Pearls Before Swine (musical)

Last updated

Pearls Before Swine
Pearls Before Swine 1986 LP cover.jpg
Original cast recording
MusicChris Harriott
LyricsDennis Watkins
Book Dennis Watkins
Premiere13 May 1986: Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney
Productions1986 Sydney/Melbourne
1988 Penrith

Pearls Before Swine is an Australian musical with book and lyrics by Dennis Watkins and music by Chris Harriott. Billed as "in the tradition of South Pacific and Apocalypse Now ", it is a satirical take on Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, suggesting that one of the world's worst cabaret entertainers, Lamont Cranston, was responsible for the My Lai Massacre. [1]

Contents

Production history

Pearls Before Swine opened at Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre on 13 May 1986. It was directed by Geoffrey Rush with choreography by Mark Daly and musical direction by Harriott. The cast included Dennis Watkins (Lamont Cranston), Valerie Bader, Terry Serio, Robyne Dunn, Jenny Vuletic, Mark Daly, Toni Allaylis and Jonathan Biggins. [2] The production moved to the Everest Theatre at Sydney's Seymour Centre between 5 June and 5 July 1986. [3] It then transferred to Melbourne, playing at the Universal Theatre from 15 July 1986 to 24 August 1986. [2] [4]

Penrith's Q Theatre revived the musical in June 1988 and this production also played at the Riverside Theatres Parramatta's Lennox Theatre. [2]

Virgin Records released a cast recording in 1986. [5]

Musical numbers

Musical numbers taken from the cast recording: [1]

Reception

Critical reaction was highly positive. The Sydney Morning Herald called Pearls Before Swine "a highly subversive, thoroughly entertaining, flawlessly constructed piece of propaganda that is beautifully directed by Geoffrey Rush". [6] The Age said that the musical "bounces along with tremendous verve and gusto, pillaging and plundering and laying siege to good taste" and "if it's not a smash hit with Melbourne audiences, I'll be surprised". [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Rush</span> Australian actor

Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor. He is known for his eccentric leading man roles on stage and screen. He is among 24 people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting, having received an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award. He also received three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. Rush is the founding president of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts and was named the 2012 Australian of the Year.

Pearls Before Swine may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Waters (actor)</span> Australian actor

John Russell Waters is an Australian film, theatre and television actor, singer, guitarist, songwriter and musician best known in Australia, where he moved to in 1968. He is the son of Scottish actor Russell Waters. John Waters has been in the industry for over 50 years, and was part of the Australian children's television series Play School for 18 years.

Esther Davis is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her roles as Phryne Fisher in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and its film adaptation, Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears, and as Amelia Vanek in The Babadook. Other major works include a recurring role as Lady Crane in season six of the television series Game of Thrones, Sister Iphigenia in Lambs of God, and the role of Ellen Kelly in Justin Kurzel's True History of the Kelly Gang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline McKenzie</span> Australian actress

Jacqueline Susan McKenzie is an Australian film and stage actress.

Janet Andrewartha is an Australian television and theatre actress. Andrewartha began her career as a music teacher before attending drama school. She graduated in 1979and began securing television and theatre roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine McClements</span> Australian actress

Catherine McClements is an Australian stage, film and television actress and television presenter. She is known for her TV roles in Water Rats and Tangle, for which she won Logie Awards, and has performed in stage productions for theatre companies such as Belvoir St Theatre, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Sydney Theatre Company and the State Theatre Company of South Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marina Prior</span> Australian soprano and actress

Marina Prior is an Australian soprano and actress with a career mainly in musical theatre. From 1990 to 1993, she starred as the original Christine Daaé in the Australian premiere of The Phantom of the Opera, opposite Anthony Warlow and later Rob Guest.

Geoffrey Walter Edelsten was an Australian businessman and former physician known for founding the health care company Allied Medical Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Ashley</span> American actor

Trevor Ashley is an Australian musical theatre actor, cabaret and drag artist based in Sydney. He also has appeared on television in The Very Trevor Ashley Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christie Whelan Browne</span> Australian actress

Christine Whelan Browne is an Australian performer who has worked extensively in musical theatre as an actress, dancer and singer. She has also appeared on television shows and in films. In March 2012, she married fellow performer, Rohan Browne.

<i>The Hayseeds</i> 1933 film

The Hayseeds is a 1933 Australian musical comedy from Beaumont Smith. It centres on the rural family, the Hayseeds, about whom Smith had previously made six silent films, starting with Our Friends, the Hayseeds (1917). He retired from directing in 1925 but decided to revive the series in the wake of the box office success of On Our Selection (1932). It was the first starring role in a movie for stage actor Cecil Kellaway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Harris (Australian actor)</span> Australian Broadway actor and singer (born 1975)

David Harris is an Australian actor and singer. In Australia, he is best known for his performances as Chris in Miss Saigon, Fiyero in Wicked and Emmett in Legally Blonde having received Helpmann Award nominations for all three leading roles. Harris also starred as the Baker in Victorian Opera's production of Into the Woods and, in America, as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables opposite Terrence Mann in 2015. He has released two solo albums. Since early 2023, he has played the role of The Duke of Monroth in the Broadway theater production of Moulin Rouge! The Musical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Gaden</span> Australian actor and director

John Stuart Gaden is an Australian actor and director known particularly for his stage career, although he has also made some film and television appearances.

<i>Beach Blanket Tempest</i>

Beach Blanket Tempest is an Australian musical with book and lyrics by Dennis Watkins and music by Chris Harriott, loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. Set on the fictional island of Avalon, which according to this play is located somewhere in the Great Barrier Reef, the musical combines Shakespeare's tale with 1960s California surf film culture.

Esther Hannaford is an Australian singer and actor who has performed major roles in musical theatre in Australia. Her roles include Penny Pingleton in the original Australian cast of Hairspray, for which she received a Helpmann Award, Ann Darrow in King Kong, and Carole King in Beautiful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rowan Witt</span> Australian actor

Rowan Witt is an Australian film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for starring in The Book of Mormon, Hamilton, Totally Completely Fine, She Loves Me,Dogfight, Gloria, Into The Woods, South Pacific, Home and Away, and The Matrix.

Stephen Ross Madsen is an Australian actor. He is best known for his role as Jason "J.D." Dean in the Australian production of Heathers: The Musical, and in 2017, he originated the role of Alexander Shkuratov in the musical Muriel's Wedding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Rathgeber</span> Australian actor and singer

Alex Rathgeber is an Australian actor and singer, perhaps best known for his Helpmann Award-winning performance as Billy Crocker in Anything Goes. More recently he appeared as the Tin Man in Andrew Lloyd Webber's revival of The Wizard of Oz.

Eryn Jean Norvill, sometimes spelt Eryn-Jean Norvill, is an Australian stage and television actress. She has mostly performed in Sydney Theatre Company productions, and frequently collaborated with STC artistic director Kip Williams. In May 2022 she played all 26 characters in an adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

References

  1. 1 2 Pearls Before Swine (liner notes). Virgin Records. 1986. CBS 466884 2.
  2. 1 2 3 "Pearls Before Swine". www.ausstage.edu.au. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  3. ↑ "Theatre Directory". Sydney Morning Herald. 5 June 1986. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Schembri, Jim (18 July 1986). "Days of swine". The Age. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
  5. ↑ "Pearls Before Swine - 1986 Original Cast".
  6. ↑ "Theatre". Sydney Morning Herald. 13 June 1986. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
  7. ↑ Radic, Leonard (18 July 1986). "Now, Vietnam the musical". The Age. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.