The online magazine of Theatre Heritage Australia
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Lena Brasch: Actor and Artists’ Model
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She was painted and photographed by some of the most famous artists of her day. But who was she? ROGER NEILL looks at the life of Australian actor and artists’ model Lena Brasch. The photographic portrait of Lena Brasch by Walter Barnett from 1905—exuberantly inscribed by Brasch ‘To Smike’, her... -
Introducing Joy Nichols
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AND ROBERTA HAMOND In the March 2023 issue of On Stage, RICHARD FOTHERINGHAM described the history of George Wallace Senior’s famous World War Two patriotic song ‘A Brown Slouch Hat’. Joy Nichols (1925-1992) was another of those who sang it—in her case on the 2GB Youth Show (1942-43), on the... -
From Paper to Stage—The Triumph of Neptune and a very particular collaboration
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Enter the magical world of Pollock’s Toyshop and Museum and the miniature paper theatres that inspired the creation of a new ballet by the legendary Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes. JUDY LEECH investigates... The year is 1926, the setting is London and Benjamin Pollock’s Old Toyshop in Hoxton. The... -
The View from Prompt Corner: Rachel Berger
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In the second instalment of MATTHEW PECKHAM’s series of informal and random memories titled The View from Prompt Corner, he recalls his 2011 encounter with comic Rachel Berger when she toured with her one-woman show Hold the Pickle. This story is pretty much what it says on the tin—it really does... -
Early Stages: Kevin Coxhead
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In our new series, Early Stages, where we ask people to share their earliest theatrical experiences, KEVIN COXHEAD tells how his love of the theatre began, significantly his love of Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady. I’d been to a couple of pantomimes at the Tivoli in Melbourne which I remember... -
Fanny Dango—The Soubrette’s Stage Career in Australia (Part 2)
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In Part 1 BOB FERRIS traced the early theatrical work of Fanny Dango in England to her 1907 Australian debut in The Dairymaids through to The Belle of New York musical. Part 2 follows Fanny’s career with the Royal Comic Opera Co., to her farewell appearance in Australia in 1910. The Belle of New... -
Frank Neil - 'He Lived Show Business' (Part 4)
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FRANK VAN STRATEN continues his exploration of the life and tumultuous times of one of Australia’s near-forgotten entrepreneurs. Part 4: In a 1933 program note, Frank Neil told Tivoli patrons ‘Like so many others, I belong to that happy band of “grown-up” children who build castles in the air and... -
The Comedy Theatre: Melbourne's most intimate playhouse (Part 5)
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In Part 5 of the Comedy Theatre story, RALPH MARSDEN takes a look at the plays and performers that graced the stage of the Melbourne playhouse during the period 1986 to 2000. Hollywood veterans Rex Harrison and Claudette Colbert starred in a six-week revival of Frederick Lonsdale’s Aren’t We All?... -
Encounters with Stars of the Theatrical Kind - Bette Davis (Part 5)
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After a brief absence, we return to the interviews of theatre and film critic RAYMOND STANLEY, who recalls the 1975 visit to Australia by the great Hollywood film actress Bette Davis. Bette Davis made her one and only visit to Australia early in 1975. In Sydney and Melbourne, American publicist... -
Little Wunder: The story of the Palace Theatre, Sydney (Part 11)
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During 1910 the Palace Theatre enjoyed much prosperity, from the polished performances of the Hugh J. Ward company to the mighty melodramas of Bland Holt performed by the Hamilton-Maxwell Dramatic Company. ELISABETH KUMM continues her history of the Pitt Street playhouse. With the arrival of Hugh J... -
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The Majeroni brothers: Stage royalty and pioneer screen villains
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Screenshots of Mario Majeroni as Larrabee in Sherlock Holmes, 1916 and Giorgio Majeroni as De Lima in Patria, 1917. Internet Archive and YouTube’s The Serial Squadron channel. NICK MURPHY takes a look at the careers of two brothers—Mario and Giorgio Majeroni—who, having learned their craft on the... -
Melba and the Rise of La bohème
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Melba aficionado ROGER NEILL takes a close look at La bohème and discovers that Dame Nellie was instrumental in making it one of the most popular and well-loved of Puccini’s operas. How was it that La bohème became one of the world’s favourite operas? For more than a century it has been a... -
Grant Dale: Born to Dance—An Australian Gypsy
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Dancer and choreographer Grant Dale is a born dancer—and true Australian gypsy. He has the rare honour of being one of few performers to win the coveted Gypsy Cloak twice. PETER STEPHENSON JONES shares Grant’s story. It was a wonderful experience running my own acting school, “The Actors’... -
Finding George: A daughter’s search for her father
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Jazz singer SUZI DICKINSON didn’t know her father. But recently, when exploring her family tree with the help of ANTOINETTE BIRKENBEIL, she not only uncovered a whole bevy of theatrical ancestors but discovered that her father had been a skilled artist, a committed soldier during the war, a... -
The View from Prompt Corner: Victoria de los Ángeles
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MATTHEW PECKHAM commences a new series of articles, looking at some of the performers he worked with over the years. He has titled these informal and random memories The View from Prompt Corner. In the first instalment, he meets the fiery Spanish soprano Victoria de los Ángeles, who toured... -
Early Stages: Tony Locantro
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We are excited to commence a new series titled Early Stages, in which we invite people to share their earliest theatre memories with us. London-based TONY LOCANTRO, who grew up in Sydney in the 1940s, sets the ball rolling with his recollections of Tivoli turns and JCW musicals. My earliest...
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NOTABLE PRODUCTIONS
9 August 2023
Madame Pompadour
Author: Kurt Gänzl
The most successful of the postwar works of Leo Fall, and one of his most delightful, Madame Pompadour was written for the Berlin theatre and as a vehicle for its reigning queen of the musical stage, Fritzi Massary. Like those of many Operetten before and since, the amorous adventures of the plot had little to do with the historical Madame... Read more
17 May 2023
Private Lives Overview
Author: Elisabeth Kumm
2023 marks fifty years since the death of Noël Coward. Born in London in 1899, Coward went on to become one of the most celebrated actor-vocalist-composer-lyricists of his generation. His parents were both musical. His father sold pianos and his mother was an amateur vocalist. It was customary for the family to sit around the piano of an evening and... Read more
1 February 2023
Kissing Time Overview
Author: Elisabeth Kumm
When war broke out in Europe in August 1914, P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) was in America. For the next five years he remained there, keeping a healthy distance between himself and the hostilities. Though accused by some critics for displaying unpatriotic behaviour, poor eyesight made him ineligible for military service. He therefore chose to remain in... Read more
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BOOK REVIEWS
BOOK REVIEW: The Simonsens of St. Kilda: A family of singers by Roger Neill, Australian Society of Authors, 2023The Simonsens of St Kilda. The cover features a portrait of Madame Frances Saville painted by Arthur von Ferraris. Australian Performing Arts ... Read more
1 March 2023
1 December 2022
1 December 2022
1 September 2022
1 September 2022
1 June 2022
1 June 2022
1 June 2022
1 March 2022
SERIAL ARTICLES
Following their successful ‘come-back’ tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1932–33, Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritchard returned to London via America (where ... Read more
2 September 2021
27 May 2021
9 June 2020
Madge Elliott has told us of her graduation from the ranks of the Exquisite Eight to leading lady in The Cabaret Girl, which ran for a long and happy ... Read more
31 August 2019
31 August 2019
26 May 2019
(left) Theatre Royal, Adelaide, 1881. Photo by Samuel Wright Sweet. State Library of South Australia, Adelaide. (right) C.H. Workman. Photo by Dover Street ... Read more
Title banner photos by Allans Studios published in Punch (Melbourne, Vic.), 10 December 1914, p. 21, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page13430946Clearly the ... Read more
12 December 2019
15 September 2019
19 September 2023
In this, the last instalment of J. ALAN KENYON’s memoirs, he shares more anecdotes and pays tribute to some of the men and women of the theatre and films.George ... Read more
1 December 2022
During the 1950s, scenic artist J. ALAN KENYON was back at J.C. Williamson Ltd, working on sets for Annie Get Your Gun, Oklahoma! and other plays, as he ... Read more
1 March 2022
In Part 8 of J. ALAN KENYON’s memoirs, he recalls (among other things) working on the 1940 epic film Forty Thousand Horsemen, the story of Australian Light ... Read more
27 May 2021
Scenic artist J. ALAN (GEORGE) KENYON’s memoirs continue. In this installment, after taking time out from film work, he returns to the studio where among ... Read more