John Edward Frost (AM) (born 30 September 1952) is an Australian theatrical stage impresario. He is co-founder and CEO of Sydney-based production company The Gordon Frost Organisation (GFO). In December 2020, he sold the company to Crossroads Live Company (CXL) but continues in the role of CEO.
John Edward Frost was educated at the Ferryden Park Primary School, and the Croydon Technical School. His father, Albert Edward was an Adelaide waterside worker and his mother, Louie Dorcas (née Oldfield) was a housewife and an officer cleaner. Frost grew-up in Adelaide where he regularly staged backyard entertainments with his doting Aunt, Mary, who despite her serious speech stutter played Eliza to his Henry Higgins, miming to the My Fair Lady cast album. His childhood was influenced by American television and Hollywood movies at Saturday afternoon cinema sessions. From the moment he saw a production of The Great Waltz at Her Majesty's Theatre in Adelaide he knew what he wanted to do with his life. A short stint in his teens with amateur theatre (he was in the ensemble of a local production of Show Boat) revealed, to his disappointment, that he was more suited to working backstage than performing.[citation needed]
Consequently, he was hired as a dresser for the remainder of the Australian tour. While he was guaranteed employment in each of the cities they played, the management required him to meet his own travelling costs to each of the destinations.[citation needed]
His father, Albert, died while John was travelling with the Mame company on the Transcontinental Train across the Nullarbor Plain to Perth. While the train was not permitted legally to stop to allow him to disembark, the drivers, travelling in opposite directions, agreed to pass slowly enough to allow John to jump from one train carriage to the other. Following his father's funeral he returned to the production of Mame.[citation needed]
Offered the job of Wardrobe Master on the Aztec Services’ production of the stage musical Canterbury Tales at the old Theatre Royal, Castlereagh Street, he went, with his mother's blessing, to live and work in Sydney.[citation needed]
From there he began his rise through the ranks of the theatre, working a succession of administrative, production, and creative roles: usher, dresser, stagehand, front-of-house, assistant theatre manager, programme seller, wardrobe master, general office assistant to Kenn Brodziak, party booking assistant for Harry M Miller Attractions, production assistant, assistant stage manager, stage manager, stage director, company manager, actors’ agent, artistic director/general manager Marion Street Theatre, Killara, and Kinselas - Darlinghurst, Sydney; and international producer.[citation needed]
In Australia, GFO, has produced, co-produced, managed, and invested in productions with other leading international producers.
Gordon Frost Productions
Known affectionately as Frosty the Showman, Frost has been a major producer of musical theatre in Australia since 1989 when GFO moved into large scale productions.
Following Ashley Gordon's death, and a period of personal uncertainty, John continued with GFO and produced a string of successful shows, beginning with The King and I directed by Christopher Renshaw and starring Hayley Mills which toured Australia for 38-weeks; played the West End (starring Elaine Paige); toured the UK (Stefanie Powers); Broadway (starring Donna Murphy); toured the United States (Hayley Mills and Marie Osmond). The Broadway production of The King and I won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.
Over a 40-year career, John Frost (GFO) has staged almost 200 productions in Australia (a combination of original American/UK, or original Australian stagings), the UK(West End and touring), the US (Broadway and touring), and the Asia Pacific.
GFO and SEL co-presented a number of shows, including the arena production of Grease starring John Farnham. He co-produced Sir Peter Hall's acclaimed production of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband, starring Googie Withers, John McCallum, Stephanie Beacham, John Waters, Nicky Henson, Penny Cook, Josephine Byrnes which toured Australia.
He produced a revival (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) of the National Theatre of Great Britain's celebrated production of J.B. Priestley's, An Inspector Calls; and the Australian tours of Mandy Patinkin, together with fellow theatre icon, Patti LuPone, and Met Opera and Broadway star, Nathan Gunn; and Hollywood movie star and cabaret legend, Debbie Reynolds.
In 2010 he produced Dame Julie Andrews in the concert event, The Gift of Music, at the O2 Arena.
Frost produced the Australian tours of the West End hit Calendar Girls, Fame the Musical; and the Australian and Asian tour of Chicago; Doctor Zhivago and the Broadway blockbuster, Wicked. Other productions include: Annie; Geoffrey Rush in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; the Opera Australia production of South Pacific; Legally Blonde the Musical, Grease, in several incarnations; and The Rocky Horror Show.
He presented An Evening With Julie Andrews and Nicholas Hammond (Frederick in the film of The Sound of Music); Driving Miss Daisy starring Dame Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones, and Boyd Gaines; both of which toured Australia.
On London's West End the hit shows The Bodyguard; and Noël Coward's stage play, Blithe Spirit, again with Dame Angela Lansbury, and Charles Edwards and Janie Dee. The critics raved, unanimously, and the show played to capacity business for the entire run.
Other Australian productions include the return tour of Wicked, The King and I with Opera Australia; and Once with the Melbourne Theatre Company.
John was presented with the JC Williamson Lifetime Achievement Award. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM); and, subsequently, Member of Order of Australia (AM) - for services to the theatre. Internationally, GFO has won two Tony Awards for musicals on the Broadway, and received high acclaim for a variety of local and international productions, including the Rodgers and Hammerstein productions of The King and I (1991) and South Pacific (1993); The Secret Garden (1995); The Producers (2003); Wicked (2008). In 1996, the Australian set designer, Brian Thomson, and costume designer, Roger Kirk, won Tony Awards for the Broadway season of The King and I.
In November 2020 GFO mounted a production of Pippin at the Lyric Theatre Sydney. It was the first major musical since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government ordered temporary cessation of Australian live theatre performances.
Period of Co-Production with SEL
In 1998, Sports & Entertainment Limited SEL bought 50% of the GFO. Together with John Frost, James Erskine David Coe, expanded the notion of entertainment, creating arena spectaculars. Grease: The Arena Spectacular! broke all box office records for an arena event in Australia.
In 1999 The Main Event featuring Olivia Newton-John, Anthony Warlow and John Farnham toured to both critical and financial success. The British actor, Tom Conti, starred in a production of the Tony Award-winning play Art.
The Sound of Music, starring Lisa McCune, ran for 36-weeks around Australia, grossing $48 million. It ran at 96% capacity for most of its season, peaking at 101% where, in Melbourne, they sold standing-room during the show's final weeks. In London, The King and I played at the Palladium, starring Elaine Paige, and played for two years and broke all existing records for advance sales at the London Palladium.
Annie starring Anthony Warlow; The Wizard of Oz, Grease: The Mega Musical; Federation Outback Spectacular, were financial success. Man of La Mancha and Footloose proved to be financially disappointing. An arena production of Tim Rice's Musical Spectacular - starring Anthony Warlow, Australian singers, Kate Ceberano and Iva Davies, and the Australian pop group, Bachelor Girl, lost approximately $500,000.
The co-production agreement lasted until 2005.
Sale of Gordon Frost Organisation
On 9 December 2020, Crossroads Live (CXL), a global live entertainment company, with principal offices in Los Angeles and London, announced the acquisition of the Sydney-based Gordon Frost Organisation.[1]
In acquiring The GFO, CXL was immediately positioned as the first truly global company for touring musical theatre production, and as a leading production company in Australia, one of the most important theatre markets in the world.
Further, in securing a base of operations in Sydney, CXL was strategically placed to extend its market leadership as the foremost provider of touring theatrical productions in the key growth markets of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, India, and China.
The GFO Collection Holdings – Victorian Arts Centre Melbourne
The Gordon Frost Organisation (GFO) Collection, donated by Frost in 2001, is more than 30-boxes of archives of stage management records, contractual and business correspondence and company documents; and 20 costumes from majoring touring productions from 1987 to 1999 including: The King and I (1991–96), Hello, Dolly! (1994), Grease (1995), South Pacific (1995), An Ideal Husband (1997) and The Sound of Music (1999).
The GFO 1991 production of The King And I, starring Hayley Mills, was an Australian and international triumph, scooping several Tony Awards after the production transferred to Broadway with Donna Murphy as Mrs Anna. The show had not been produced in Australia for 20 years. It was a major coup for the GFO and opened many international doors.
President and Executive Director of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, Ted Chapin, said: “John Frost's production of The King And I is a classic example of taking a theatrical risk – a risk that ended up paying-off better than anyone could have imagined. John's resume didn't necessarily warrant him being handed the rights to one of Rodgers & Hammerstein's best shows, but he was enthusiastic and spirited – characteristics I am happy to say he still possesses today – and persuasive. Seeing the production in Melbourne was one of the most exciting nights of my life, and that started the worldwide roll-out which, of course, included a triumphant run on Broadway. I am so looking forward to seeing it again, and Opera Australia is the perfect modern partner.”
The Gordon Frost Organisation (GFO) production of The King and I on Broadway(1996), won the coveted Tony Award for ‘Best Revival of a Musical’, as well as the Drama Desk, and New York Outer Critics’ Circle, Awards.
A West End production followed (2002), with Elaine Paige playing Anna Leonowens.
The 2014 production, a remount of the 1991 version, starring Lisa McCune as Anna Leonowens, and Teddy Tahu Rhodes/Jason Lee Scott/Lou Diamond Phillips as The King, was equally successful. It played Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
The years with Harry M Miller and Kenn Brodziak were his most formative years, and was where he learnt everything from tearing tickets, to group sales, and stage management. While technology may have altered the methodology, the basics remain the same.
Awards and nominations
Helpmann Awards
The Helpmann Awards is an awards show, celebrating live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 2001.[2] In 2014, Frostreceived the JC Williamson Award, the LPA's highest honour, for their life's work in live performance.[3]
Jesus Christ Superstar is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with much of the plot centered on Judas, who is dissatisfied with the direction in which Jesus is steering his disciples. Contemporary attitudes, sensibilities and slang pervade the rock opera's lyrics, and ironic allusions to modern life are scattered throughout the depiction of political events. Stage and film productions accordingly contain many intentional anachronisms.
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, who attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives. He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love; their choices of husbands are successively less palatable for Tevye. An edict of the tsar eventually evicts the Jews from their village.
Evita is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. It concentrates on the life of Argentine political leader, activist and actress Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. The story follows Evita's early life, rise to power, charity work, and death.
Chicago is a 1975 American musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. Set in Chicago in the Jazz Age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal".
Mame is a musical with a book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. Originally titled My Best Girl, it is based on the 1955 novel Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis and the 1956 Broadway play of the same name by Lawrence and Lee. A period piece set in New York City and spanning the Great Depression and World War II, it focuses on eccentric bohemian Mame Dennis, whose famous motto is "Life is a banquet and most poor sons of bitches are starving to death." Her fabulous life with her wealthy friends is interrupted when the young son of her late brother arrives to live with her. They cope with the Depression in a series of adventures.
Anthony Warlow is an Australian musical theatre performer, noted for his character acting and considerable vocal range. He is a classically trained lyric baritone and made his debut with the Australian Opera in 1980.
Leonard Joseph Cariou is a Canadian stage actor, singer and stage director. He gained prominence for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979) alongside Angela Lansbury for which he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He also received Tony nominations for his roles in the Betty Comden and Adolph Green musical Applause (1970), and the Sondheim musical A Little Night Music (1973).
Robert Mills is an Australian actor, television host and singer-songwriter. He was one of the finalists from the first season of Australian Idol in 2003. He co-hosted the late-night quiz show The Mint with his childhood idol, J-Dawg, the two would go on to star in the hit show Young Talent Time, and was a regular singer on the game show The Singing Bee both on the Nine Network. Mills took part in the ninth season of Dancing with the Stars, and appeared on Celebrity Apprentice. In 2008, Mills won the lead male role of Fiyero in a production of Wicked, and continued the role when it moved around Australia. He has since starred in a number of popular large scale musical theatre productions. In 2012, Mills was announced as the host of Network Ten's revamped Young Talent Time. He played teacher Finn Kelly on Neighbours from 2017 until 2022. He is engaged to Georgie Tunny from The Project.
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.
George Hearn is an American actor and bass-baritone singer, primarily in Broadway musical theatre.
The Secret Garden is a musical based on the 1911 novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The musical's script and lyrics are by Marsha Norman, with music by Lucy Simon. It premiered on Broadway in 1991 and ran for 709 performances.
Michael Howell Blakemore AO OBE was an Australian actor, writer and theatre director who also made a handful of films. A former Associate Director of the National Theatre, in 2000 he became the only individual to win Tony Awards for Best Director of a Play and Musical in the same year for Copenhagen and Kiss Me, Kate.
Harvest Rain Theatre Company was a not-for-profit theatre company based in Brisbane, Australia. Beginning as an amateur company, it evolved into a professional musical theatre company presenting arena productions around Australia, before closing in 2022.
James Millar is an Australian actor, singer and writer. He wrote the musical drama The Hatpin, the song cycle LOVEBiTES and co-wrote the semi-autobiographical musical A Little Touch of Chaos.
Christopher Scalzo is an Australian-born actor, singer and musical theater performer. He has been part of many major National and International musicals.
Lucy Maunder is an Australian cabaret and theatre performer. She originated the role of Lara in the Australian premiere of Doctor Zhivago in 2011 opposite Anthony Warlow, and toured with her own cabaret Songs in the Key of Black in 2013, releasing an album with the same name. Also in 2013, Maunder toured with the national touring company of Grease playing the role of Rizzo. In 2021-22, she starred as the adult Alison Bechdel in the Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company's co-production of Fun Home.
Tamsin Georgina Carroll is an Australian actress. She is best known for her performances in musical theatre in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Driving Miss Daisy is a filmed performance of the 2013 Australian theatrical production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1987 play of the same name by Alfred Uhry starring Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines. It was produced as a 2014 film by Broadway Near You in association with Umbrella Entertainment (Australia).
Anna O'Byrne is an Australian actress and soprano singer best known for her portrayal of Christine Daaé in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and the original Australian production of Lloyd Webber's sequel, Love Never Dies, for which she was nominated for a Green Room Award.
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.
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