Musical scoops top award
PRODUCER Tim Lawson’s touring show A Chorus Line won a Helpmann Award for best musical at a ceremony at the Sydney Opera House recently.
“It was a great thrill that the show won a Helpmann and the magnificent cast was acknowledged,” said the Melbourne-based producer.
The annual Helpmann Awards recognise the best in Australia’s live-performance industry.
“The success of this Australian production has led to the first revival of A Chorus Line in London for 35 years, which will open at the London Palladium in February,” says Lawson.
“It’s great that producers overseas have paid attention to the success of shows here. We have had sellout seasons.”
Lawson was pleased that A Chorus Line edged out big-budget shows such as Annie and An Officer and a Gentleman for the top honour.
The musical is due to open in Perth and Brisbane to complete its year-long Australian tour.
Lawson hopes that A Chorus Line will return to Melbourne and Sydney in a few years.
“It is one of those shows such as Fiddler on the Roof that I will do again when the time is right, because they are timeless shows.”
Lawson is now turning his attention to the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which will have its Australian premiere at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre on November 17 and comes to Melbourne at Her Majesty’s Theatre on January 30.
The musical will be directed by Roger Hodgman and the cast includes David Hobson, Rachael Beck, Peter Carroll and Alan Brough.
“It’s a great thrill to be working with Peter Carroll, who is theatrical royalty. He can do everything,” says Lawson.
The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang musical is based on the novel by Bond author Ian Fleming about the fantastic adventures of an extraordinary car that flies through the air and sails the seas.
The musical premiered in London 10 years ago and is still wowing audiences.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang also enjoyed success on the screen in the 1968 film starring Dick Van Dyke.
Lawson says he had hoped to stage the musical in Australia several years ago, but finding a vacant theatre was a problem.
“It was last December that the venues became available in Sydney and Melbourne, so I pressed the green light,” he says.
However, the Australian production will not be identical to the London production.
“Australian audiences are slightly different to London theatregoers, so we will concentrate on telling the story.”
Jeanne Pratt’s Production Company won three Helpmann Awards for Grey Gardens, with Pamela Rabe winning for best female actor in a musical, Nancye Hayes for her supporting role and Roger Hodgman for best musical direction.
The extreme circus skills of Circa, created by Yaron Lifschitz, the Brisbane-based artistic director of the performing company Circa, won the award for best visual or physical theatre production.
Circa premiered in 2009 and has toured Britain, Europe and America before returning to Australia this year.
Back to Back Theatre’s Ganesh Versus the Third Reich won the award for best play, while Bert LaBonte won the award for best supporting male actor in a musical for Sharleen Cooper Cohen’s An Officer and a Gentleman.
Opera Australia won seven awards, with Anthony Dean Griffey best male performer in Of Mice and Men and Mitchell Butel best actor in a musical for
The Mikado.
REPORT by Danny Gocs
PHOTO: Dancers in the award-winning musical, A Chorus Line.
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