - and the season will end with them getting married in the theatre in which they are performing the show.
Only Everything opens at The Courtyard Studio at the Canberra Theatre Centre on October 17, with a 10-show season.
And like any good rom-com, it will end with a wedding - but this time in real life, the nuptials taking place at the end of the season, in The Courtyard Studio, the couple surrounded by an audience of family and friends.
"We realised we had a lot of family who would be coming from out of town. They're going to want to see the show and they're going to want to come to our wedding, so let's not make them do two trips and do it in the same weekend," Berin said.
It will be a fitting finale to a musical inspired by their own 40-something romance.
They are calling it the "Generation X musical" - the one about a second chance at love after divorce, when there are kids and ex-partners and emotional baggage in tow, when everything is not always rainbows and unicorns and when dating comes down to a swipe right or left.
Shell and Berin say it's more of a dramedy, their story about falling in love later in life, blending existing families and navigating the emotional landscape of their life now and what went before.
"We felt that was such a relatable story that isn't being told," Shell said.
"Let's do a love story when you've got a few more grey hairs but you've also got some beautiful experiences to draw on. It's deeper. It's got some grit to it."
Shell, 46, is a self-taught musician and well-known singer in live venues around Canberra. A producer and performer, Berin, 48, grew up in the theatre in Canberra, the son of well-known thespian Barbara Denham.
The couple actually met 10 years ago when they both had parts in the Canberra Philharmonic Society's production of Rock of Ages at the Erindale Theatre.
But they didn't connect romantically until five years later. And only after some sliding-doors moments, when things could have easily gone another way. The universe instead conspired to get them together. In a very rom-com kind of way.
So, cue a musical that tells their story.
"Write what you know!" Shell said, with a laugh.
The couple both star in the musical as characters - Tori and Aaron - rather than themselves.
Directed by Rachel Thornton, with musical direction by Nicholas Griffin, Only Everything also stars Louiza Blomfield as Tori's sister Emma and David Pearson as Aaron's friend Simon.
They have made lots of Canberra references but believe the story is universal, and they've produced the show with a view to touring it.
Shell, who has five children, and Berin, who has two children, have created a blended family, with the three youngest children living with them at home in Waramanga.
Berin, who has a day job as a public servant, said they workshopped the musical with friends, neighbours and theatre colleagues, editing and rewriting to make it even more true to life. And the feedback had been positive.
"One of our friends was in tears during one of the read-throughs. He said, 'This is the musical for Gen-X! We need this musical'," Berin said.
The title - Only Everything - came from a real-life conversation between the couple when Shell was starting to doubt herself in the relationship.
"I said to Berin, 'Am I getting any of this right? What am I getting right in this relationship?' And he would say, 'Only everything' to reassure me and then it became a thing that we would often say to each other," she said.
- Tickets to Only Everything are available at canberratheatrecentre.com.au. The link is here.
