Dirty Blonde March 8, 2013

Dirty Blonde
By Claudia Shear
Conceived by Claudia Shear & James Lapine
Starring Lara Mulcahy, Mark Simpson and Philip Dodd
Theatre 19
(Formally The Darlinghurst Theatre)
Friday 8 March – Sunday 31 March 2013

Why don’t you come up sometime and see me …
-Mae West

Drawing its title from the Mae West film quote "I made myself platinum, but I was born a dirty blonde,” this award winning play with music, conceived by Claudia Shear and James Lapine and featuring ten songs from the Mae West films I'm No Angel and She Done Him Wrong, will play Theatre 19 from Friday 8 March 2013.

Directed by Stuart Maunder, Dirty Blonde is a contemporary love story between Jo and Charlie, two Mae West fans in New York. Together they revisit the life of iconic stage and screen star Mae West, famous for her uninhibited sexuality and provocative double entendre. Carefully and confidently Mae West develops the extravagant, sexy, taboo-breaking public persona that was the hallmark of her fame.

Lara Mulcahy will play Jo. Lara is best known for her award winning performance as Rosie in MAMMA MIA! both in Australia and on London's West End. Other career highlights include Madame Thenardier in Les Miserables, Agnes Gooch in Mame, Sweet Charity, My Favorite Year and Celebrity Autobiography and film roles in soon to be released, The Great Gatsby, Moulin Rouge and Strictly Ballroom.
“I thought of directing this play after working with Lara,“ said Director Stuart Maunder. “I love her she’s great she will be brilliant and she will win an Oscar”

Dirty Blonde ran for 352 performances on Broadway in 2000, it is one of the few Broadway plays in history to have its entire cast nominated for a Tony Award.

“I can’t wait to work with Stuart again”, said Lara Mulcahy. “He is the best director ever”

Mark Simpson appeared as Eddie & Dr. Scott in The Rocky Horror Show. Most recently he understudied and played the role of Edna Turnblad in the Melbourne and Sydney seasons of Hairspray. Philip Dodd has been performing in theatre since adam was a boy, he’s that face you know but can’t remember where you saw him and the answer is everything. Most recently he appeared on stage in the highly successful Australian tour of Mary Poppins and on our screens in Crownies.
For the last twenty eight years, Stuart Maunder has been directing musical theatre and opera in Australia. He has directed for all the state opera companies and was Executive Producer of Opera Australia until 2009. Stuart’s Music Theatre productions include Dusty, Shout!, Little Women for Kookaburra and My Fair Lady and A Little Night Music for Opera Australia. He recently directed Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber for an Australian, New Zealand and Asian tour.
Garnet Productions has produced two successful seasons of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Centennial Park,
the premiere season of Allsopp & Henderson’s comedy thriller The Pork Stiletto at the Old Fitz Theatre, and the critically-acclaimed season of Allsopp and Henderson’s The Jinglists at the Bondi Pavilion Theatre in early 2012. Following the season at Bondi Pavilion, The Jinglists toured regionally with Critical Stages and has been awarded a place in the Critical Stages repertoire.

“Take off your hats, boys Mae West is back...in a compact Rolls Royce of a vehicle. This is no evening of mere impersonation.... ‘Dirty Blonde’ is a multi-layered study of the nature of stardom, as experienced by one of its avatars and two adoring fans. Shaped with remarkable fluidity and inventiveness, Dirty Blonde presents one of the canniest portraits on record of that floating dialogue between icons and idolizers that remains so much a part of pop culture... ‘Dirty Blonde’ finds the enduring substance in the smoke and mirrors of one actress's stardom, allowing Mae West to shock and delight once again." - The New York Times


Dirty Blonde
By Claudia Shear
Conceived by Claudia Shear & James Lapine
Directed by Stuart Maunderr
Starring Lara Mulcahy, Mark Simpson and Philip Dodd

Friday 8 March – Sunday 31 March 2013
At Theatre 19 (formally the Darlinghurst Theatre), 19 Greenknowe Ave Potts Point
Times: Tuesdays – Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 5pm
Opening Night Tuesday 12 March at 8pm
Previews $30;
Tuesday Wednesdays & Thursdays Adults $38; Conc $33
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays Adults $40; Conc $38
Bookings: Darlinghurst Theatre Box Office on 8356 9987 or http://www.darlinghursttheatre.com/dirty-blonde.html