Dennis Watkins | |
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Other names | Lamont Cranston |
Dennis Watkins is an Australian playwright, producer and performer.
Watkins used the stage name Lamont Cranston [1] who was also a character he played in some of his productions. [2] [3] He wrote or co-wrote Newton Newton, [1] Stalin - The Musical, [4] The Iceberg Cometh, [5] Dingo Girl, Beach Blanket Tempest , [6] Entertainment This Week Salutes The Worst of Lamont Cranston, Ho Ho Ho It's Lamont Cranston, [2] Pearls Before Swine , [3] [7] Burger Brain - The Fast Food Musical , [8] and The Eighth Wonder . [9] He was the lead singer of the band Men of Harlech [10] and brought Theatre Sports to Australia and appeared as judge when it was made into a television series. [11] [12]
Watkins worked for the ABC as their commissioning editor for comedy, [13] [14] was the artistic director of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, [15] was a board member of Company B and an associate director at the Sydney Theatre Company. [16]
Pearls Before Swine may refer to:
Robert James Ellis was an Australian writer, journalist, filmmaker, and political commentator. He was a student at the University of Sydney at the same time as other notable Australians including Clive James, Germaine Greer, Les Murray, John Bell, Robert Hughes and Mungo McCallum. He lived in Sydney with the author and screenwriter Anne Brooksbank; they had three children.
Albert Watson Newton was an Australian media personality. He was a Logie Hall of Fame inductee, quadruple Gold Logie–winning entertainer, and radio, theatre, and television personality and compère.
Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) is a not-for-profit national youth theatre company located in Woolloomooloo, New South Wales, Australia. It was founded in 1963 by Eleanor Witcombe.
Ursula Yovich is an Aboriginal Australian actress and singer. She is known for numerous stage appearances, for co-writing and appearing in the rock musical Barbara and the Camp Dogs (2017), and several film and TV appearances.
Dina Panozzo is an Australian-born actress of Italian descent.
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.
Nancye Lee Bertles AM, billed under her maiden name as Nancye Hayes, is an Australian actress, dancer, singer and choreographer/director and narrator. She has been a leading figure in Australian musical theatre since the 1960s. Although her roles have been almost exclusively in theatre, she has briefly worked in television as a character actress, filling in for Judy Nunn on the soap opera Home and Away.
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.
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.
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.
Alan Burke was an Australian writer and film director and producer. His credits include the musical Lola Montez.
Love and War is a 1967 Australian TV series.
John O'May is an American-born Australian actor, best known for his stage performances.
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 for originating the role of Alexander Shkuratov in the musical Muriel's Wedding.
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Rhonda Wilson is an Australian actress and director. For her performance in The Hour Before My Brother Dies she was nominated for the 1987 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Lead Actress in a Telefeature, a role she was reprising from the earlier stage production.
Patsy Stephen is an Australian actress. She played the lead role in Candy Regentag and in the TV miniseries Dancing Daze, co-starred in Prejudice and featured in the TV series Chances. Together with Chad Tyler and Crispin Taylor she founded Don't Stop Now Productions who put on the collection of plays All in the Timing in 1995. She had previously appeared on stage in Sight Unseen in 1994.
Theatre Sports is an Australian improvisational comedy television series broadcast by the ABC in 1987. It was based on the Canadian game of theatresports, created by Keith Johnstone, and features four teams of four improvising based on supplied game scenarios. and The Hanging Judge. Theatre Sports had become popular at the Belvoir Street Theatre where it was run by Dennis Watkins and Paul Chubb. ABC adapted it for TV bringing in Chubb as host and Watkins as a judge alongside Debbie Spillane and The Hanging Judge.
Burger Brain - The Fast Food Musical is an Australian musical with book and lyrics by Dennis Watkins and music by Chris Harriott.