Leading ladies' age of content
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH -
MARCH 7, 1998
Everybody is talking about
Todd McKenney, the whistle-blowing (literally) Peter Allen doppelganger in the
first Australian made stage production to hit a Sydney stage in a decade.
Forget him, even though he is excellent and has a high-voltage smile
that will clear knock you out.
The real star of The Boy from Oz from the moment she performs a spectacularly
dipsomaniacal exit early in the first act is the original Australian Rock
Goddess, CHRISSIE AMPHLETT.
The Divinyls frontwoman - the band is on hiatus and has been working on a new
record in New York over the last couple of years - won the role of Judy Garland
in the $4.5 million show after being invited to audition for director Gale
Edwards. "I worked for it" she said yesterday, half a day after she
and the rest of the cast received a reptuous standing ovation on opening night.
"And then I had to prove myself."
Prove herself she has, playing Garland
with a stooped walk, the shakes from one too may drinks and a steely presence.
And then there's that voice. It's not Garland's but it is something else,
Spellbinding.
Amphlett made a triumphant return to the theatrical stage
in the Boy From Oz 10 years after she starred in Blood Brothers. It earned her
one of the largest cheers when the cast took a curtain call on Thursday night.
Her performance is so strong, so impressive that it makes you wonder
about all the talk in recent time that woman aren't getting great, or even good,
roles.
Don't believe it. If anyone tells you there are no major parts for
women, let alone women past a certain age (a gentle euphemism for 40), no diva
turns to be negotiated other than as girlfriends and/or scorned wives, tell them
they are nuts.
There are plenty, even here in Australia which seems
preoccupied with all things youthful, particularly in television.
In the
last few months alone, aged theatre doyenne Ruth Cracknell has appeared with
Jennifer Hagan in Vita and Virginia. Both are on the healthy side of 50.
Penny Cook, Stephanie Beacham and Googie Withers just completed a
successful prodution in Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband to crowded houses.
Cook is in her 40's, Beacham is 51 and in five days Googie turns 81.
In Boy From Oz, alongside Amphlett, who says she is just over 40 but not
as old as everyone thinks (she actually turns 41 in October), is the wonderful
Jill Peryman (aged 64), and the younger Angela Toohey (around 30 although she
doesn't discuss her age) who puts in a dead-on turn as Liza Minnelli, right down
to the tics and physical nuances of the real Liza, according to a woman who
worked with Liza in New York.
That's three woman in one show with
absolutely central roles, and all of whom put in great performances.
And just take a look at the recent nominees list for the 1997
Academy Awards which features women over 40 in strong roles.
Julie
Christie and Kim Basinger, both as glamorous and desirable in their 40's and
50's as they were in their 20's, were nominated for best supporting actress.
Ditto Judi Dench and Gloria Stuart - more great, meaty roles.
Elsewhere
in Hollywood there's fifty something babe Susan Sarandon who stars opposite Gene
Hackman and the indefatigable and god of film starts Paul Newman as a leading
sex interest. Shock Horror - a sex interest at 50 plus, Sharon Stone, a heart
beat off 40, is still as radiant as ever, and clever, starring in Sphere, and
Pam Grier at 49 stars as Jackie Brown in Jackie Brown.
Talk about good, power roles. Which brings me back to
Amphlett.
Precisely a decade ago, The New York Times said Amphlett's voice
recalled "Edith Piaf's throatiness and AC/DC's raspiness… tough, breathy, good
humoured all at once".
Through four albums and several hits, Amphlett's
sexually brazen stage persona won a following befitting rock star.
She
became a role model for rebellious chicks who copied her raunchy confidence.
Her songs (with guitarist McEntee) Boys In Town, Only Lonely, Pleasure
and Pain, and later, I Touch Myself, became theme songs for a generation who
came of age in the It's All About Me, Greed Is Good Eighties.
Back then,
Amphlett on stage was frenzied, from the moment she tipped a jug of water over a
friend of mine who could barely keep his mouth closed in the front row, to me
who "stage dived" from the second step of a flight of stairs (so shoot me, it
was the emulation of Amphlett's wild enthusiasm that's important, not the height
of the dive) after she flopped into the audience at a gig in Melbourne's Bombay
Rock the night I got my HSC results.
And now Amphlett is Peter Allen's
mother-in-law Judy Garland And I mean, she is Judy Garland, no mere
impersonator.
Hey Toto! We're not in Kansas City any more.