Trevor Ashley | |
|---|---|
 Ashley at the 2015 Helpmann Awards | |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1998–present |
Trevor Ashley is an Australian musical theatre actor, cabaret, and drag artist based in Sydney. He also has appeared on television in The Very Trevor Ashley Show.
Ashley grew up in the south of Sydney and studied at the Shopfront a contemporary theatre. There he worked with Errol Bray, John Du Feu and playwright Hilary Bell. He appeared in Alice with Paul Capsis, and in Peter Pan with screen actor Bryan Brown.
Ashley attended Sydney Technical High School, where he studied music and drama, played in the school bands, and began writing orchestrations and arrangements. He was then chosen to be part of the Schools Spectacular, and the Talent Development Project under the direction of Mary Lopez. He graduated from high school in 1997. [1]
Ashley made his professional debut in the Sydney Cabaret Convention 1998. His performance impressed both the critics and judges with the Cabaret Hotline calling him "A knockout performer… the clear crowd favourite and the only one to emulate a 'cabaret sensibility'". He then toured his show Trevor The Arena Mega Musical to New York City's Don't Tell Mama and The Talk of London, in England.[ citation needed ]
On return to Australia, he created the show Pop Princess with Phil Scott. He soon became "Mardi Gras Royalty" [2] and followed up this with Pop Princess 2, two years later in 2005.[ citation needed ]
Priscilla film director Stephan Elliott then chose Ashley to sing the theme song to his 2008 film Easy Virtue , "Let's Misbehave". The film stars Colin Firth, Jessica Biel and Kristin Scott Thomas. [3] After this, Ashley created and continued to host Showqueen, a weekly cabaret night at the Supper Club in Sydney. Showqueen featured special guests and notable cabaret performers, and also had a successful season in Melbourne. Previous guests have included Toni Lamond, iOTA, Virginia Gay, Genevieve Lemon and Matthew Robinson. [4] [5] [6]
For Mardi Gras 2009, Ashley teamed with drag star Courtney Act to great acclaim in Gentlemen Prefer Blokes, a bawdy revue style show that ran in Sydney twice, and also played the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and a season at His Majesty's Theatre, Perth. [7] Gentlemen Prefer Blokes had to be rewritten two weeks prior to the Sydney run after Courtney Act suffered a broken leg while skiing in Canada. Soap star Virginia Gay from Channel 7's All Saints joined the cast to play Courtney's body double.[ citation needed ]
I'm Every Woman, commissioned by the Sydney Opera House, paid tribute to Ashley's favourite divas living and dead. [8] The show was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Cabaret. [9]
He has nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Cabaret Performer for Diamonds are for Trevor in 2012, in which Ashley appeared as Shirley Bassey.[ citation needed ]
Liza (on a E), featuring his impersonation of Liza Minnelli, had seasons in Australian and the UK. [10] In 2015, he announced a new cabaret show, entitled Liza's Back! (is broken), debuting at the Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne from 21–31 January 2016. [11]
He played Natalie Portly in his adult pantomime Fat Swan in 2012, a Black Swan parody written with longtime collaborator Phil Scott. His 2013 musical comedy Little Orphan trAshley starred Rhonda Burchmore and Gary Sweet. [12]
Ashley created the role of Miss Understanding in the original cast of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical . [13] He performed the role over 600 times in Sydney and Melbourne, and is featured on the original cast recording, singing "What's Love Got To Do With It?".[ citation needed ]
He performed in Jerry Springer: The Opera under the direction of Gale Edwards at the Sydney Opera House in 2009. [14]
In 2010–2011, Ashley played the role of Edna Turnblad in Hairspray in Melbourne and Sydney. [15]
In July 2012, Ashley appeared as Franz Leibkind in The Producers for The Production Company in Melbourne.[ citation needed ]
Ashley played Thenadier in the Australian 2014–2015 tour of Les Misérables , opposite Lara Mulcahy as Madame Thenadier. For this role, he was nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical and received a Best Supporting Performer in Music Theatre (male) Award at Sydney's 2015 Glugs Awards. [16]
In 2015, Ashley directed the Australian premiere of Heathers: The Musical . [17] The production was first staged at Hayes Theatre in Sydney for a 19-day run, and then was transferred the following year for short seasons in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney (with the latter being an encore production staged at the Sydney Opera House). [18] [19] [20]
2017 saw Ashley play King Herod in the Australian revival of Jesus Christ Superstar , starring alongside Rob Mills as Christ. The production ran from 29 July to 13 August at Arts Centre Melbourne. [21]
He is scheduled to play Roger De Bris in the Menier Chocolate Factory revival of The Producers , opening December 2024 in London. [22]
| Year | Production | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2006–2008 | Priscilla, Queen of the Desert | Miss Understanding |
| 2009 | Jerry Springer: The Opera | Ensemble |
| 2010–2011 | Hairspray | Edna Turnblad |
| 2011–2012 | Fat Swan | Natalie Portly |
| 2012 | The Producers | Franz Leibkind |
| 2013 | Little Orphan trAshley | Orphan Fannie |
| 2014–2015 | Les Misérables | Thenardier |
| 2017 | Jesus Christ Superstar | King Herod |
| 2017–2018 | The Bodybag - The Panto | Rachel Marinade |
| 2019 & 2021 | The Lyin’ Queen | Gaye Wray |
| 2022 | Moulin Scrooge | Satôn |
| 2023 | The Little Lotus or The White Mermaid | Tania McMermaid |
In 2012, Australian network SBS announced it had commissioned a pilot called The Very Trevor Ashley Show. [23] It was shown as a one-night-only program in May 2012. [24]
Ashley stars in a recurring role as drag queen Dolly Hardon in Australian medical drama RFDS
In 2023, Ashley competed on the second season of Queen of the Universe and placed as the runner-up when the finale aired on 23 June 2023. [25]
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras or Sydney Mardi Gras is an event in Sydney, New South Wales attended by hundreds of thousands of people from around Australia and overseas. One of the largest LGBT festivals in the world, Mardi Gras is the largest Pride event in Oceania. It includes a variety of events such as the Sydney Mardi Gras Parade and Party, Bondi Beach Drag Races, Harbour Party, the academic discussion panel Queer Thinking, Mardi Gras Film Festival, as well as Fair Day, which attracts 70,000 people to Victoria Park, Sydney.
Mark Trevorrow is an Australian comedian, television host and media personality. In the early 1980s he had two Top 20 hits as part of Globos with Wendy De Waal, and in 1984, he debuted "Bob Downe", who went on to become his best-known character. After being very successful at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1987, Trevorrow split his time touring between England and Australia. He has appeared extensively on television, released four albums, and written a book.
Amanda Lillian Muggleton is an English Australian theatre, television and film actress. She is best known for her supporting television soap opera role in Prisoner as Chrissie Latham, with appearance between 1979 and 1983.
Enda Markey is an Irish-born, Sydney-based, theatrical producer and former singer and actor. He is the producer of the stage productions Side by Side by Sondheim and the international tour of Boublil and Schonberg's Do You Hear The People Sing?, and the Australian revival of Willy Russell's Blood Brothers.
Phillip Scott is an Australian actor, singer, pianist, writer and comedian.
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.
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.
Virginia Gay is an Australian actress, writer, and director, mostly known for her work on the Australian TV dramas Winners & Losers and All Saints.
Richard Bruce Wherrett AM was an Australian stage director, whose career spanned 40 years. He is known for being the founding director of the Sydney Theatre Company in 1979.
Brian Thomson is an Australian theatre, opera and film designer. He has been active in Australian stage design since the 1970s.
Amanda Harrison is an Australian actress and singer, known for her roles in Wicked (Elphaba), We Will Rock You, and for originating the role of Paula Pokrifki in the world premiere of An Officer and a Gentleman. She has performed in cabaret several times, including her current production Up Close and Reasonably Personal which she is expected to perform at Melbourne Cabaret Festival in June 2014 and recently David Harris, Michael Ball, Lea Salonga and Marie Zamora for Enda Markey Presents Do You Hear The People Sing at Shanghai Grand Theatre. She voiced characters for Get Ace an animation series released in January 2014. She appeared with Mig Ayesa, Michael Falzon and Carly Thomas-Smith for three performances of The Music of Queen - Rock and Symphonic Spectacular. The concert series began on 7 February 2014, at Sydney Opera House supported by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra before three performances in Perth, Western Australia between 13–15 February.
Queenie van de Zandt is an Australian actress, singer, comedian, recording artist, writer, and arts educator. She is founder of the Australian Musical Theatre Academy.
Tony Sheldon is an Australian actor and singer, best known for his work in theatre, especially his role as Bernadette in the original Australian stage production of the musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He is also a writer.
Christine Whelan Browne is an Australian performer who has worked extensively in musical theatre as an actress, dancer and singer. She has also appeared on television shows and in films. In March 2012, she married fellow performer, Rohan Browne.
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.
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.
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.
Elise McCann is an Australian actress and musical theatre performer most well known for originating the role of Miss Honey in the Australian production of Matilda the Musical and as Lucille Ball in Everybody Loves Lucy.
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.
The Paris Theatre was a cinema and theatre located on the corner of Wentworth Avenue and Liverpool Street in Sydney that showed films and vaudeville, cabaret and plays. The theatre changed names several times, trading as Australia Picture Palace (1915-1935), Tatler Theatre (1935-1950), Park Theatre (1952-1954) and Paris Theatre (1954-1981) before being demolished in 1981. In May 1978 the theatre hosted a film festival that inspired the first Sydney Gay Mardi Gras. The theatre was also the home of Paris Theatre Company, a Sydney based theatre company.
Media related to Trevor Ashley at Wikimedia Commons| Authority control databases: Artists |
|---|
