The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 50

The Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, August 1, 1987 Page 50 i i mim i.i iiiiiii uiijjjpi.Liii.im.niiWMi mini iiijiiiuiiimiiuwiMiiLLiiiiiimBmiiii in mi iiiiiLiiiiiipiiiiuiiijxuiimiliitiilll I II I II I II I III II I I (Kilio M(D)iinmiaiy SnnMgnD mqi By BOB EVANS I HE unholy father of Tsarist Russia, Grigorii Rasputin, inspired plenty of mouth-" watering mvths about his I 4 ivtt; Wr 1 with McKenzie but said he was told that she had decided it wasn't her scene. If that's true, she wasn't the first. Michael Donovan, a former general manager of the Nimrod and now consultant with the NSW Bicentenary committee, was originally appointed as a consultant to the producers. He lasted about six weeks and resigned because, he said, Tydd and Shaw didn't want to operate within the normal practices of the industry. Rasputin has cultivated an ethos of non-conformity in keeping with its sub-title "The Revolutionary Music However, the differences from accepted theatre practice are hard to locate, as are the reasons for the break with tradition.

Mike Wade alludes to the size of the show and the fact that it is an original musical with a budget of around S3 million. "None of us has been in at the ground level of such a huge musical show. The usual yardsticks don't apply." Apart from Wade describing a somewhat unfamiliar approach to music rehearsals given that there is no overseas cast album from which to learn the songs the only other aspects which distinguish Rasputin from other shows are the sudden and unexplained departures of key people, the need to extend the rehearsal period twice and delay the opening by three weeks, and the necessity for the financier to find an additional $700,000 to wover the pre-production budget. What may be more truly unique is the lack of expertise at the production': executive level. That may now be sorted out as Harry Vogelsanger ami others such as Jon English's manager, Peter Rix, optimistically predict.

Rix plays down his involvement in the show. He said he never considered taking up the role of executiv producer, although it was obvious that he was offered the job. "I'm Jon's manager. That's the only position I've ever had. I just wanted to make sure Jon staved iti the show.

That's hardly the basis for me to become the caretaker-producer of a major musical." He did insist, however, on hearing the music arranged in a finished form before he would agree to Jon I nglish signing for the part. Rix wanted to he convinced that Rasputin had the legs to outrun Les Miserable, which opens at the Theatre Royal in late November. Now Rix turns to an earlier, more romantic myth to sound his notes of optimism for the production. "It's been a monumental saga, to be blunt, but I like to think of it as having a happy ending, just like Cinderella." he said, then added the cautious after thought, "which depends on opening night." changed from being a musical to a rock concert- "I'm a musicals man," Barlow said, "I don't do rock concerts. All my agreements had been with Pat Shaw.

When he was replaced I asked for my money up front I gave them a deadline of July 6. The next day I was told they had decided to use Jands." Harry Vogelsanger tactfully said that Rasputin was not Barlow's cup of tea. "They are theatrical people, they're not quite right for this job. Jands will give us the same plus more." This seems to be the way people get "rasputined" off the show. It happened to the publicists, Bruce Pollack and Wendy Sherman, who found themselves replaced by Patti Mostyn.

It happened to the advertising agency, Little and Associates which was replaced by MojoMDA. Almost as a by-product of those manoeuvres, the graphic designers A Barnum, were jettisoned. They designed the lettering and incorporated the Ivanov cartoon of Rasputin into the artwork on advice from David Tydd. The last work they did was to design a brochure and a poster. The last work they did was to design a brochure and a poster.

The surprising thing about Rasputin is that even if those who have been deposed do not maintain a reservoir of goodwill towards the show, no-one is prepared to break the uneasy truce that is now in place. The word coming out of rehearsals supports Mike Wade's satisfaction with David Tydd's original concepts and his arrangements. With three weeks to go before opening night. Wade and the seven-piece band are rehearsing in his Bondi studio and doing their best to ignore the disruptions. "We haven't got a minute to spare but we've got a start and a finish," Wade said.

The latest exits from the show may either signal the final realignments of power within Rasputin's aristocracy or be further symptom of the divisions which have plagued the show since it began. Last week the stage director, John Hoenig, and the recently appointed production supervisor, Sandra McKenzie, left the show. Both have maintained a professional silence about the reasons for their resignations. McKenzie's departure is the more puzzling. She spent only 10 days with the show.

She was reportedly brought in to fill the gap left by Tydd and Shaw. But when asked to comment on her departure, Vogelsanger would only describe her appointment as a temporary consultant. "We had some problems to sort out. She came in to give us some advice on how to organise things and when she had done that, her job was finished." David Tydd had no direct contact betrayed, lawsuits, star-turns, sackings, resignations freely tendered and enforced careers on the line. The most senior casualties among the list of those missing in action are Rasputin's original producers, David Tydd and Pat Shaw.

Their status has been cut to a program credit; their producer's royalty whittled down to between five and 10 per cent of the profits. There were rumours that they were originally expecting 60 per cent. According to the musical's financier and now executive producer, Harry Vogelsanger, "They've backed off. They're not as involved in the day-to-day running of the show any more." Adding insult to injury, Tydd, who also conceived Rasputin and composed the music, has been banned from rehearsals although neither he nor his new executive producer will admit it. Vogelsanger would make no comment.

Tydd said he hadn't been attending because he hadn't been "in the mood" since the cast boycotted rehearsals for three days, more than three weeks ago. Tydd glosses over the mutiny. The cast protest had nothing to do with him, he said. "The real story has never been told but I don't want to go into details now. It was a complex series of events.

Everyone was given a few days off. But we have taken steps to remedy the problem." debauchery, his mystic and hypnotic powers, his role in the fall of the Romanov dynasty and the Russian Revolution. The stories didn't stop when Rasputin was bundled into the Neva River, having first been poisoned with cyanide, shot once in the chest over dinner at the Moika Palace, shot twice more in a courtyard, then stabbed, battered and finally castrated. But did he actually die? The truth will never be known. As it was with Grigorii Rasputin, so it is with the Australian mega-musical based on his life, now scheduled to open at the State Theatre on August 22.

But it is not a case of art imitating life, it is more like history repeating itself. The producers- of Rasputin always fancied themselves as being the first to bring a Broadway approach to the creation of an all Australian mega-musical. Without even knowing it their wish has been granted. Rasputin has been the scene of some of the most bitter intrigue since the Mad Monk himself, haunted the corridors of the Palace of the Tsars. But that's Broadway: contracts made and broken, alliances David Tydd a Rasputin casualty.

Musical director Mike Wade wouldn't officially confirm Tydd's banishment but he did say that he would always be welcome in rehearsals as the composer but not as the producer. "The producer in David never agreed with the composer. That's what caused the problems. He couldn't separate the two roles. It made talking to him very difficult." In the wake of the palace coup other heads have rolled.

Among the first was Ron Barlow and Associates, the original sound engineers. Barlow parted company from Rasputin during the first week of July. Barlow said that with the departure of Tydd and Shaw the nature of the show Cats pack up their wigs and whiskers CI. The Murray River Performing Group is a professional Community Theatre Company operating as a collective in the Albury-Wodonga area. We are loqking or an ARTISTIC DIRECTOR C-RMMATR to co-ordinate all areas of script development and to be responsible for artistic realisation of all projects of the performing group Inquiries re: job descriptions by 14th August '87 to: M.

R. P.G. Cats payroll: 1 60, including a cast of 34 (14 originals remain). Merchandising turnover (Playbill Australia): Biggest seller, apart from T-shirts and soundtracks, the Cats mug, now also' being produced for the London, New York and Vienna productions. Coming soon: Cats Christmas cards (for Melbourne season).

Travel packages: Total, breakdown: country NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA and Tasmania, New Zealand, 40,000. Total Cats gross worldwide since 1981: about S24Cm ($1 13m from 2,000 Broadway performances alone). Opened: Sydney's Theatre Royal (capacity July 27, 1985; closed August 1, 1937. Opens Her Majesty's, Melbourne (capacity 1,1 00), October 10, 1 987. Expected ruru at least 1 8 months.

Sydney advance: $5m; Melbourne advance (bookings opened early April), Total Sydney performances: 847; total audience: average nightly attendance; 93 per cent of capacity box office gross: 528m; pre-tax profit: $8ra. Sydney staging cost: $3m, plus weekly running costs of 5200,000 plus; total costs, about 520m. Australia P.O. Box 479 WODONGA, 3690 Phone: (060) 21 7433 We are an equal opportunity employer. starting date negotiable.

ac or Auckland; that they would have to come to Cats. Supported by a $500,000 advertising campaign (hung on the slogan "The longer you wait, the longer you'll waif and those ubiquitous cat's eyes) and boosted by the extraordinary success of productions on the West End and Broadway, Cats inveigled theatre-goers to part with $5m in advance bookings. A London critic called it "an expensive bit of fluff. While its score is largely forgettable, with the exception of one hit song repeated ad nauseam on radio in the early days its balance sheet is not so easily dismissed. The Sydney production cost $3m to produce, and more than $200,000 a week to maintain.

Cameron Mackintosh is spending a further to transfer Cats to Melbourne, including $725,000 on upgrading the rundown Her Majesty's. Wigs for 16 new cast members will cost $1,500 each. Total costs for the Sydney run amount to about $20m. Pre-tax box office profit then is $8m. Add to that the return from worth of merchandising (Cats Aussie barbecue aprons.

Cats unisex nightshirts, Cats fridge magnets) and you've got the biggest success story in theatre history. You've also got 423 New Zealanders smiling like Cheshire cats. They invested an average of $NZ 12,000 10,250) each in the Australian production when no potential local backer would touch a musical based on a collection of T. S. Eliot poems written for children.

John Gow, then head of Challenge Corporate Services, an Auckland-based investment ELIZABETHAN SYDNEY ORCHESTRA By PETER COCHRANE nTS curtains tonight for Grizabella, Rum Turn Tugger, Old Deuteronomy and the other, frolicsome felines who have occupied one of the world's most expensive garbage tips since July 1985. The Sydney production of Cats will close at the Theatre Royal after two years and four days. During that record occupancy, the show has been seen by nearly 800,000 people and grossed an unprecedented $28 million. It's not the end for Cats in Australia of course. The show is moving to Melbourne to open on October 10.

Already bookings total Production administrator James Thane expects Cats to run for at least 18 months in Melbourne before its potential audience is exhausted. While not everyone's dish of cream, its influence on theatre-going habits is profound. When Cats opened in Sydney on July 27, 1985, musical theatre was in the doldrums. Co-executive producer Kevin Earle believes it single-handedly revived the genre, to the extent that musicals, both imported and homegrown, dominate today's box office. Cats's influence is also felt today in ticket prices, bookings, marketing and merchandising.

In 1985 theatre-goers were asked to pay a then unheard of $35 for the privilege of seeing 35 men and women, in wigs and whiskers, prowl around a set of oversized car tyres, tennis racquets and fish bones. They were told that the show would not come to them, regardless of whether they lived in Adelaide 1788-1988 ARTS ADMINISTRATOR A company of young theatre professionals funded under The Australian Bicentennial Authority's national arts program, and based at the Sydney Theatre Company's Wharf Studio, is looking for an administrator. The successful applicant, who could be working in any part of Australia, will preferably be less than 30 years old. He or she may have proven experience in the administration of an arts activity or company, however an applicant with a strong background in another field will be considered. A demonstrated dedication to and a love of theatre is a distinct advantage.

The position. will involve developing a close working relationship with the Artistic Director to plan and oversee the running of this "one off" special theatre project. Duties will include general administration, budgeting, promotion, marketing and organising, with the Artistic Director, to create a harmonious and productive environment for the presentation of a special series of works during the Bicentennial year. Applications, enclosing a full curriculum vitae and including details of professional experience, must be received by 14 August 1987. Addressed to: Tlie Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust JjJ to bankroll L'S national tours of Les Miserables and Me and My Girl.

Ironically, Strada rejected Cameron Macintosh's offer of a 100 per cent interest in the Sydney production of Les Miserables, which opens at the Theatre Royal in November. "It's no reflection on Cameron or the show." Mr Gow said this week. MThe decision was based purely on our reading of the theatre-going market in Sydney. "We were nervous. Cats was a hit for us but the next three shows Guys and Dolls, Me and My Girl and La Cage aux holies I all big-budget musicalsl were flops." Les Miserables is now being financed by eight investors, including lloyts Entertainment, which has a stake of just under 25 per cent.

Reminded that the advance for Les Miserables now stands at and is expected to exceed that of Cats, Mr Gow was philosophical: "I'm thankful that we made the wTong decision the right way around." Easing the pain are the returns from the umpteenth revival of The Rocky Horror Show. Described by Mr Gow as a "nice, tight little Rocky Horror is packing them in Melbourne and will begin its fourth Sydney run at the Theatre Royal in September. bank, recalls being "literally laughed out of Sydney's merchant banks" when he tried to raise finance here in early 1984. A Wellington merchant bank was interested, but two days before the deal was due to be cemented, the NZ dollar plummeted in value and the. bank's risk increased 20 per cent.

Bankers exit stage left. Left without a corporate backer, Mr Gow turned to his own clients. They contributed $500,000 in cash; the rest came from a loan by the merchant bank Partnership Pacific. According to Mr Gow, the return after two years is more than 200 per cent comparable to that of Les Miserable in London and New York. Cats, however, was only the beginning for these Kiwi capitalists.

In January 1986, Mr Gow formed Strada Holdings, which took over management of the Cats partnership. Strada is now the major independent source of finance for the West End and Broadway. Its present portfolio includes Follies, Chess, Phantom of the Opera and Les Liaisons Dangereuses in London, and Les Miserable, Me and My Girl and Starlight Express in the US. A Strada Entertainment Trust was recently listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, which is seeking $NZ5m is seeking a talented and experienced Musician for appointment to the following: ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL VIOLA Auditions are being held Thursday, September 10, 1987 and applications close on Friday, August 21st, 1987. Please phone (02) 241 2200 IL Tor Audition Form or address your application to: Mr Ronald Thomas, Artistic Director, Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney, 2000.

The Artistic Director The "as-yet-unnamed" Company CI- of Sydney Theatre Company PO Box 777 Millers Point. N.S.W. 2001 mii nil) toimd xv arid Arts Council ARTS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER HUNTER REGION The Arts Council of New South Wales is seeking applications (or the position of Arts Development Officer to work in the Hunter Region of New South Wales. The position will be based in Maitland. The Officer will be expected to work with the Hunter Region Arts Association to assist groups in developing the arts in their communities and in providing access to arts programs.

A self-starter who can bring a positive approach to the challenges of community work is essential. Experience in community development and practice in the arts is desirable. The successful applicant will be a good communicator able to negotiate with local state and federal government agencies and a variety of community groups. For job description and conditions of employment contact Mr Ron Rispoli on (02) 264 2500. Applications close on August 21.

1987 and should be addressed to ttie General Manager, P.O. Box Q98, QLEEN VICTORIA BUILDING, SYDNEY, 2000 and marked "Confidential. This position has been made possible with the assistance of the Sew South Wales Office of the Minister for the Arts, the Interim Community Cultural Development Unit of the Australia Council and heal gnwemmerrt bodx in the region. whose function is to encourage and develop Australian writing for the theatre, seeks to appoint a part-timefull-time experienced ADMINISTRATIVE CO-ORDINATOR to work in a close knit, dedicated team. Salary to be negotiated.

ANPC is an equal opportunity employer. Replies to: The Chair Australian National Playwrights' Centre 171 New South Head Road, Edgecliff, N.S.W. 2027 by August 18. For further information ring 328 7855. $1495 ex Syd, via Asia, USA Europe fro.

$1450. ex Syd Phone tele sales 212 6744 Australian Airlines is planning to revive the Australian mystery story in its inflight magazine. We want well-written, entertaining short mystery stories, and will pay $750 for each story used. The best story will also win its author a magnificent Australian Airlines two week holiday for two. For details and conditions, contact the publishers: POL International, 161 Victoria St, Potts Point, NSW 2011.

Ph: (02) 356 4233. 4 Sydney: 1A Lee Street, Railway Square 212 1255 North Sydney: Shop G4, Northpoint, 100 Miller Street 922 6706 woo APPLEY HOARE ANTIQUE NEW PROGRAMS The following new programs of assistance have been announced by the Australia Council. Design Board Townscape Improvement Program for projects leading to greater use of environmental designers (architects, landscape architects, urban and graphic designers) in towns and urban areas. Closing dates: 15 October 1987 and 15 February 1988. Design Board Fellowships one for established designers of proven ability in manufacturing design (industrial, engineering, interior, fashion, textile and graphic design) and the other in environmental design (architecture, landscape architecture, planning and urban design) for personal projects.

Closing date: 15 February 1988. For further information and application forms, please contact the Secretary of the Design Board. Literary Arts Board Australia-New Zealand Writer's Exchange Fellowship a four week visit to New Zealand in 1988 is available to an established writer of imaginative literature for adults or children. The visit will allow research time for a literary protect andor promotional activities for books already published. The Exchange is co-sponsored with the New Zealand Literary Fund.

Closing date: 15 September 1987. Australia-China Literary Exchange and Australia-USSR Literary Exchange. Expressions of interest are sought from well published writers who wish to be considered for inclusion in biennial cultural delegations to either the People's Republic of China or the USSR. Language skills and demonstrable interest in these countries and their literature is an advantage. Application details for both programs are available from the Project Officer (International).

Literary arts Board. S27MILITARYROADMOSMAN TELEPHONE69 3292 Just arrived! An excellent collection of country chairs and small kitchen treasures. Open this weekend on Saturday and Sunday from 10.30am to 5pm WARRINGAH ART PRIZE 1987 September 30 October 8 Official Opening October 2 at 8 pm $6,700 IN PRIZE MONEY Major sections include OPEN PAINTING WATERCOLOUR PRINT CERAMICS and TEXTILE ENTRY FORMS COMMUNITY ARTS OFFICER WARRINGAH SHIRE COUNCIL -Howard Ave, Dee Why, NSW 2099. PH: (02) 982 0470 or from Offices of the MANLY DAILY Sydney Road, Manly. Entry forms to be returned by Friday September 4th 1987.

Exhibition hosted and organised by WARRINGAH SHIRE Vgyg COUNCIL MonlyDsily THE UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS PH.D SCHOLARSHIP ON THE MECHANICS OF RUBBER ENGINEERING COMPONENTS A University of Wollonqong postgraduate scholarship, with a stipend of $7,000, is avaiiaDk to undertake a Ph programme relating to the mechanics of rubber engineering components This work is in association with a rubber engineenng company and an equivalent amount of money is also available from the company for the successful applicant to undertake related expenmental research work. Applicants may have a background in either applied mathemalics or engineenng. The successful applicant will work with Or J.M. Hill and National Research Fellow. Dr A.I.

Lee. Applications or expressions of interest are welcome from applicants who already hold an honours degree or who are currently in the process of completing such a degree, and should be directed to: Or J.M. Hill, Department of Mathematics, 4fc wwwfwn fi- VS Australia Council PO Box 302, North Sydney 2060 11 a The University of Wollonqong, Wollongong, N.S.W. 2500 Phofw: (042) 27 0322 or (042) 27 0845 Bordeaux. Circa 1883 (4 metre).