The Singing Thorn Birds?

First there was Australia, which I didn't go to see because of the bad reviews. The supposed epic Australian saga

Now there is the talk of staging The Thorn Birds, that Australian epic family saga/romance/tragedy, as a musical!

I've read the book, and I've seen the mini-series, though I've forgotten lots of the mini-series. Now I'm wondering what a musical would be like.

I;m thinking, which are the most memorable scenes to me, and how would the songs go, and I'm wondering, will the stage try to make them serious and dramatic, Phantom-like, or kinda campy and funny, like The Producers?

The first realy memorable scene to me in the whole book is when meggie spews on Sister Agatha and then gets caned. Gosh, that really does it for me. You've got to have a song for that. The nuns could get together, Agatha covered in brown crap, and sing:

"How do you solve a problem like Meggie?
How do you get this disgusting creature to keep it down?
How do you find a word to describe Meggie?
A royal puker? A spewer? A chucker? A clown?"

Here are some other fantastic scenes which I'm sure we'll all find very easy to turn into songs - inspiration, anyone?:

Ralph de Bricassart finds Mary Carson dead in her room, half eaten by maggots (that's gotta to be one of the most memorable scenes in the book)
Hal dies
Fee goes into still shock when she finds out Frank is in gaol
Paddy gets killed in the fire, and the description is that he gets caught in a ring of fire and dies being burnt from the outside in, his heart and brain dying last of all and dies screaming Fee's name. Maybe he could sing Fee's name instead.
Meggie is pretty much forced in bed on her wedding night by Luke (The fact that "Luke" and "puke" rhymeis very convenient here)
Justine loses her virginity