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Caroline Gilmer and John O'May Help
Caroline Gilmer and John O'May
Do-it-yourself musical
has had packed houses
MUSICAL show that lias been
playing to packed houses for seven
months in Melbourne, where it all
began, and has already been to
Hobart and Perth, opens tonight at
The Playhouse for a two-week sea
son.
It is the result of four months re
search by the trio who star in the 'The
20s and All That Jazz'. John O'May
and Caroline Gillmcr, who met in a
production of 'Godspcll' a few years
ago, first collaborated in their show
'Gershwin' and although their current
show does not contain any Gershwin in
its 56 songs it docs reflect the music and
razzamatazz of the 20s.
The third performer who joined in
the production of the show is John
Dicdrich.
The show is all set to go to Sydney
after the Canberra season and ul
timately to London and New York.
"Nothing really happens unless you
do it yourself', said Caroline Gillmer
and this show is a real do-it-yourself
one for the trio from the research and
writing to the production and perform
ing.
Caroline Gillmer was a secretary till
four years ago and would never go back
to a nine-to-five job, she said.
She judges herself to be like most of
the Australian public, who occasionally
go to the theatre, and looks back on a
sparse experience of theatre-going,
which seems to have consisted of seeing
a couple of stage musicals and a surfeit
of films when she killed time in the
cinema next to her parents' shop each
afternoon after school, never getting to
sec the beginning of the film matinee
till Saturday afternoon.
"This is not a show just for all the
grandmothers and there arc a lot of
parallels between the 20s and the 70s",
she said.
John O'May was director of the
Arena Theatre in Melbourne before
leaving it for this show. He came on a
visit from the US just over five years
ago and stayed.
The show will be performed from
Tuesday to Friday at 8.15pm and on
Saturdays at 5.15pm and 8.30pm.
$