The Boy from Oz

1 – 20 October 2024 at The Q

Book by Nick Enright
Music and Lyrics by Martin Sherman
US Edition Book by Peter Allen

“My songs are my biography”
Peter Allen

The Boy From Oz is the most successful Australian musical ever, and the first to make it to Broadway. It is a musical biography/tribute to the late great Peter Allen.

About Peter Allen

Peter Allen was born in the outback Australian town of Tenterfield in 1944. He made his entertainment debut at the age of 5 impersonating Al Jolson. As a teenager he became a pop star and then toured Asia. There he met Judy Garland who took him to London where he met and became engaged to her daughter Liza Minnelli. In the US Peter enjoyed the highs of success by winning an Oscar, selling out performances in Radio City Music Hall, and receiving adulation when he returned to Australia. There were also plenty of lows … breaking up with his wife, staging a Broadway flop, the death of his partner, and his own battle with illness. Peter Allen had an extraordinary life which producer Ben Gannon realised had the potential to become a magnificent musical, and with Robert Fox they turned it into the smash hit it became.

About the show

The Boy From Oz is a class above all other ‘jukebox’ musicals. The late Nick Enright skillfully weaved his plot around the life and complexities of Peter Allen. The songs and lyrics sit easily with the rhythm of the piece and with the characters as they enter and re-enter his life, be they dead or alive. It leaps, as does Peter himself, from past to present and back to past, all within the familiar context of one of his energy-packed concerts.

In the news

Jared finds a deeper side to playing Peter Allen

This article by Helen Musa was originally published in Canberra CityNews on 11 Sep 2024. Jared Newall is about to take on one of the giant roles in Aussie musical theatre, that of songwriting legend and gay icon Peter Allen, in an upcoming local production of The Boy From Oz. It’s one of Australia’s proudest […]

Cast announcement - The Boy from Oz

Free-Rain Theatre Company are absolutely stoked to announce our impressive lineup of talent in the cast of ‘The Boy from Oz’, who will bring the life and music of Peter Allen to The Q stage in October this year – led by Jared Newall as Peter Allen.

Details

When: 1 October – 20 October 2024
Where: The Q

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Cast

Peter Allen – Jared Newall
Young Peter – Mitchell Clement & Blake Wilkins
Judy Garland – Meaghan Stewart
Marion Woolnough – Janie Lawson
Liza Minnelli – Stephanie Bailey
Greg Connell – Lachlan Elderton
Trio – Laura Evans, Isabella Fraser & Sophie Parnham
Dee Anthony / George Woolnough – Dick Goldberg
Wally Bell – Jordan Kelly
Chris Bell – Darcy Kinsella
Josie Manning – Kara Sellers
Young Lynne Woolnough – Addyson Dew & Florence Tuli

ENSEMBLE
Caitlin Bissett
Jeremy Chan
Jackson Dale
Paris Ellis
Ben Fullerton
Joshua Galang
Isabella Hansen
Charlotte Jackson
Bianca Lawson,
Courtney Mattick
Ashleigh Maynard
Jack Merton
Sebastian Leigh
Annaliese Soper
James Tolhurst-Close
Stephanie Waldron
Zach Warwick
Jono Windsor

Production Team

Director & Choreographer: Kristy Griffin
Associate Director: Emily Appleton
Musical Director: Callum Tolhurst-Close
Conductor: Ian McLean AM CSC
Choreographer: James Tolhurst-Close