Flairessence Productions presents

ROSIE

featuring GERALDINE TURNER as 'Rosie'



with Angela Toohey

Hilton Bonner
Jeannie Kelso
Alexander Lewis
Jillian O'Dowd
Tyran Parke
Rohan Seinor
Nick Simpson-Deeks

and Rodney Dobson as 'George'


Music by PETER STANNARD
Book by FRANK HATHERLEY
Lyrics by STANNARD & HATHERLEY

Production, GAY DANIEL
Direction, FRANK HATHERLEY
Musical Direction, LINDSAY PARTRIDGE
Arrangements, GAI BRYANT
Choreography, RONNE ARNOLD & JANE BECKETT
Set & Costume Design, GRAHAM MACLEAN
Lighting Design, DONN BYRNES


ROSIE was inspired by the life of Rosie Shaw (1905-1971) — florist, free spirit, Sydney icon.

Cockney Rosina had a dream - to be a great singer like Melba and a great dancer like Pavlova. She travelled halfway round the world and was only selling flowers from a stall in Martin Place, but still the dream lived on! This new musical tells how defiant, brash, indomitable Rosie became an inspirational Sydney character of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, a champion of the outsiders, a dreamer of dreams. By day, the 'Diva in Gumboots' charmed locals and visitors to the centre of the city with her uninhibited singing. By night, she led quite another life...



Music (and co-lyrics) for ROSIE is by Peter Stannard, whose classic Australian musical success 'Lola Montez' is regularly revived. Every song in ROSIE is a winner!

Frank and Flairessence Productions assembled a truly brilliant cast for this off-CBD premiere. Geraldine Turner, Angela Toohey and Rodney Dobson have great track records in Australian musical productions, and their supporting cast are as good as they can be!

Ronne Arnold is one of the country's leading choreographers, arranger Gai Bryant one of our best jazz players, Graham Maclean (set and costume designs) and Donn Byrnes (lighting design) are renowned for their work, Lyndsay Partridge is a much-in-demand musicals player and band leader.
The ROSIE company in the car park outside our rehearsal room. Aren't you sorry you missed us?


SYDNEY MORNING HERALD REVIEW, August 9, 2005
Rosie
Reviewed by John Shand,

Independent Theatre, August 6

Few of the dreamers among us live to see their dreams come true. Some become embittered, some morose, some keep bashing their heads against unyielding walls, and some turn away and claim they "grew up". Coping with defeated dreams lies at the heart of this new musical about Rose Shaw, the real-life Martin Place flower seller who treated her customers to bursts of opera as well as bunches of gladioli.

With music by Peter Stannard, book by Frank Hatherley and lyrics by both, Rosie traces a life that was supposed to culminate in ballet or opera stardom, and instead wound up at a street stall. Yet the emergent theme is that while Rose may not have fulfilled her dreams, she was still a star: a beloved Sydney icon for 40 years.

Stannard's old-fashioned score - think music hall with flashes of Lionel Bart - seems to suit Rose's Cockney roots and the 1920-1971 time span. The story is more episodic than narrative, but Hatherley (who also directed it) has some nifty devices for unifying the disparate periods and characters. For instance, the older Rose (Geraldine Turner) observes and comments on scenes with her younger self (a pert Jillian O'Dowd), which provides laughs, helps knit the total character together, and blurs what could otherwise be awkward leaps of time.

Turner is convincing as the larger-than-life, warm-hearted and charismatic Rose, although she suffers lapses in her singing.

Nonetheless there would be no show without a likeable Rose, and Turner ensures we get that. She is befriended by Naomi (Angela Toohey), another stage-struck wannabe who ends up singing ditties to drinkers in rough-house boozers. Rose is disdainful, but to Naomi at least it's work doing what she wants to. Another parallel lies with George (Rodney Dobson), an artist who takes an eternity to complete a painting, and longer to propose to Rose.

He, too, eventually finds work, but it is painting ceilings. In Never Wait Until Tomorrow Dobson touchingly renders the show's finest song.

A small ensemble of commendable versatility and vocal strength has been assembled. Graham McLean's Martin Place set glows with nostalgia, and Hatherley uses it to maintain a fluidity of action. The music is competently realised by a trio under Lindsay Partridge, while the choreography of Ronne Arnold and Jane Beckett dovetails with the yesteryear flavour.



Interview with Frank in 'Theatre Whispers' magazine:

Q. What is it about the story of Rosie that inspired you to write a musical about her?

A. The original inspiration to write a musical about Rose Shaw was producer Gay Daniel's. It was a very good idea. Here was a real Sydney character who for 40 years sang opera and operetta in Martin Place while she sold flowers from her stall. Thousands of ordinary people knew her during the day and a very different lot of rather extraordinary people knew her in her private life. Rosie's Kings Cross flat was famous for its goings-on, its ever-changing cast of bohemian characters. So when Gay asked me to read through her collected research I was intrigued. And when she told me that Peter Stannard was writing the songs I was convinced.

Q. Was Rosie well known in her time?

A. Definitely - as a key member of the Sydney florists brigade, as an eccentric saleswoman in the centre of town for all those years, and as an inspiration to two or three generations of Kings Cross drop-outs, gays and nonconformists.

Q. Did you ever meet her?

A. My first job out of high school was as a junior-junior advertising copywriter for a long-gone city department store called Ashleys-Buckingham. Our office was on the first floor of the Strand Arcade and most nights I walked down to the Quay to catch the Mosman ferry home. I clearly remember Rosie singing Vilia from 'The Merry Widow' as she sold her flowers to the passing trade. She had brightly coloured red hair. To my 18 year old eyes she looked far too outgoing and unpredictable, well worth avoiding.

Q. How much of the musical is fact and how much is fiction?

A. Well, I read everything that Gay had collected about Rosie, press cuttings and newspaper mentions of her death in 1971. One of her young fans (she had many) was Philip Napier who self-published a glowing memoir of Rosie in 1994. It contained some excellent photographs and some interesting basic facts about, for instance, her upbringing in the East End of London. But there wasn't enough narrative or character detail to sustain a full-length drama. I soon realised that there was no way I could bring the real Rose Shaw back to life. I had to invent my own Rosie, in a story with a theme that interested me, with an unexpected narrative and a satisfying high-energy resolution.

Q. Is the music in the style that she would have liked performing?

A. Probably not. She seemed to have been a bit of a musical snob, much more interested in opera and ballet, in High Culture. It's a great clash, really - there she is, a street person, 40 years on her feet in Martin Place dressed in gumboots and layers of clothes, and at night she would dress in her satins, jewellery and furs, hire a Rolls Royce and sit in her favourite seat at the ballet. The time span of the musical stretches from the 20s in London to the 70s in Sydney, and Peter Stannard made the correct decision in my view not to change the style of music as we move through the decades. It's pure melodic Stannard all the way. (Except we do have a terrific Jitterbug in the 40s!)

Q. What will the audience take away from the show - in respect to their impression of Rosie?

A. At this unrehearsed, early stage I can only tell you what I hope they'll take away. Our Rosie is a warm, tough, caring, non-judgemental person, who inspires love and affection in Martin Place and Kings Cross. But she has some difficulties in assessing her own talents and the effect she has on those who love her. Our Rosie has inappropriate aspirations - she follows dreams that can never be realised. But she has a hell of a life, an inspiring life - a real Sydney life.

Q. Geraldine Turner as Rosie - how excited are you to have her as your leading lady?

A. How lucky are we! Of course, everything hung on the casting of Rosie, who is actually never off the stage. She's either telling us about her life or re-living it for us. Actually, I tell a lie, she does leave the stage once in the First Act - to do the world's fastest quick change! Geraldine hardly hesitated, or so it seemed to me. I sent her the script, she could see the songs were by Stannard, and she said Let's go! I could hardly believe it. To hear her read the lines, start to find the character, is a great joy. I have no doubt that she will be wonderful. She will make you laugh and make you cry and fill your soul with happiness. What more could you want from a musical?