History
Written in 1986 by Daniel Abineri it premiered in Melbourne in 1989 and featured Russell Crowe in the title role. [1] Bad Boy Johnny enjoyed a six-month run in Melbourne and Sydney, won two International Pater Awards for best libretto and score, and spawned a cast album on WEA and a single "Enemy The Sun". The late Australian pop singer Troy Newman who took over the title role, is heard on the official cast album and single in place of Russell Crowe.
In April 1993 a showcase performance of the musical, directed by Daniel Abineri was performed at Jacksons Lane Community Theatre N6. Performing in the cast were 1980s pop band Then Jerico singer Mark Shaw in the title role, Daniel Abineri as Father McLean, with Elizabeth Carling from TV's drama series Boon, Sebastian Abineri as Pope Liberty III, Jody Saron as Desire and Cathy Murphy and Matt Selby in supporting roles. [2]
On 26 January 1994, Bad Boy Johnny was re-mounted as a five-week limited showcase run at The Union Chapel in Islington London, again directed by Daniel Abineri and starring Craig Ferguson and Mark Shaw it also featured Cornel John as Charlie Fortune, Anna Jacysaon as Mary, Eve Barker as Desire, Stephen Marcus as Pope Liberty, and Sandra Bee, Perry Benson, Louisa Casano, Mark Frost, Daniel Kyle and Louise Anne Wesley as the ensemble. [3]
The 1994 London production made national news when it caused grave offence to the Roman Catholic Church and was closed down after just nine performances. [4]
Synopsis
Born on the wrong side of the tracks to a single mother and part-time prostitute called Mary, Johnny steals his first guitar and forms a band, the Prophets Of Doom. He is discovered and managed by his evil parish priest Father MacLean.
Booked onto an X Factor-type show called Have Your Say, Johnny is voted by the public as the person the world would like to see as the new Pontiff. However, the current incumbent, the obese Pope Liberty III, is not going to step down. Enter Johnny's number one fan Desire who, disguised as a nun, tries to seduce Liberty, leading him to die of a massive heart attack.
So Johnny is ordained as the people's Pope. However, he learns that MacLean raped his mother in the confessional box when she was just sixteen and that he is in fact Johnny's father. Things get even worse for Johnny when it then transpires that Maclean murdered Mary in order to get his hands on Johnny. Johnny swears revenge, so MacLean plans to have his client assassinated live on his TV show, The Vatican Tonite.
Russell Ira Crowe is an actor. He was born in New Zealand, spent ten years of his childhood in Australia, and moved there permanently at age twenty one. He has earned various accolades, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a British Academy Film Award.
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a compilation album of American psychedelic and garage rock singles that were released during the mid-to-late 1960s. It was created by Lenny Kaye, who was a writer and clerk at the Village Oldies record shop in New York. He would later become the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. Kaye produced Nuggets under the supervision of Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman. Kaye conceived the project as a series of roughly eight LP installments focusing on different US regions, but Elektra convinced him that one double album would be more commercially viable. It was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term "punk rock". It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976. In the 1980s, Rhino Records issued Nuggets in a series of fifteen installments, and in 1998 as a 4-cd box set.
Bye Bye Birdie is a stage musical with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, based upon a book by Michael Stewart.
Leonard John McLean was an English unlicensed boxer, bouncer, bodyguard, businessman and actor. He was known as "The Guv'nor", "the King of the Cobbles" and "the hardest man in Britain".
The Boy from Oz is an Australian jukebox musical based on the life of singer and songwriter Peter Allen, featuring songs written by him. The book commissioned for the musical is by Nick Enright, based on Stephen MacLean's 1996 biography of Allen. Premiering in Australia in 1998 starring Todd McKenney, a revised version of the musical, written by Martin Sherman, opened on Broadway in 2003, with Hugh Jackman in the title role.
Gary Olsen was an English actor. He played Ben in the BBC television sitcom 2point4 Children.
Carmine Ugo Mariano was an American jazz saxophonist who focused on the alto and soprano saxophone. He occasionally performed and recorded on flute and nadaswaram as well.
Mark Shaw is an English singer and songwriter who formed the 1980s rock band Then Jerico, which he continues to front. Their last studio album was 1998's Orgasmaphobia.
Dorsey William Burnette III is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was part of the band Fleetwood Mac from 1987 to 1995. Burnette also had a brief career in acting.
The Snake is the first solo album by Shane MacGowan with backing band The Popes. Released in 1994 by ZTT Records. Guests on the album include Johnny Depp and members of The Dubliners, Thin Lizzy and The Pogues.
"Lean on Me" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bill Withers. It was released in April 1972 as the first single from his second album, Still Bill. It was a number one single on both the soul and Billboard Hot 100 charts, the latter chart for three weeks in July 1972. Billboard ranked it as the No. 7 song of 1972. It was ranked number 208 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2010. Numerous other versions have been recorded, and it is one of only nine songs to have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with versions recorded by two different artists.
Steve Bastoni is an Italian-born Australian actor. He became a household name in Australia for his role as Constable Yannis 'Angel' Angelopoulos in Police Rescue and as Steve Parker in Neighbours. His memorable performance in 15 Amore garnered him a nomination for the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
The Clancy Brothers' Greatest Hits is an original studio album of some of The Clancy Brothers' most popular hits re-recorded with Louis Killen. The Clancys had performed each of these songs previously with different arrangements with their former partner Tommy Makem in the 1960s. This was the group's first of three albums for Vanguard Records, their last album with Killen, and the final album they would release for almost a decade. The recording was initially released as a double album. A backing musician on a few of the tracks is Don McLean, best known for his song "American Pie".
Bernard Norman Gannon, known as Ben Gannon, was an Australian film, television and stage producer.
Nadine Lynette Garner is an Australian actress who started her career as a teen performer.
Daniel Abineri is an English songwriter, actor, director, narrator and playwright known for writing the book, music and lyrics for the controversial rock musical Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom. The 1994 London production made national news when it caused grave offence to the Roman Catholic Church and was closed down after just nine performances.
Tim Cummings is an American actor and author.
Wendy Anne-Marie Stapleton is an Australian pop/rock singer-songwriter, musical theatre performer and television actress and presenter Stapleton has performed as a backing singer, session musician and a solo artist; she fronted various Melbourne-based groups including Wendy Stapleton Band (1976–1978) and Wendy & the Rocketts [sic] (1980–1985) which had a top 30 hit single with "Play the Game" in June 1983.
Troy Newman was an Australian singer-songwriter and musician who was a member of Perth pop, rock band Boys from 1987 to 1988 and also had a solo career, releasing two albums, Gypsy Moon (1991) and It's Like This (1995) before he died in March 1997.
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1989 Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom