The Sentimental Bloke (1985 musical)

Last updated

The Sentimental Bloke is an Australian musical with music by George Dreyfus and book and lyrics by Graeme Blundell. It is an adaptation of C.J. Dennis' The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke .

The musical premiered by the Melbourne Theatre Company at the Playhouse, Victorian Arts Centre on 12 December 1985. It featured John Jarratt as The Sentimental Bloke, Julie Mullins as Doreen, Michael Bishop as Ginger Mick, and Faye Bendrups as Rose. [1] It was subsequently produced in Perth (Western Australian Theatre Company, 1986), Darwin (State Theatre Company of Northern Territory, 1987) and Brisbane (Royal Queensland Theatre Company, 1988).

The Dreyfus-Blundell musical is the second musical adapted from C.J. Dennis' original verse novel, with an earlier work also titled The Sentimental Bloke having its professional premiere in 1961. The Dreyfus-Blundell version also covers content from the Dennis' sequels such as Ginger Mick in the First World War.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. J. Dennis</span> Australian poet

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis, better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet and journalist known for his best-selling verse novel The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke (1915). Alongside his contemporaries and occasional collaborators Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson, Dennis helped popularise Australian slang in literature, earning him the title 'the laureate of the larrikin'.

<i>The Sentimental Bloke</i> 1918 Australian film

The Sentimental Bloke is a 1918 Australian silent film based on the 1915 verse novel The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C. J. Dennis. Produced and directed by Raymond Longford, the film stars Arthur Tauchert, Gilbert Emery, and Lottie Lyell, who also co-wrote the film with Longford.

Efftee Studios was an early Australian film and theatre production studio, established by F.W. Thring in 1930. It existed until Thring's death in 1935. Initially Efftee Films was based in Melbourne and used optical sound equipment imported from the US.

George Dreyfus AM is an Australian contemporary classical, film and television composer.

<i>The Glugs of Gosh</i> Poetry collection by C. J. Dennis

The Glugs of Gosh is a book of satirical verse written by Australian author C. J. Dennis, published by Angus & Robertson in 1917. The book's 13 poems are vignettes of life in a fictional kingdom called Gosh, inhabited by an arboreal race known as Glugs. Dennis describes the Glugs as a "stupid race of docile folk". The illustrations, by Dennis's regular collaborator Hal Gye, depict the Glugs as short humanoids with large heads. Written in the style of children's nonsense poetry, the work attacks free trade, along with what Dennis saw as Australia's social conformity, intellectual cowardice and rampant bureaucracy. Although the book has greater literary merit than the larrikin-inspired doggerel verse for which Dennis is famed, it was a commercial failure. According to one biographer, "the veiled political and economic satirical verse was lost on the public." The book is dedicated to his wife.

<i>The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke</i> 1915 book by C. J. Dennis

The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke is a verse novel by Australian poet and journalist C. J. Dennis. Portions of the work appeared in The Bulletin between 1909 and 1915, the year the verse novel was completed and published by Angus & Robertson. Written in the rough and comical Australian slang that was Dennis' signature style, the work became immensely popular in Australia, selling over 60,000 copies in nine editions within the first year of publication.

Albert Arlen AM was a Turkish Australian pianist, composer, actor and playwright. He is best known for his musical The Sentimental Bloke, the "Alamein Concerto", and his setting of Banjo Paterson's Clancy of the Overflow.

John Bernard Derum is an Australian stage, film and television actor. He has also directed and produced for theatre companies throughout Australia and for television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lottie Lyell</span> Australian actress and film director

Lottie Lyell was an Australian actress, screenwriter, editor and filmmaker. She is regarded as Australia's first film star, and also contributed to the local industry during the silent era through her collaborations with director and writer Raymond Longford.

The Sentimental Bloke is a 1932 Australian film directed by F. W. Thring and starring Cecil Scott and Ray Fisher. It is an adaptation of the 1915 novel Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C. J. Dennis, which had previously been filmed in 1919.

Ginger Mick is a 1920 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford based on The Moods of Ginger Mick by C. J. Dennis, which had sold over 70,000 copies. It is a sequel to The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and is considered a lost film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Tauchert</span> Australian actor

Arthur Michael Tauchert was an Australian acrobatic comedian, dancer, singer, film actor, and star of the Australian silent film, The Sentimental Bloke (1919).

Edward John Carroll, better known as E. J. Carroll, was an Australian theatre and film entrepreneur. He produced several films of Snowy Baker and Raymond Longford and helped establish Birch, Carroll and Coyle. Difficulties in securing international distribution for his films turned him away from production towards exhibition.

Gilbert Charles Warren Emery was an Australian actor best known for his performances as Ginger Mick in the silent films The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and Ginger Mick (1920). These were directed by Raymond Longford with whom Emery had acted on stage in The Fatal Wedding.

Bloke is a slang term for a common man in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Southern Cross Feature Film Company was a short lived film production company that made some of Australia's most famous silent films, mostly directed by Raymond Longford. One of the key figures behind it was Sir David Gordon.

<i>The Sentimental Bloke</i> (1961 musical) 1976 Australian film

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.

This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1915.

Jonah (1911) is a novel by Australian writer Louis Stone.

The Sentimental Bloke is a 1918 Australian silent film.

References

  1. Radic, Leonard (19 December 1985). "An agreeably thick layer of sentimentality". The Age. Retrieved 19 April 2019.