A Starry, Starry Night
December 6th, 2008
The fishnet stockings and high heels were donned one more time near year’s end but it was for a great cause – the annual Starry, Starry Night Ball at Crown for the Alannah and Madeline Foundation. It was the eleventh year for the show which attracts more and more actors, TV stars and sports personalities to perform outside their comfort zones. A bit like me as The Narrator.
A couple of years ago Liberal Party leader Ted Baillieu was a highlight in the midst of an election campaign trying to channel Elvis. And another election – the last Federal one – fell on the same day as SST so many of us missed the annual Starry experience.
In an earlier outing I was conned into donning prison garb (again) to do Presley’s Jailhouse Rock. Loved the song as a kid. Just didn’t realise when I volunteered how many verses there were to remember and how tricky the lyrics were.
Anyway, this year it was originally going to be famous jockeys (who do a number every year) and Hinch as The Narrator -- billed as the Jockey Horror Show-- for The Time Warp. No offence, but I lucked out with a glamour team of TV stars instead.
Lauren Phillips (Postcards) was Magenta, Georgia Sinclair (Channel Nine) was Columbia, Blair McDonough (Big Brother, Neighbours) was Frank ‘n Furter and Colin Moriaty (Postcards) was a suitably Gothic Riff Raff.
The ensemble came from the Todd Patrick Dancers in Prahran. The indefatigable and endlessly talented Peter Sullivan was again musical director and Annette Philpott had the crazy job of organizing all the performers and their rehearsals. She does a brilliant, at times thankless, job every year.
The Rocky Horror company graciously gave me one of my costumes from the real show which is still going at The Comedy Theatre and looks like going into 2009.
And I guess we’ll all be back for Starry, Starry Night in November 2009. It raises a lot of money for a great children’s foundation that was born out of tragedy at Port Arthur.
That’s it. It’s over
As Brad says when the surveillance monitor reveals a naked Janet in the arms of the scientifically-created hunk Rocky: ‘Janet, How could you. That’s it. It’s over.’
And for me, as The Narrator, who interrupts that scene in the Rocky Horror Show, that’s it, it’s over. The end of the second show on Sunday, October 19, at the Comedy Theatre brought the curtain down on my fledgling late-in-life career as a thespian.
In September and October I wore the fishnets and the high heels for just on fifty performances. It was an extraordinary experience. Wouldn’t have missed it for quids, as they say. I learned a lot late in life. After all these years talking for a living I finally learned about breathing and voice projection and using your lungs to full capacity. Learned vocal chord protection and pronunciation techniques that I wish I had known before I developed polyps on my vocal chords thirty years ago. An easily identified muddy and husky voice has been a legacy.
I am looking forward to getting my life back and my wife back (no she never went away) but I have heaps more things to do in the next twelve months –including the publication of two new books. The first I Beat The Booze –And You Can Too comes out nationally in February.
My Rocky Horror world can best be expressed in a farewell letter I wrote to the cast who really are a loyal and closely knit supportive family.
I said:
‘Today I open and close The Narrator’s book for the last time. For me it will be a sweet and sour experience. Sweet because I’ll get some normality back into my life – and some days off – but sour because I will truly miss all of you.
As Sharon Millichip mentioned to me one night: we lived in parallel worlds that barely touched. Most nights I wouldn’t say ‘hello’ to Kelly until the curtain call. Became a ritual. But I felt more connected to you guys than you can imagine. As a theatrical novice and almost an interloper I was touched by the warm welcome you all gave me. It was great being surrounded by so much talent. And to realise how versatile and relentlessly hard-working you are. It was a tremendous experience and an honour to work with you. And it was fun.
If Riff Raff was ‘only away for a moment’ I was only there for a moment. But it is a moment I will cherish. It’s certainly ‘one for the Bucket List’.
Our paths will cross again. As Alan Funt said on Candid Camera ‘some day when you least expect it….’.
Thanks everyone
Derryn’
I was in a time warp for several months. I look forward to being there again sometime.
October 20, 2008
SHOW’S ON!
By Derryn Hinch
Monday 29th September 2008
I have a good excuse for not updating the Rocky Horror experience earlier. I’ve been too damn busy. We had a week of Full House previews at the Comedy Theatre and then opened on September 18.
In my dressing room before Opening Night I flashed back on the hundreds of opening nights I’d been to as a guest –on the other side of the footlights. The stories of actors hating the first night full of A list and C list celebrities all on freebies. All sitting on their hands saying ‘show me’. And itching to get to the after party. And I was one of those critics who had never pulled a verbal punch if I didn’t like something on stage or on film.
Chicago couldn’t have been saved by Elliot Ness. Cats should never have left the animal shelter. The ultimate one song wonder – but thanks for the memories. John Dietrich in Oklahoma! Danced like he pulled his chaps on backwards. Grease was a load of stale Brylcreem. The Odd Angry Shot should have been called Then Odd Angry Shit.
And now, in a career switch I never dreamed I would get involved in, I was about to face a live theatre audience. And the critics hated me. Luckily the audience disagreed and, despite or maybe because of, the reviews the producers asked me to extend my contract.
Eight shows a week (including two on Saturday and two on Sunday) is a big ask especially when you have another fulltime job called a daily radio program. Especially when you want to spend hours glued to SKY and CNN to watch the recession/Depression unfolding and with a close presidential election only weeks away.
We came to a compromise. I’ll now depart late October with close to 50 performances under my belt --or smoking jacket.
There’s a story in that jacket. The first one they trotted out for me was a red velvet concoction from God knows where which looked like I’d stolen it from Father Christmas. Now I’m wearing a satin and brocade number that was originally designed for Anthony Warlow yonks ago and cost $7000. I put it on and hope a sprinkle of his fairy dust remains.
Also noticed that the name inked on the midriff belt containing my audio pack says Bill Hunter. At least I’m following in some illustrious footsteps.
While we were experimenting on The Look for The Narrator I also tried on an electric blue number which I correctly identified as something lairy from Richard Wilkins’ closet and a double-breasted blazer I was told Bert Newton had worn in The Sound of Music. I was pleased it was too big for me.
Anyway, the show’s in full swing. I’m thrilled and honoured to be doing it. It’s great to be learning stuff at my age. After decades of talking for a living I’ve been quietly having lessons from a voice and breathing coach. I’m not even fretting that I couldn’t be on the Head Table at the official Grand Final Breakfast this year and I’ll be on stage instead of watching Geelong and Hawthorn.
And, at 64, it’s a helluva thing to tick off my Bucket List.
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LIVING IN A TIME WARP
By Derryn Hinch
Monday 1st September 2008
It was a recent Sunday morning in a Star City hotel room at Sydney Darling Harbour casino complex. I woke up, jumped out of bed and felt a distinctive twinge in the small of my back. Welcome to show business. I had spent several hours the previous day on stage at the Star City Theatre rehearsing for my role as The Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show.
Naively I had thought that being the narrator would mean I would just ‘narrate’ and, seeing that I speak for a living on 3AW, it didn’t seem such a quantum leap.
I had either not heard the producers, or missed the fine print, that nobody just talks in the world of Rocky Horror. Being asked to don fishnets and high heels for Herald Sun photographer Fiona Hamilton, when my new career was announced, should have been warning enough.
So there I was rehearsing ‘It’s just a jump to the left’ and planting the seeds for that back pain with ‘It’s the pelvic thrust… that’s really drives you insayayayane…Let’s do the The Time Warp Again’.
In the middle of all this my father-in-law asked ‘ When were you last on stage?’ The answer: Never. Not quite true. The first time I appeared on stage was with the New Plymouth Repertory Company across the Tasman in 1962. It was a production of Peter Pan and I played one of The Lost Boys named Slightly Soiled.
It was also the last time I appeared on stage until now and some would say I’ve been ‘slightly soiled’ ever since in a controversial and turbulent media career spanning almost fifty years.
The role of The Narrator is an interesting one. It has been played with many interpretations. Stuart Wagstaff was probably the best-known actor to fill the role in Australia and, I’m told, his was a sophisticated if fey performance.
In the recent Sydney production actor John Waters played him in a crumpled raincoat with a touch of Columbo – more like the movie version where The Narrator was called The Criminologist. And that’s what he is meant to be. An academic who has studied UFOs and cults and the grisly goings on at Frank ‘n Furter’s gothic castle.
For the final weeks of the Sydney run Big Brother’s Gretel Killeen ( one of the rare times the role has been played by a woman) was a sort of sexually repressed prim librarian. And, in one of the strangest castings, the role was played by a former New Zealand Prime Minister, the controversial and pugnacious Robert ‘Piggy’ Muldoon.
I’ve had long talks about it with acclaimed director Gale Edwards. Behind all the fishnets and the drag in Rocky Horror she sees a bleak warning for us ‘insects… crawling on the planet’s face’. It’s a creepy melodrama with hints of Vincent Price.
I’ll play The Narrator as the investigating academic in the velvet smoking jacket but keep the ‘dark and stormy night’ story line ticking along as the innocent Brad and Janet go, shall we say, from bed to verse.
(Previews start September 12 and Opening Night is September 18)
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that's a wrap
By Derryn Hinch
Monday 8th September 2008
The cast of the Rocky Horror Show has moved in – and there’s no way Melburnians will be able to miss spotting their new home. The exterior of the Comedy Theatre has been transformed into Frankenstein Place. On Sunday, September 7, 340 square metres of mesh were used over three storeys.
Scaling the exterior walls of the Comedy Theatre are the larger-than-life, aluminium cut-out characters from the show. Frank N Furter, Riff Raff, Magenta, Brad, Janet, Dr Scott – and languidly lounging on the front exterior balcony of the theatre, on the corner of Exhibition and Lonsdale Streets, is a 4.2 metre long and 3 metre high Columbia!
Project Manager Nelson Pollard said this is the first time any theatre in Victoria has been entirely wrapped in a banner of this kind. And it’s not surprising that a production as proudly unconventional as the Rocky Horror Show is the first to break boundaries in this area.
The production stars 2007 Helpmann Award winning actor, ARIA-nominated singer/songwriter iOTA as the outrageous Frank N Furter. The much-loved Paul Capsis pulls out his best to play Riff Raff the butler. Tamsin Carroll plays maid Magenta joined by 2008 Helpmann Award winning actress Sharon Millerchip as Columbia. Mamma Mia! star Kellie Rode plays Janet and well-known theatre actor Andrew Bevis will play Brad. Internationally accomplished singer and actor Michael Cormick plays both Eddie and Dr Scott and Simon Farrow takes on the role of Rocky. And Melbourne’s own Mr Controversy Derryn Hinch (that’s me) takes on the integral role of Narrator.
The cast (apart from DH) is the same as the one that garnered rave reviews in Sydney after a sell-out, six-month, run at Star City Theatre in Sydney.
Previews start Friday, September 12. Opening Night, Thursday, September 18.
........................................................................................................................................
LIVING IN A TIME WARP
By Derryn Hinch
Monday 1st September 2008
It was a recent Sunday morning in a Star City hotel room at Sydney Darling Harbour casino complex. I woke up, jumped out of bed and felt a distinctive twinge in the small of my back. Welcome to show business. I had spent several hours the previous day on stage at the Star City Theatre rehearsing for my role as The Narrator in The Rocky Horror Show.
Naively I had thought that being the narrator would mean I would just ‘narrate’ and, seeing that I speak for a living on 3AW, it didn’t seem such a quantum leap.
I had either not heard the producers, or missed the fine print, that nobody just talks in the world of Rocky Horror. Being asked to don fishnets and high heels for Herald Sun photographer Fiona Hamilton, when my new career was announced, should have been warning enough.
So there I was rehearsing ‘It’s just a jump to the left’ and planting the seeds for that back pain with ‘It’s the pelvic thrust… that’s really drives you insayayayane…Let’s do the The Time Warp Again’.
In the middle of all this my father-in-law asked ‘ When were you last on stage?’ The answer: Never. Not quite true. The first time I appeared on stage was with the New Plymouth Repertory Company across the Tasman in 1962. It was a production of Peter Pan and I played one of The Lost Boys named Slightly Soiled.
It was also the last time I appeared on stage until now and some would say I’ve been ‘slightly soiled’ ever since in a controversial and turbulent media career spanning almost fifty years.
The role of The Narrator is an interesting one. It has been played with many interpretations. Stuart Wagstaff was probably the best-known actor to fill the role in Australia and, I’m told, his was a sophisticated if fey performance.
In the recent Sydney production actor John Waters played him in a crumpled raincoat with a touch of Columbo – more like the movie version where The Narrator was called The Criminologist. And that’s what he is meant to be. An academic who has studied UFOs and cults and the grisly goings on at Frank ‘n Furter’s gothic castle.
For the final weeks of the Sydney run Big Brother’s Gretel Killeen ( one of the rare times the role has been played by a woman) was a sort of sexually repressed prim librarian. And, in one of the strangest castings, the role was played by a former New Zealand Prime Minister, the controversial and pugnacious Robert ‘Piggy’ Muldoon.
I’ve had long talks about it with acclaimed director Gale Edwards. Behind all the fishnets and the drag in Rocky Horror she sees a bleak warning for us ‘insects… crawling on the planet’s face’. It’s a creepy melodrama with hints of Vincent Price.
I’ll play The Narrator as the investigating academic in the velvet smoking jacket but keep the ‘dark and stormy night’ story line ticking along as the innocent Brad and Janet go, shall we say, from bed to verse.
(Previews start September 12 and Opening Night is September 18)
........................................................................................................................................
HINCH GETS THEATRE GIG
Hopes to return to TV
By Katherine Field
National Entertainment Writer
SYDNEY, Aug 6 AAP - Broadcaster Derryn Hinch has scored a theatre
gig and now has his sights set on returning to TV.
The 64-year-old is set to be the narrator for The Rocky Horror Show during a four week stint in Melbourne from mid-September.
Speaking during a walk in Melbourne today, the upbeat radio host said he was feeling fit and healthy and excited about joining the show.
"Two years ago, you look at pictures of me then and I was nearly dead," Hinch told AAP.
"So anything that happens is good. two years ago I couldn't have done this but I feel really fit and my doctors are really happy with me."
In 2006 Hinch nearly died from blood poisoning and a year later he revealed he was suffering from advanced cirrhosis due to chronic alcohol abuse.
Hinch is now looking to expand his career as he approaches nearly 50 years in the industry.
"If I was asked to, I'd love to do television again, if something came up," he said.
The former TV current affairs host had a cameo appearance in the hit gangland drama Underbelly last year, and said he was keen to be part of the second series.
"I enjoyed doing that," he said.
But when it comes to current affairs, Hinch says he's disillusioned.
"I look at current affairs shows in Australia and think they're not current affairs," he said.
"I saw they were rating the best potato chips or the best pizzas and I'm thinking holy schmolly.
"They can't find another way to show a woman's boobs, how many wonder bras and sports bras and exercise bras can you have (stories on)."
Hinch says performing eight shows a week for a month will be quite "gruelling" because he'll still be doing his radio program during the day.
"I'm very keen to do it, it's a very important role for me because Rocky Horror is a part of musical history," he said.
"If you muck it up they'll never forgive you. I hope to do it proud."
Hinch said that being part of The Rocky Horror Show brought back fond memories of his marriage to his former wife of 14 years Jacki Weaver.
"It's funny going back to the Comedy Theatre because years and years ago I spent a lot of time there because Jacki was appearing there in They’re Playing Our Song and I wooed her there," he said.
"I think I went to the Comedy Theatre, saw the show something like 24 times.
"I know the theatre well from the other side of the footlights."
The Rocky Horror Show opens in Melbourne on September 18.
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