John O'May | |
---|---|
Born | 1947 |
Education | Patapsco High School |
Occupation(s) | Actor, writer |
Years active | 1972–current |
John O'May is an American-born Australian actor, best known for his stage performances.
O'May was born at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, one of four children. He grew up with a love of reading and literature. At university he dabbled in theatre, learning acting, stagecraft and building sets. He became a teacher at Patapsco High School, where he himself had attended high school. He taught English literature for two and a half years. He eventually travelled overseas, and after visiting his sister in Australia and ended up staying. [1] [2] [3]
In 1972, O'May auditioned for the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind . He took singing lessons and found an agent. In 1973, he was offered an audition and role in Godspell , replacing John Waters as Judas. He created and performed in the revues Gershwin (with John Diedrich) in 1975 and The 20s and All That Jazz (with Diedrich and Caroline Gilmer) in 1977. [4]
O'May played Che Guevara in the original Australian cast of Evita which opened in Adelaide in April 1980. [5] In the 1980s he was a regular performer with the Melbourne Theatre Company, and played Bobby in Company for the Sydney Theatre Company in 1986 and Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore for the Victoria State Opera in 1987. [6]
He directed and starred in the musical Seven Little Australians in 1988. [7]
O'May played Monsieur André in the original Australian cast of The Phantom of the Opera which opened at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne in December 1990. He later performed each of the two manager characters in various productions over the subsequent decades. [1]
Other notable roles include Marvin in Falsettos in 1994 for the Sydney Theatre Company, Nick Arnstein in Funny Girl in 1999, John Wilkes Booth in Assassins in 1995, and Fredrik Egerman in A Little Night Music in 1997, both for the Melbourne Theatre Company. For the latter, he received a Green Room Award for male artist in a leading role. [2] In 2014 he appeared as Doctor Tambourri in Sondheim's Passion . [2] In 2022, he portrayed the Mysterious Man and Cinderella’s Father in Into the Woods in North Melbourne, Australia. [8]
Film credits include supporting roles in the films Starstruck and Rebel and the television opera The Divorce (2015). [9] In 2000, O’May guest-starred in season 2, episode 11, "Sponsorship and Media Discontent", of the ABC mockumentary, The Games .
Year | Title | Role | Type |
---|---|---|---|
1974 | Between Wars | William Faulkner | Feature film |
1982 | Starstruck | Terry | Feature film |
1983 | Skin Deep | Roger Crane | TV movie |
1985 | Rebel | Benie | Feature film |
1988 | Georgia | Mr Leonard | Feature film |
1988 | The Four Minute Mile | Bill Easton | TV movie |
2001 | Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story | Louis B. Mayer | TV movie |
2011 | A Heartbeat Away | Desmond Fyfe | Feature film |
2020 | The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee | Earl of Spencer | Feature film |
2023 | Late Night with the Devil | Walker Bedford | Feature film |
2024 | Better Man | Terry Swinton | Feature film |
Year | Title | Role | Type |
---|---|---|---|
1978 | The Sullivans | Yank Sergeant | TV series, 4 episodes |
1983 | Carson's Law | John Kendall | TV series, 14 episodes |
1983 | Kings | Dick Manning | TV series, 2 episodes |
1985 | The Flying Doctors | Michael | Miniseries, episode 3 |
1986 | The Lancaster Miller Affair | J.F. Russell | Miniseries, 3 episodes |
1988 | The Flying Doctors | Max Prescott | TV series, season 3, episode 7: "Figures in a Landscape" |
1990 | The Paper Man | Victor Dove | Miniseries, 2 episodes |
1992 | Cluedo | Buzz Bradshaw III | TV series, season 2, episode 3: "With a Smile on His Dial" |
1997 | State Coroner | Marcus Brophy | TV series, season 1, 2 episodes |
1998 | Good Guys, Bad Guys | Tyrone O'Keefe | TV series, season 2, episode 11: "Doof" |
2000 | The Games | George Birmingham | TV mockumentary series, season 2, episode 11: "Sponsorship and Media Discontent" |
2001 | Crash Zone | Phil Kurtz | TV series, season 2, episode 12: "Skin Deep" |
2007 | City Homicide | Peter Murdoch | TV series, season 1, episode 13: "Rostered Day Off" |
2015 | The Divorce | Jed | Miniseries, 4 episodes |
Year | Title | Role | Type |
---|---|---|---|
1975; 1976 | Gershwin | Playwright | Arena Theatre, Melbourne, Total Theatre, Melbourne with Total Theatre, Production |
1977–1979 | The Twenties and All That Jazz | Playwright | Arena Theatre, Melbourne, Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, Theatre Royal, Hobart, Regal Theatre, Perth, Canberra Theatre, Theatre Royal Sydney, Victorian regional tour, Her Majesty's Theatre, Brisbane, Orange Civic Theatre, The Griffith Duncan Theatre, Callaghan, Playhouse, Adelaide |
1977 | The Australian Travelling Patent Medicine Show | Director | Arena Theatre Company, Melbourne |
1977 | The Season Reason | Director | Victorian regional tour with Arena Theatre Company |
1977 | The Persecution and Assassination of Higher School Certificate Poetry as Performed by the Inmates of the Arena Theatre | Director | Arena Theatre Company, Melbourne |
1978 | Patrick's Hat Trick | Playwright | Playbox Theatre, Melbourne with Hoopla Theatre Foundation |
1978 | Makin' Wicky Wacky | Director | The Last Laugh, Melbourne |
1981 | A Couple of Strangers | Devisor | Nimrod Theatre, Sydney |
1982 | Patrick's Hat Trick | Playwright | Monash University |
1983 | The Twenties and All That Jazz | Playwright | The Hole in the Wall Theatre, Perth |
2000 | Being Alive | Devisor | Capers Cabaret, Melbourne |
1988–1989 | Seven Little Australians | Director | Theatre Royal, Hobart, Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Adelaide Festival Centre, University of Sydney |
2008 | The Light in the Piazza | Director / Producer | Lyric Theatre, Sydney |
Genevieve Lemon is an Australian actress and singer who has appeared in a number of Australian television series and international film, including a frequent collaboration with Jane Campion for Academy Award-winning The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), which earned her a Satellite Award as cast member and a Critic's Choice Awards nomination.
Reginald Dawson Livermore is an Australian actor, singer, theatrical performer, designer, director, lyricist and writer and former television presenter.
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.
Barry Dickins is a prolific Australian playwright, author, artist, actor, educator and journalist, probably best known for his historical dramas and his reminiscences about growing up and living in working class Melbourne. His most well-known work is the award-winning stage play Remember Ronald Ryan, a dramatization of the life and death of Ronald Ryan, the last man executed in Australia. He has also written dramas and comedies about other controversial figures such as poet Sylvia Plath, opera singer Joan Sutherland, criminal Squizzy Taylor, actor Frank Thring, playwright Oscar Wilde and artist Brett Whiteley.
Hayden Tee is a New Zealand actor, singer, and makeup artist. He has played varied roles in musical theatre, concert, and cabaret. He has performed in New Zealand, the UK, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and the United States.
Gerald William Connolly is an Australian comedian, actor, impressionist and pianist. He is best known for his satirical caricatures of public figures such as former Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II, King Charles III, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Neville Wran, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard, Bill Collins and Dame Joan Sutherland, among many others.
Michael Falzon was an Australian musical theatre/rock tenor actor, and producer, who ran his own production company, Good Egg Creative.
Mitchell Patrick Butel is an Australian actor, singer, director and writer. He is best known for his work in theatre, including musical and opera productions. He was the artistic director of the State Theatre Company of South Australia from 2019 to 2024 and will take up the position of artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company in November 2024.
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.
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.
Geraldine Gail Turner is an Australian actress and singer. She has been a leading performer in Australian musical theatre since the 1970s, and has also been active in plays, recordings, film and television.
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.
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.
Seven Little Australians is an Australian musical with music by David Reeves, lyrics by John Palmer and Reeves and book by Reeves, Palmer and Peter Yeldham. It is based on the classic Australian children's 1894 novel Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner.
Bert La Bonté is an Australian stage, film and television actor. With a career that has spanned over 20 years, La Bonté's most known roles include Five Bedrooms, The Newsreader and many more.
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.
Kim David Carpenter is an Australian visual artist, theatre director, designer and devisor. For thirty years he was artistic director of his company, Kim Carpenter's Theatre of Image.
John Edwin Diedrich is an Australian actor, director, producer and singer, known for stage and television roles in Australia and the UK.
Sharon Millerchip is an Australian actress, dancer, director, and choreographer, best known for her performances in major musical theatre productions.
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.