William Shatner Live!

I'm just back from "William Shatner Live"! At the gorgeous State Theatre, Sydney, venue of the gala premiere nights for both "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" back in the good ol' days.





Very entertaining. Highlight of the night: Shatner did a spoken word version of Men at Work's song, "Down Under", which led into a recitation of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's speech following his Dismissal by the Governor-General in the 70s, which led into a spoken word portion of our national song, "Waltzing Matilda".

Avenue Youtube

The Australian cast of the stage musical, "Avenue Q" - highlights from Youtube!

The Sydney run finishes up next week - tickets are reduced to $50 each. I had my second visit to "Avenue Q" last night!


The Australian cast of "Avenue Q" perform "It Sucks to be Me" at the 2009 Helpmann Awards.


Mitchell Butel (Rod), Luke Joslin (Nicky) and Natalie Alexopoulos, from the Australian cast
of "Avenue Q", perform "If You Were Gay" on "Mornings with Kerri-Anne [Kennerley]".
(Note: Kerri-Anne introducing Luke as Mitchell!)


Christina O'Neill (Christmas Eve) and Michala Banas (Kate Monster) perform
"The More You Ruv Someone" on "The Morning Show" with Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies.


Part 1: Mitchell Butel (Princeton) and Natalie Alexopoulos (Mrs Thistletwat and
understudy Kate Monster) are interviewed on "9am with David and Kim".


Part 2: "Mix Tape".

Yo ho ho...

Here's the set for Year 6's "Pirate Cantata", which began its series of evening performances tonight.

My school library furniture made its own cameo, giving some height to part of the sets. The only wooden performance in the whole production?

"I Am Jack": a triumph!

Tim McGarry of Monkey Baa as Jack

I have such a fondness for Jack.

For once I don't mean Jack, my Jack Russell terrier. I mean Jack, the charming, hilarious, resilient boy at the heart of Susanne Gervay's very important children's novel, "I Am Jack".

I was fortunate enough to be given this book to review for the teacher-librarian's journal, Scan, in 2000. It was in a stack of about fifteen assorted new books, but it just stood out. First of all, the intriguing cover (as below) was at once bright yet ominous, and, within a few pages of reading, I was rallying to the cause of its appealing protagonist - who goes from lovable, normal, happy-go-lucky kid, to unexpected victim, to proud and empathetic victor, throughout the course of the book. The story really touched the heartstrings. It was probably no surprise, bumping into the author at a literary function some months later, that I learned how much autobiographical truth there was in "I Am Jack". Susanne and her son, whom I also met at another function, bravely shared their true story of playground bullying so that other children might be empowered.

A few years later, in my role of editor of Scan, I worked with a school team of educators who'd used Susanne's book with students, and wanted to share their journey and results in the journal. The Scan article went through quite a long consultative process. Crossing over several Key Learning Areas as it did, and being about such a sensitive issue as bullying, it was so important that the article - not to mention the teaching notes, and my interview with Susanne) would cross all the t's and dot all the i's (or is that cross all the eyes?). The article(s) eventually appeared in Scan 21(3) August 2002.

A few weeks ago, I heard that "I Am Jack" had been turned into a play for schools. By coincidence, Susanne and I had just found each other again - this time on Facebook, and she gave me some days and venues. It had already been playing relatively close by: at Parramatta, but I'd missed that. In a panic, I realised that all of these other times were for weekdays. Drat. Except today... 2pm. If I felt like getting myself to Campbelltown.

Or I could wait until its return season... Next year. D'oh!

The radio was warning about a blazing hot day but I decided that, if there was no railway track maintenance when I checked the online timetables this morning, and if I could leave it till after 10.00am before I left the house (having confirmed with the box office that there were some tickets left), then I'd venture off to the unknown wilderness that is Campbelltown to see the play.

Timing worked out perfectly. After two longish train legs, and a leisurely walk from Campbelltown Station, past lots of intriguing shops I was sure I'd never get back to, to the beautiful Arts Centre, I was there in plenty of time to have lunch!

At about 1.50 pm, I wandered over to the theatre area and there was Susanne signing copies of "I Am Jack". It was great to see her again. Her fellow authors, Di Bates and Bill Condon, both of who I knew well from my early days as a teacher-librarian, ended up sitting next to me - another happy reunion - and I also got to meet the real "Rob", template for fictional Jack's gregarious and supportive future step-Dad in "I Am Jack".

How to describe the set? It's a one-actor tour de force, with Tim McGarry portraying Jack and ten supporting characters, surrounded by oversized, scribbled-on furniture that at once recaptures Cathy Wilcox's unique illustrations in the book, and makes Tim McGarry the size of an eleven-year-old schoolboy!



Tim had an array of wonderful shorthand mimes to cue the audience as to which supporting character would be appearing next. Feeble Nanna playing "Uno" against Jack was a hoot, as was Rob driving the car, one hand on the wheel. Also amazing was Jack playing handball against unseen opponents, without a tennis ball being thrown.

The anti-bullying message is crystal clear, both in the book and the play: it can happen to anyone, at any time; bullies isolate someone, in order to improve their own sense of power, and they can peck away at whatever self-esteem the victim has/had until he or she is further and further isolated from the very people who could have helped; it takes the whole group to stand firm against bullying, so it's a change of culture that will affect a change in behaviour.

The play concluded with a question-and-answer session with Tim and Susanne. Apart from some perceptive questions about bullying and writing by the young audience, a real hit, prop-wise, was Jack's amazing science experiment: the ponto in its glass jar: an onion grafted onto a potato, which has seemingly successfully sprouted and may, one day, make Jack a fortune as an impossible hybrid plant! Amazingly, the play's ponto was made from plastic vegetables bought from a two-dollar shop by the Monkey Baa propmaster. (You know what? I want one!)

After that, Susanne invited a group of us back to the Arts Centre's cafe for coffee. Even though they were "closing in ten minutes", I'm sure we got in a good twenty extra minutes of gossiping.

I had such a great day. It was well worth the long commute, and maybe I shouldn't mention how I was waylaid by some amazing DVD bargains in the Borders store in Macarthur Centre while looking for the station entrance after Susanne and her "Rob" dropped me near Macarthur Station.

So, if you notice that "I Am Jack" is coming to a theatre near you, or if you know anyone who has ever bullied, or been bullied, this play is one to see! And, in the meantime, read the book. Or its excellent sequel, "Super Jack".

Magic Circle WOW!

I promised to tell you about my recent (though expensive) success on eBay...

a 1965 program to a stage production of the "Magic Circle Club", surely my favourite Australian television show from my very early years!

This purchase arrived on Monday, by registered post, but the notification card came to my home address instead of to work, where I wanted to be able to sign for the package. I was finally able to collect it today.

Wow!



Godfrey Philipp's "Magic Circle Club" was a national children's television show, which I watched on a then-fledgling Channel TEN-10 in Sydney (from 23rd January 1965 till 1967). The channel was so new we had terrible reception. It ran for 550 thirty-minute episodes and had its roots in live pantomime and classic fairy tales. The show was the talk of the playground when I was in Year 1 and Year 2, and featured amazing song and dance production numbers and original songs by none other than John-Michael Howson.

Being a Sydney boy, I hadn't heard of this particular version of "Magic Circle Club" before: a specially written episode called "The Stolen Smile". It was performed live on stage at Melbourne's Tivoli Theatre (from December 27, 1965 for the summer school holidays). In this adventure, evil Sir Jasper Crookly and Gaspar Goblin had banished Clocko the chief clown and Spangles the trapeze artist from a circus - and had also taken away Clocko's smile. Appearing on stage with Max (Max Bartlett) and hostess Nancy Cato were Fredd Bear, Fee Fee Bear (John-Michael Howson), Mother Hubbard, Curley Dimples, Crystal Ball, Hep Cat, Montmorency James Rabbit and bird puppets, Cassius Cuckoo and Leonardo de Funbird, all played by the regular TV cast.

One of the reasons I was so determined to obtain this program was for the cast and crew names that were sure to be mentioned. Although my memory was fairly good, I had many gaps - and so do (or did) places such as Wikipedia. For example, this production was stage managed by some now well-known Aussie names: Sue Nattras, Simon Wincer and Jim McElroy. I'd also forgotten that Leonardo lived inside the IKAN (Instantaneous Knowledge Accumulation Network) computer. (In 1965? Surely a zany computer to predate the Bat-computer of TV's "Batman"!)

Here's an excerpt from the program, featuring the three characters and performers I remembered the least about:



More excerpts soon!

Sunday on Saturday

Today, after voting (Labor was returned to power, by the way), I went to see the local production of the musical, "Sunday in the Park with George" at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre (scene of my recent stage escapade), and I found "Sunday..." to be very moving. Sometimes, a musical comes along at just the right moment in one's life and, only this morning, I'd been contemplating some themes that were brought into perspective by the messages in today's performance.

A few weeks ago, one of my new Star Trek friends (discovered via the online Meetup group) happened to ask if his father was welcome to attend the next meeting. Well, of course he could. But the topic was mulled over in my head, until... I emailed him back today, saying, "I just realised, of course, that your Dad is probably about my age. I feel so old! ;-)

Ben wrote back, "He's just turned 40. Does this make you feel any better/worse?"

I'm 48. Gosh, I dunno how I feel? It's really weird. I relate to Ben - and AdamJ, for that matter - as equals, because we are all science fiction media fans. However, Ben's Dad is not only younger than me, he's also younger that both of my younger brothers.

Actually, I'm looking forward to meeting Ben's Dad; every now and then (but not often) I regret not ever having kids. To think, by now, in some alternate universe, I have a whole household of some really cool 20-Something kids who like SF. So bizarre. And very, very kewl (to coin a phrase). Actually, AdamJ, who's already taken to calling me "Dad", tells me that his parents are visiting Australia this year, from the UK. (Cheeky young whippersnappers!)

Anyway, all this "woe is my future" stuff was reflected, quite unexpectedly, by the plot of the second half of "Sunday in the Park with George". The action jumps from the 1880s to the modern day. One of the characters, a wheelchair-bound character in her 90s, had been a tiny babe-in-arms in the famous painting being celebrated ("A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte" by Georges Seurat). The important thing, she explains to an art gallery first-night audience, is to leave a legacy after one has died: and that can be children and/or art.



I guess, since I'm not producing any children of my own (not counting, I guess, the 380 young students I teach every week), I'm really going to have to get my act together, and finish preparing something from the arts to be my legacy!

The other scary thing is: we have Grandparents' Day coming up again at school, just before Easter. We teachers realised a few years ago that most of the grandparents who attend are actually younger than most of us. Sigh.

"Britain, Britain, Britain..."

Last night's performance of Little Britain Live was a triumph! Very enjoyable, but if you really want to see what you missed, the DVD of Little Britain Live is a great substitute, especially since the images of the performers on the Hordern Pavilion's big screens are like watching telly, anyway.

It was great to see all the great Matt Lucas and David Walliams iconic characters come to life - in real life. The performers were snappy, funny and had cleverly tweaked a few skits with some biting Sydney-, and Australia-, derived humour: Campbelltown, "Big Brother"'s infamous turkey slaps, and poor ol' Schapelle Corby (a friend of Vicki Pollard's, who's been strangely uncommunicative of late), came under fire in an squirmy, but crowd-pleasing, way.

Some friends and I had actually developed a theory about the first half's Des Kaye sketch on the DVD, whereby two hapless male audience members are seemingly selected "at random" to play a game of "Hide the Sausage". Both versions of the skit on the DVD involved the plain guy being almost-totally ignored by the amorous Des (David Walliams), while the Very Cute One turns red, gets kissed and groped - and inevitably loses his jeans, and has his bare bottom exposed to the audience (and in closeup on the big screens), in a rather lengthy sequence.

No doubt the cute guy was a pre-selected stooge. If our theory held, the guy selected would be wearing loosely-belted jeans - and, sure enough, he was. He did a fairly good impersonation of an embarrassed straight guy (or is that "a bare assed" guy?), although he did fluff the scene a little by claiming he was only "16, no 17 years old" - much to the delight of Des, but stretching suspension of disbelief a little too far. (And the closeups of the guy's rather peach-fuzzed bottom on the big screens seemed to suggest he was at least a little more mature than 17.)

It was still a very funny skit - "I should have tightened my belt", he adlibbed - and the young guy got a huge, second round of applause when he was picked out by the roving camera, supposedly innocently enjoying the end of intermission with his date. The guy got a third round of applause when psychiatric patient, Anne (as Whitney Houston, in "Stars in Their Eyes"; David Walliams again), slobbered all over his face during her wilder beserker moments.

Bubbles de Vere (Matt Lucas) in her latex nude fat suit, and cruel Marjorie Dawes (Matt again) - weighing a poor overweight "new member" of Fat Fighters, again chosen from the audience, but obviously for real this time - were wonderful. I really enjoyed the Tiny Dennis Waterman sketch, but mainly because I'd fallen asleep during that bit of the DVD a few weeks ago, so it was totally fresh to me.

Two other segments worked very well, I thought, because they were so off-the-wall: the Mr Mann buys paint sketch, where Matt and David totally gave up on the scripted performance for many minutes - and, after recovering from the wild deviation, started delivering the lines as each other, as if performing Lou & Andy instead! Later, in the Dafydd Thomas sketch leading into the finale, the two performers suddenly broke into a discussion of Matt's homosexuality - and then Matt, seemingly spontaneously, brought up David's oft-quoted media denials on the same topic!

"I'm not gay, but my penis is," David Walliams eventually shrugs, to huge shrieks from the audience. The informality of the performance had become so intimate, by this time, and so spontaneous, that I almost felt like they were guests making small talk at a dinner party at my place, after a few too many drinks.

The program - an almost mandatory purchase for me at any live show - was a steep $30, and I already had a miniature version of it that came with the DVD of this show. But... this program came packaged with sheets of character stickers, and its own mousepad, with humourless Carol Beer's catchphrase emblazoned across it: "Computer says 'No'!"

This reviewer says, "Yes!"

Hugh Jackman channels Peter Allen

Saturday night's performance of the Australian Arena Spectacular version of "The Boy from Oz" at the Sydney Entertainment Centre was a triumph. I felt like I'd been in rehearsals for it all week: putting myself into bed at a reasonable hour for several nights in a row to ensure there was no possibility I'd doze off. Not after paying $250 for the ticket.

While I wasn't always believing Hugh Jackman as Peter Allen, there were certainly some times when it seemed like Mr Jackman was channeling the irrepressible spirit of Allen - particularly whenever he flirted with male audience members, or made humorous, gossipy commentary about current celebrities, and those recent celebrity events worthy of Allen's distinctively cheeky, scathing wit, had he still been among us to make comment: Keith Urban and his marriage to Nicole Kidman; Heath Ledger starring in "Brokeback Mountain"; Eric Bana; and even that Hugh Jackman guy (starring as "X-Men"'s Wolverine, and hanging out to audition for James Bond), were favourites.

It was certainly well worth the money spent. Numerous times, I found my cheeks flooding with tears. The way each song was set up to tell a particular aspect of Peter Allen's life, or that of his loved ones, was excellent. These are songs we've heard many times on the radio, and even though I knew that most of them were inspired by aspects of the songwriter's life, watching and hearing them play out in the context of a biographical work really hammers home the emotions within the words.

"When I Get My Name in Lights" is suddenly young Peter's story, as if were never also a highly recognizable Allen song. "All I Wanted was the Dream" and "Quiet Please, There's a Lady on Stage" are the ailing Judy Garland's story. "I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love" is Liza Minnelli's tearful departure. "I Honestly Love You", so identifiable over the years as an Olivia Newton-John song, suddenly becomes the final farewell from Greg Connell, Peter's dying lover. "Don't Cry Out Loud" becomes an insight into the coping strategies of Peter's mother, Marion Woolnough. "I Still Call Australia Home" brings out the patriotic spirit of the whole audience. And, of course, "Tenterfield Saddler", which turns the whole house into lip-trembling, sniffling wrecks, is a pocket biography of three generations of the Woolnough men. (I understand that the US production omitted "Tenterfield Saddler"; so hard to believe that such a beautiful ballad could be overlooked as something Americans might not understand.)

I was fascinated with the "video content" by Interactive Originals. All of the sets - the neon lights of Times Square and Broadway; the art deco country pub; fireworks over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House; the Allen Brothers performing on an ancient black and white TV console tuned to "Bandstand"; a lone Tenterfield windmill; and so on - were computer generated, and thrown up onto the huge screen behind the performers. This even included the virtual red theatre curtains, which waved ever so slightly in the virtual breeze. While I wouldn't like to see every play, musical and theatrical event having its sets created this way, the novelty certainly enhanced this show.

I had a few weird deja vu experiences watching the show:

* Chrissie Amphlett, who played Judy: when I was a little kid, my grandfather took me down to "the paperboy's house", a weatherboard cottage (in our street: Terry Street, Arncliffe), which was burning down! It was the first and only time I saw firemen wearing those old brass helmets. I'm not sure if Chrissie herself ever lived there, but supposedly her Dad did, and her brother, "the paperboy" - and there was definitely one Amphlett daughter at my school.

* Angela Toohey, who played Liza: she was once Squeaky the Robot in TV's "Johnson and Friends", a kids' show about toys who lived under a bed! I almost got to do an interview with her, and I was allowed to feature her in my old fanzine, Androidz.

* Production Designer, Brian Thomson: in 1988, Brian worked on a theatre-in-education show called Don't Tell Anyone, for which I was commissioned to write the teachers' notes. I spent several hours talking to him about how he'd designed that play's sets. At the time, I had no idea just how many amazing things he'd designed! His name pops up in credits all the time, and it always give me a buzz that I met him before I knew he was famous! :)

Yes, I'm sure this musical will live with me forever, and that's part of the magic of live performances. Owning the program, the keyring, the coffee mug and the CD soundtrack can only serve as reminders that you were once able to be completely immersed in a theatrical experience for several hours of your life.

I certainly don't see enough live theatre these days.