| Tivoli | |
|---|---|
 Poster of Brisbane season | |
| Premiere | 18 May 2001: State Theatre, Melbourne |
| Productions |
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Tivoli is an Australian dance musical that pays tribute to the Tivoli variety and revue circuit. It was directed and choreographed by Graeme Murphy from a scenario by Murphy and Kristian Fredrikson, with dialogue by Linda Nagle and Paul Chubb. Music incorporated existing songs from Tivoli productions, original songs by Max Lambert and Linda Nagle, and an original musical score by Graeme Koehne.
Interweaving backstage scenes with onstage acts, the story opens in 1906, when the main character, a starry-eyed Jack, lands a job as a stagehand. This marks the beginning of a lifelong love affair with 'the Tiv' across periods of great social change for Australia – two World Wars, the roaring 20s and the Depression years, exotic revues of the 1950s and finally the advent of television. [1]
Tivoli was first produced in 2001 as a co-production between the Sydney Dance Company and The Australian Ballet, touring Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra. A 2003 return season played at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney. [2]
There is no official cast recording, although a private recording exists. [3] A symphonic version of Koehne's score, Tivoli Dances, was recorded by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Mills and released in 2008.
A half-hour documentary, Tivoli: the making of a Dance Musical, produced and directed by Philippe Charluet was broadcast on the ABC.
Tivoli received four 2001 Australian Dance Awards, including Outstanding Performance by a Company, Outstanding Achievement in Choreography, Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer (Harry Haythorne) and Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Dance, Musicals or Physical Theatre (Tracey Carrodus). [4]
It received four nominations at the 2002 Helpmann Awards, for Best Direction of a Musical (Graeme Murphy), Best Ballet or Dance Work, Best Female Dancer in a Dance or Physical Theatre Production (Tracey Carrodus) and Best Male Dancer in a Dance or Physical Theatre Production (Josh Horner).
Graeme Lloyd Murphy AO is an Australian choreographer. With his fellow dancer Janet Vernon, he guided Sydney Dance Company to become one of Australia's most successful and best-known dance companies.
Kristian Fredrikson was a New Zealand-born Australian stage and costume designer working in ballet, opera and other performing arts. His work was acclaimed for its sumptuous, jewel-like quality, and a sensuous level of detail.
The Helpmann Awards are accolades for live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia.
Stephen George Page is an Australian choreographer, film director and former dancer. He is the current artistic director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre, an Indigenous Australian dance company. Page is descended from the Nunukul people and the Munaldjali of the Yugambeh people from southeast Queensland, Australia.
Dame Catherine Margaret Mary Scott, was a South African-born pioneering ballet dancer who found fame as a teacher, choreographer, and school administrator in Australia. As the first director of the Australian Ballet School, she is recognised as one of the founders of the strong ballet tradition of her adopted country.
Graeme John Koehne, is an Australian composer and music educator. He is best known for his orchestral and ballet scores, which are characterised by direct communicative style and embrace of tertian harmony. His orchestral trilogy Unchained Melody, Powerhouse, and Elevator Music makes allusions to Hollywood film score traditions, cartoon music, popular Latin music and other dance forms.
The Tivoli Circuit was a successful and popular Australian vaudeville entertainment circuit featuring revue, opera, ballet, dance, singing, musical comedy, old time black and white minstrel and even Shakespeare which flourished from 1893 to the 1950s, and featured local and international performers from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Meryl Tankard is an Australian dancer and choreographer who has a wide national and international reputation.
Tanja Liedtke was a German-born professional choreographer and dancer. She was most noted as a dancer, choreographer and director of contemporary dance in Australia and Europe.
Kate Champion is a director and choreographer with over thirty years of experience in multiple art forms. She was the founding Artistic Director of Force Majeure (2002-2015), a dance theatre company based in at Carriageworks arts centre in Sydney, Australia. Her initial training was in Sydney with Karen Kerkhoven with subsequent formative years spent in Munich with the Iwanson Dance Company and continued with Kai Tai Chan's One Extra Company in Sydney. She was a founding member of Dance North in Townsville and was a dancer with Australian Dance Theatre from 1988 to 1989.
Garry Stewart is an Australian dancer and choreographer. He was the longest-serving artistic director of the Australian Dance Theatre, taking over from Meryl Tankard in 1999 and finishing his term at the end of 2021. He is renowned for his unusual, post-modern interpretations of classical ballets.
Gideon Obarzanek is an Australian choreographer, director and performing arts curator. He was Artistic Associate with the Melbourne Festival (2015-2017), co-curator and director of 'XO State' at the inaugural Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts (2015-2017). Obarzanek was appointed Chair of the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2015 and Strategic Cultural Engagement Manager at Chancellery at the University of Melbourne in 2018.
To recognise excellence in professional dance in the United Kingdom, The Critics' Circle organised and presented the National Dance Awards 2005. The ceremony was held at the Royal Opera House, London, on 19 January 2006, with awards given for productions staged in the previous year.
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Josef Brown is an Australian actor, dancer and choreographer. Brown attended The McDonald College of the Arts and the Australian Ballet School, where he was promoted to soloist in 1994. He joined the Sydney Dance Company in 1997 and appeared in and choreographed various productions. Brown originated the role of Johnny Castle in the stage adaptation of Dirty Dancing. For his portrayal of Johnny, Brown won the Outstanding Performance in a Stage Musical accolade at the 2005 Australian Dance Awards.
Henry Neville Haythorne was an Australian dancer, ballet master, artistic director, and teacher who performed in vaudeville, musicals, and ballet companies in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and Australia. He was assistant artistic director of the Scottish Ballet (1969–1974) and artistic director of the Queensland Ballet (1975–1978) and the Royal New Zealand Ballet (1981–1992).
Michelle Potter is an Australian dance writer, critic, archivist, and curator of historical materials. Her research and writing have focused on but have not been restricted to Australian dance history. She is known internationally for the extent of her knowledge and expertise.
Christopher Horsey is an Australian entertainer, director, choreographer and performing arts teacher.
5. Tivoli official page http://graememurphy.com/wordpress/?p=1241