Australia's Leading Ladies

[Talissa]

I wonder whether Nancye has anyone in particular in that final paragraph in the second article ;D

Thanks for those!

[Sally]

Talissa said:

I wonder whether Nancye has anyone in particular in that final paragraph in the second article ;D

And I wonder if the person you're thinking of is the exact same one who immediately popped into my head

[Talissa]

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking B1?"
"I think I am, B2"
"It's Trisha Crowe!"

Seriously, though, everyone I've spoken to who's seen the show has raved about "the little Irish girl" or "that Bridie O'Malley," and for a newcomer to make such an immediate impression...

[Sally]

So true. Everyone I took along to see Eureka, when I asked them later what they'd liked best, all had the exact same reply. She so very definitely stole the entire show

[Sally]

Alright, an article from the Age

www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/02/10/1107890337957.html

And all the ladies were on GMA yesterday, which was an absolute riot. Then Rhonda and Anne sang one song about midway through the show (and my darn tape ran out halfway through!) and then all of them (bar Nancye) came back at the very end and did 'Broadway Baby'

[Sally]

Put seven leading ladies of Australian music theatre in the one room and what do you get? AUSTRALIA’S LEADING LADIES brings seven stars to the stage for a unique concert of 30 classics from Broadway and West End music theatre.

‘A lot of gossip!’ says Nancye Hayes, the first Australian Leading Lady of the modern era, and Director and Compere of AUSTRALIA’S LEADING LADIES, opening on Friday February 11 at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne.

The magnificent seven – Nancye herself, and the six leading ladies – Rhonda Burchmore, Judi Connelli, Sharon Millerchip, Marina Prior, Geraldine Turner and Anne Wood – are supported by a 35-piece orchestra in performances that range from Irving Berlin to Sondheim and Jules Steyne.

So what happens when you put these very disparate stars together in the rehearsal room?

‘They’re not hard to direct,’ says Nancye, ‘every one of them has a strength, a natural ability that makes them shine. It may be in vocal interpretation, dance skills, comedic flair or dramatic presentation; and to perform a starring role, often all of the above are required.

‘But in rehearsal the first thing I have to do is to get them settled down - get all that chatter out of the way. They don’t often get the chance to get together. Once they’ve swapped notes, however, they focus. They’re all very professional women, they are all stars.’

What makes them stars?

‘Rhonda has tremendous versatility,’ Nancye says. ‘She reminds me of the great singing and dancing stars of the Golden Era of Hollywood musicals.

‘Sharon has a special effervescence. An endearing, sometimes comic quality.

‘Marina is a classical leading lady – but she also has a hidden and wicked sense of humor.

‘Geraldine is powerful: the big voice, all the ingredients.

‘Anne has intelligence, subtlety and wit, and there’s a kind of drollness under it all.

‘And Judi of course has wonderful strength and emotion.’

‘To see all six put it all together in the one show is something absolutely unforgettable!’

Nancye and Judi Connelli were both in the original Australian production of Chicago. And the star who blazed the trail for Australian leading ladies almost 40 years ago in Sweet Charity and stole the show in the recent Australian musical Eureka has had principal roles in many of the landmark musicals on show in AUSTRALIA’S LEADING LADIES. They range from Gershwin’s Oh, Kay! which premiered in 1926 and Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, (1946, and the first musical Nancye saw), to City of Angels (1989) and Mamma Mia! (1999).

AUSTRALIA’S LEADING LADIES opened this year’s Brisbane Festival and sold out almost overnight. ‘This is a unique collaboration,’ says Producer Mark Collier-Vickers, ‘a show that allows us to see these seven A-team women on stage singing song after song: each with their own distinct sound and style, but all of them able to bring a house to its feet – and in this show they definitely do!’

[Sally]

www.theage.com.au/news/Reviews/Australias-Leading-Ladies/2005/02/14/1108229926327.html

Australia's Leading Ladies
Reviewer Jim Murphy
February 15, 2005

Compered and directed by Nancye Hayes
Conducted by Julia de Plater.
Her Majesty's, February 11 (season concluded)

Has Exhibition Street ever seen such a convergence of female singing/acting talent? We have four terrific femmes in Menopause the Musical at the Comedy Theatre, and at the weekend, seven certified divas came together for a joyous celebration of the best of music theatre at Her Majesty's.

The quality was evident right from the first bars of the classic overture to Jule Styne's Gypsy. Julia de Plater's 35 musicians produced a rich, authentic Broadway sound, and lovers of pit band orchestrations knew it would be a night to savour.

You would happily accept Sondheim's Broadway Baby sung by any one of Rhonda Burchmore, Judi Connelli, Sharon Millerchip, Marina Prior, Geraldine Turner or Anne Wood. To have them lined up across the stage belting it out in unison as an opening number was some sort of music theatre heaven.

And so it continued to the finale, when they combined for an imaginatively arranged Andrew Lloyd Webber medley, then were joined by compere-director Nancye Hayes for an ebullient curtain call, Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business. Never would that anthem have been sung by a better-credentialled septet.

The six leading ladies, each distinctive in style and voice, dazzled with their wealth of technique and experience. As they sang their "party pieces", many from roles they have played in musicals, it was one electric performance after another of top-drawer songs.

It is invidious to play favourites, but you couldn't fail to be knocked out by the statuesque Burchmore's tap and song, Shakin' the Blues Away (with a nod to Ann Miller), Connelli's thrilling contralto in Some People (from Gypsy), Millerchip's goofy gamine turn in If My Friends Could See Me Now (Sweet Charity), Prior's deliciously adenoidal Adelaide's Lament (Guys and Dolls), Turner's plaintive As Long as He Needs Me (Oliver!) and Wood's poignant The Winner Takes It All (Mamma Mia!).

Is it too much to ask that a show like this become a regular event? And what about an analogous male showcase, with Messrs Warlow, McKenney, Jackman, Campbell, et al?

[littlebonza]

Hi

I saw Leading Ladies in Brisbane and in Melbourne and I must say that the sound in Melbourne was a lot better than Brisbane.

I did miss Rachel Beck singing Mein Heir though but I was compensated by Nancye Hayes singing Nowadays.
Which was fantastic...

I thoroughly enjoyed watching and listening to all the wonderful performers, I do have favourites but I won't go into that here...

I did feel that they missed a person out of the line up that I felt was a leading lady but maybe another time..

I am already in the process of saving up to see them where ever they go next.

It was truly a feel good show that I would recommend to all.

Littlebonza

[Talissa]

Hi Littlebonza,

Did you come down to Melbourne just to see the show? Or did you go up to Brisbane to see it?

And I'm sure I could name a couple of people who could well have deserved a place in that line-up, but hey, we were already spoilt, so I'm not complaining

And why not go into favourites here?

Welcome to the board!

~Julia

[Sally]

I can think of three I'd have loved to have been there...but one is way too 'new' so I concede defeat there, one would be pushing it, and the third would have been perfect but alas quite busy interstate But it was a stellar lineup in any case

From today's Herald Sun:

img.photobucket.com/albums/v484/eurekapics/LL-1.jpg

Hehe, Sharon 'cute as a button' ;D

[littlebonza]

Hi Julia

I went to Melbourne specially for Leading Ladies.

Littlebonza