A Cup of Tea, a Bex and a Good Lie Down | |
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Written by | John McKellar |
Directed by | William Orr |
Date premiered | November 9, 1965 |
Place premiered | Phillip St Theatre, Sydney |
Original language | English |
Genre | musical revue |
A Cup of Tea, a Bex and a Good Lie Down is a 1965 Australian stage revue by John McKellar. The title references Bex, which was a popular compound analgesic in Australia at the time. The play popularised the phrase, "A Cup of Tea, a Bex and a Good Lie Down", which "quickly became a common Australian saying". [1]
The play premiered at Phillip Street Theatre and ran for more than 250 performances. [2] [3] [4] The cast included John Ewart, [2] Gloria Dawn, [5] Ruth Cracknell and Reg Livermore. [6] [7] The play is McKellar's most critically acclaimed and popularly attended work. [1] The Bulletin called it "good, clean fun" with "some brilliant spots and an enlivening finale." [8]
Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills is a British actress. The daughter of Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, she began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in the British crime drama film Tiger Bay (1959), the Academy Juvenile Award for Disney's Pollyanna (1960) and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961.
Students produce a number of comedy revues at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia each year. Written and performed by students, the shows comment satirically on current affairs, pop culture, dating and university life. They feature song parodies, short sketches, video segments and dance numbers. The first revue at the university, entitled Low Notes, was organised by the Students' Union in 1956. The first revue by the UNSW Medical Society Revue, held in 1975, was entitled Rumpleforeskin and was quickly followed by the UNSW Law Revue Society's The Assault and Battery Operated Show.
Louise Elizabeth Goddard, professionally known as Liza Goddard, is an English television and stage actress, best known for her work in the 1970s and 1980s.
Ronald Grant Taylor was an English-Australian actor best known as the abrasive General Henderson in the Gerry Anderson science fiction series UFO and for his lead role in Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940).
Reginald Dawson Livermore is an Australian actor, singer, theatrical performer, designer, director, lyricist and writer and former television presenter.
Bex was a strong compound analgesic which was popular in Australia for much of the 20th century. It came in the form of APC (aspirin–phenacetin–caffeine) tablets or powder, containing 42% aspirin and 42% phenacetin plus caffeine.
Bryan Davies is a British-born Australian pop music singer and entertainer. He appeared on 1960s TV pop shows, Sing! Sing! Sing! and Bandstand. From March 1962, at age 17, he became the youngest person in Australia to host their own TV show, The Bryan Davies Show. The singer issued two albums, On My Way (1965) and Together by Myself (1968). His most popular singles were, "Dream Girl" and "Five Foot Two Eyes of Blue" (October), which both reached the top 4 on the Sydney charts.
The Phillip Street Theatre was a popular and influential Australian theatre and theatrical company, located in Phillip Street in Sydney that was active from 1954 and 1971 that became well known for its intimate satirical revue productions.
Cup of Tea may refer to:
John Alan McKellar was an Australian writer, primarily of comedy revues or musical theatre. His most critically acclaimed and popularly attended work was A Cup of Tea, a Bex and a Good Lie Down which premiered at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre on 18 September 1965 and ran for more than 250 performances. He was the resident writer at that theatre in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1970s he provided the slogan, "The drink you have when you're not having a drink" to advertise Claytons non-alcoholic beverages. Most of his humour involved social satire where typical self-mockery was developed into an art form. Some of his works provided vernacular phrases used in Australian English including "is Australia really necessary", "A Cup of Tea, a Bex and a Good Lie Down", and "But I wouldn't want to live there".
The Sentimental Bloke is a 1961 Australian musical by Albert Arlen, Nancy Brown and Lloyd Thomson based on Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C.J. Dennis. Set in Melbourne, it is one of the most successful Australian musicals of the 20th century. The musical has also been adapted for television and ballet.
The Outcasts was a 1961 Australian television serial. A period drama, it was broadcast live, though with some film inserts. All 12 episodes of the serial survive as kinescope recordings. It was a sequel to Stormy Petrel.
Gloria Dawn was an Australian actress, choreographer singer and vaudevillian performer. She was one of the leading stars of the stage from the 1950s to her death.
Vincent Chemical Company was an Australian business noted for manufacture of a popular compound analgesic "Vincent's APC"
"A Time to Speak" is a 1965 Australian television film, which aired on ABC. It is a period drama set around 1900. It was written by Noel Robinson. This was the third production to appear in three weeks. It aired on 7 April 1965 in Sydney and Melbourne.
Patricia Mary Byson Flower was an English Australian writer of plays, television plays and novels.
"The Recruiting Officer" is a 1965 Australian television production based on the famous play The Recruiting Officer, which was the first play ever performed in Australia. "The Recruiting Officer" aired on 6 January 1965 in Sydney, 13 January 1965 in Brisbane, and on 20 January 1965 in Melbourne.
"The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" is a 1961 Australian television drama play based on Barry Pree's 1961 play adaptation of the novel by Fergus Hume. It appeared as an episode of the anthology series The General Motors Hour. It aired on 6 August 1961 in Sydney and on 19 August 1961 in Melbourne.
Ned Kelly is an Australian musical with book and lyrics by Reg Livermore and music by Patrick Flynn. It tells the story of Australian bushranger Ned Kelly with an eclectic score combining rock opera, vaudeville and burlesque. The original Australian production played in Adelaide and Sydney in 1977 and 1978.
Lasseter is an Australian musical with book and lyrics by Reg Livermore and music by Sandra McKenzie and Patrick Flynn. Described as a musical fable, it follows the spiritual journey of a disillusioned group of young people who leave the city and temptations of consumer society in search of a Utopia in the Australian outback. The title of the musical was inspired by the explorer Harold Bell Lasseter.
Commencing 18 September. A Cup of Tea, a Bex and a Good Lie Down. Starring: Gloria Dawn, John Ewart, Reginald Livermore, Brigid Lenihan, Kevan Johnston, Judith Roberts, Donald MacDonald, Barbara Wyndon. 7 programs.
There are six programmes for this production in the Wolanski file with no cast differences. The programmes contain brief biographies and photos of the cast. Programmes at the National Library of Australia indicate that this production ran well into 1966 and was performed over 250 times during its extended season.