The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 164

7 li tl 4 5 5 1 O't It i I i a The Rocks Market in the Domain handmade originals. Carols Kids' Carnival jumping castles, train rides, fern's wheel, superslide and Space shuttle. On-site catering all-day al fresco dining. Nokia Meeting Point free local mobile calls to meet up with friends and family. 2pm Pre-show entertainment on stage with Brett Clarke.

Fire Brigade Big Red Fire Engine roams the Domain from 2 to 5 pm. 1 I i I 1 i i 2.10 pm The Rower Pot Gang homegrown, high-energy children's songs. w. i x- Jim Haynes comedy with a difference. At 111- uie vvomuais Tavourrce rnymes Tusea wiin i rhythms.

young, gifted troupe blending i if I 1 1. i I m. i vvenuy anu i .1 i nursery modem Vv 4.15 pm A- A I Masque I A miracle in the music, dance, vocal and acting. 5pm The Australian Tenors outstanding talent in the true tenor tradition. 5.45pm The 2UE Big Band bold and brassy music.

6.30pm Graeme Connors Australia's awards winning country-music performer. 7pm One Way The Salvation Army Singers. 8.30 pm RAMS Home Loans Carols in the Domain concert begins. tie, '-All 7 4 I I I i making It seems the evening is crowded with small miracles. "Many, who have no family of their own, come to Carols to be part of this feeling of closeness and return to be with those they met previously.

To them, Carols is their Christmas." Mike ventures to suggest Carols makes everyone's Christmas. "Some families arrive at 5 am, others make Carols a once-a-year get-together with friends. We take inquiries from people who travel from as far away as Cairns just for Carols, and overseas visitors who want to time their trip to be in Sydney for the event. Each year before the concert begins, Mike walks throughout the huge Domain crowd. He recognises many of the faces and is introduced to the new girlfriend, spouse or grandchild.

Organising Carols starts the Easter before and the effort takes its toll. Mike has celebrated the success of the past three Carols by coming down with consecutive doses of shingles, pneumonia and pleurisy. "What I see and feel on the night tells me it's worth all this and more," he says. Carols in the Domain will be screened live by the Seven Network to an Australian audience of more than 1.8 million viewers. The show will also be broadcast in New Zealand and, for the first time, into South-East Asia to a potential 11 million viewers via Australia Television.

2UEwill also broadcast the event live. 9 struggled to hear his own voice above a youth choir of 120, dance troupes going through their paces and an orchestra tuning up." Mike could do nothing more than wish Lemke the best and offer him a glass of water. "When I returned backstage a little later, Lemke had teamed up with The Wiggles for a booming rendition of Insy Whinsy Spider." Lemke's friendship with the pre-schooler supergroup has grown ever since. Lemke's biography, which includes performances of operas such as Madam Butterfly, Cosi Fan Tutte, Turandot and La Boheme, now proudly boasts his big-screen debut in The Wiggles Movie, which will be released this month. The Carols "backstage experience" has brought a new focus to the careers of many performers.

Hardcore rocker Jimmy Barnes brought his family along to Carols rehearsals. When the lights went up, his three young children followed him on stage. The spin-off was the children's musical group, The Tin Lids. Rob Guest, leading man of many big-budget Australian musicals, wandered over to a huddle of harmonising teenagers known as The Four Tracks. It was the group's first "big-show" performance so Guest reassured them they had what it took to pull it off.

"When The Four Tracks finished their number, their friendship with Guest continued," says Mike. The group now goes under the name Human Nature. "Many stars are born at Carols in the Domain. One year, it shone with particular brightness on the Janice Breen Show Group, a troupe of budding child singers and dancers who rehearse all year, hoping for a spot at Carols. Four young members stepped into that light and went on to become the teen queens, Girlfriend.

Mike is quick to point out the magic of Carols is not reserved for a select few. The audience in the Domain is close to 100,000. And you can feel it. "The wave of goodwill which rises up from the crowd is palpable. I've seen real pros rendered speechless until they were prompted to begin." I i Ik it III Hosts: Noni Hazlehurst and John Jarratt Starring: Belinda Emmett Dein Perry's Steel City Rachael Beck and the cast of Les Miserables John Wood he harpist plucks a pure, weet note which rises above a swelling chorus of angelic voices.

With this sound, animals' gather and watch silently mice, ducks, a dog. Children come, seemingly by the hundreds, some break into dance. And in the corner a mother sits, child on her knee, speaking quietly with her husband. Then a deep voice, the authority of which is not questioned by anyone present, sees all eyes raised. "Mickey Mouse to centre stage for sound check, please!" Mike McKay, the executive producer of Carols in the Domain, is recounting the typical scene you'd see if you wandered backstage during rehearsal.

His company, Active TV, has been putting together Sydney's premier Christmas event for a decade now, but he says the "backstage miracle" still fills him with wonder. "It's a cross between the nativity and a circus. There are Disney characters, children's choirs, orchestras, elves you name it. Some of the performers bring their whole families along because this is something you've got to see to believe." It's also why Australia's top actors, singers, dancers and musicians finish their carols performance with a wholehearted "Thanks, and hope to see you next year!" "Being part of Carols in the Domain calls on artists to put aside three days for on-site rehearsals, share tin sheds for dressing rooms and practice their lines amid a cacophony of up to 500 fellow performers," says Mike. Artists regularly change their Christmas-holiday arrangements to be in town for the event because, even though the line-up changes each year, the enchantment of Carols remains.

Mike says the recurring Carols event is "a depth of collaboration and camaraderie that even the artists will admit is anything but the norm in the entertainment Story after story spills out. "It was Carols about five years ago and leading Australian baritone Robert Lemke was warming up backstage. I really felt for the guy as he Mr Santa Claus Hugh JackmanJ Brielle 5 Vika and Linda Bull The Wiggles Disney Classic Characters including Mickey, Minnie, Chip 'n' Dale, Cinderella and Prince Charming Roger Lemke Ghillian Sullivan Terasa Livingstone Miguel Ayesa Andrew Daddo Simon Burke Monica Trapaga John Laws Sally Marrett and Richie Gudgeon from Home Away Janice Breen Showgroup Sydney Youth Orchestra Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Australian Youth Choir and Chorale SMH December 20, 1997 Carols in the Domain 3.