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32-612: William Orr was a Scottish-born impresario from Glasgow who had a background as a director and theatre administrator in London before coming to Australia. Orr felt that there was a market in Australia for the new British theatre craze, the intimate topical satirical revue, and he pioneered the format in Sydney during 1954. Actor Gordon Chater praised Orr as a champion of Australian theatrical talent: Between 1954 and 1971, Orr promoted

64-529: A TV series, became famous for her long-running role in the 1970s television soap opera Number 96 of comedy character dizzy Edith "Edie" MacDonald, at the time the series was the highest rated drama in Australia, and she joined the series in January 1974, alongside Mike Dorsey as her regimented husband Reg McDonald, who referred to her character as "Mother" and by daughter Marilyn, played by Frances Hargreaves , who in turn referred to her as "Mummy" : Edie,

96-561: A commentary. Blacklock's acting career began on the stage and from 1951 and she is an inductee into the live performance Hall of Fame, she spent two years in England acting in repertory theatre, before returning to Australia where she had had a solid career in the theatre which have included stage tours both locally and in New Zealand; she was also a regular cast member of the satirical revues staged at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre in

128-544: A presenter on children's show Play School and had a role on Skippy the Bush Kangaroo , and during 1977 occasionally featured as a panellist on the game show Blankety Blanks Blacklock, a theatre entrepreneur, appeared in stage productions from 1954 and 2014. Source = AusStage For further information: see Wendy Blacklock Theatre In 1992, Blacklock became a Member of the Order of Australia for her Service to

160-472: A rising young actor-comedian from Melbourne, Barry Humphries . A couple of years earlier, while touring country Victoria with a theatre company headed by playwright Ray Lawler , Humphries had amused his fellow actors with a parody of a middle-class Australian housewife; for the company's end-of-year revue he named her Edna Everage and played her in a sketch he wrote for the show, called "Olympic Hostess". Although he had originally assumed that his 'turn' as Edna

192-783: A series at the Phillip Street Theatre that became known as the 'Phillip Street Revues' which featured many famous Australian performers. In 1953 Orr premiered a small revue, Metropolitan Merry-Go-Round at the Metropolitan Church Hall in Reiby Place, Sydney. This production marked the first professional credit for writer John McKellar , Jerry Donovan and Lance Mulcahy , the three writer-performers had met at school and developed their writing skills in university revues. The trio worked together on several subsequent Phillip St productions and McKellar became

224-742: A stage and radio actor, and was a cast member of the 1963 Sydney season of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard , the debut production by the Old Tote Theatre Company , the precursor to the Sydney Theatre Company . He appeared in a radio program opposite Gwen Plumb Chater appeared in TV movies and series, he became a national star when he was cast with Carol Raye and Barry Creyton in the Australian satirical television series The Mavis Bramston Show , for which he won

256-507: A theatre, and they renamed it the Phillip Street Theatre. It was here that Orr staged his next revue, Top of the Bill (1954), written by McKellar, Donovan and Mulcahy and featuring Charles "Bud" Tingwell , Margo Lee and an (unknown) American actor, with Chater making a guest appearance in each half of the show. During rehearsals the American actor repeatedly turned up drunk, so he was sacked

288-573: A week before the premiere and Chater was asked to step into the role. The revue included a sketches about the Petrov Affair , with Chater and Tingwell as David Jones floorwalkers and Chater in a solo turn as Australian dress designer "Pierre of Balmain" (a play on words that conflated the French fashion house Pierre Balmain and the Sydney suburb of Balmain , which was at that time a run-down working-class enclave). Orr planned to stage three shows

320-488: A week, but the new revue proved a great success—within days they were playing six shows a week plus Friday and Saturday matinees, and in his memoir Chater recounted that "there were queues around the corner of Phillip Street down to Castlereagh, and the production ran for two months." Orr established a board of directors for the Phillip Street Theatre that included author Morris West , journalist Betty Best, charity fundraiser Nola Dekyvere and (later) lawyer John Kerr . Despite

352-548: Is an Australian-born retired theatre actress and theatrical entrepreneur, radio and television actress, comedienne, producer, writer, singer, dancer and choreographer who has appeared in numerous performance roles, both locally and in the United Kingdom, and has been referred to as "The Grand Dame of the Stage". Blacklock started her career in theatre in the early 1950s, and although she started to take small screens roles in

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384-538: The 1960s. She has featured in numerous productions by such playwrights as David Williamson and Dorothy Hewett Prior to the role in Number 96 she had played in theatrical productions of Don's Party and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and when Spike Milligan toured Australia she appeared opposite him in a special televised production and took the title role in Pardon Miss Westcott since

416-458: The 1966 Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television . He cemented his popularity with the title role in the popular sitcom My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? , playing the elderly live-in father of a young married couple, played by John Meillon and Judi Farr . He appeared in many other television comedy series. His fellow actors included Ray Barrett , Stewart Ginn and Charles "Bud" Tingwell , among others. Chater

448-623: The Australian Hall. Note that the Phillip Street Theatre, separately to Orr's Phillip Theatre, recommenced operations in 1963 following the completion of a 300-seat theatre within the office block which replaced the 1961 demolition. This new Phillip Street Theatre continued until 1989 with children's drama classes and productions such as Peter and Ellen Williams' 1988 production of their pantomime Cinderella , with Derek Williams as musical director. Gordon Chater Gordon Maitland Chater AM (6 April 1922 – 12 December 1999)

480-553: The Australian vernacular. Other known productions included a local version of the landmark British satirical sketch show Beyond the Fringe (1962), Stop Press (1961) The Importance of Being Oscar (1964), Flaming Youth (1963) and At It Again . The topical satire featured in the Phillip St revues exerted a considerable influence on Australia's first satirical television comedy series, The Mavis Bramston Show (1964–68), and

512-784: The Bramston show featured numerous cast and crew who had worked in these live revues, including Gordon Chater, Barry Creyton, June Salter, Wendy Blacklock, writer John McKellar and writer-producer James Fishburn. The Phillip Street revues ended in 1971 when the Phillip Theatre changed hands and became the Richbrooke then the Rivoli (when leased briefly by Hoyts ), then the Mandarin Cinema, Mandolin and finally Dave's Encore. The building has now returned to its original form of

544-610: The Phillip Street hall was demolished in 1961 (at the time of the Bobby Limb and Dawn Lake production Out on a Limb ) Orr moved his company to the Australian Hall at 150 Elizabeth St, renaming it the Phillip Theatre. There he presented a string of successful revue productions, the best known of which was John McKellar's A Cup Of Tea, A Bex and A Good Lie Down (1965), the title of which immediately passed into

576-759: The Playhouse, in Melbourne in 1993. Gordon Chater later worked in the United States, including appearing on Broadway . In the 1970s Chater was particularly associated with the play The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin by Steve J. Spears , the stage role for which he became best known. The play broke new ground in Australian theatre with its shocking opening scene (in which Chater walked onstage naked) and its discussion of paedophilia. Wendy Blacklock Wendy Blacklock AM (born 20 January 1932)

608-677: The TV soap opera Number 96 as Edith "Edie" McDonald. Blacklock was born on 20 January 1932 in Sydney, New South Wales to David Blacklock, manager of British sports company Slazenger and Lillian Ava Miller She was educated at the Conservatorium of Sydney and the Rathbone Academy of Dramatics Arts Blacklock is a noted comedienne, she also toured England and worked in TV, appearing with luminaries such as Benny Hill and Bernard Bresslaw and also opposite Prunella Scales Blacklock, although initially reluctant to go into

640-517: The company Performing Lines an arts producer and presenter company, with the aim of coaching and showcasing new productions and training artists for stage. Her small theatre museum includes images of the alumni of the theatre world including Barry Humphries , Jill Perryman , Graham Kennedy , Gordon Chater and her Number 96 co-star Carol Raye Although a staple of theatre, she appeared in numerous TV roles, including guest parts in police procedural series Homicide and Boney and had been

672-489: The driving force behind most of the Phillip St revues of the '50s and '60s Also at this time, British-born actor Gordon Chater was appearing in the Sydney production of Hugh Hastings' play Seagulls Over Sorrento . Chater's character did not appear in that play until the end of Act II, and because it was being sent up in the Metropolitan revue, Orr managed to convince Chater to come over to the Metropolitan to introduce

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704-436: The final dialogue in the final episode. Although the characters of Reg and Edie where enormously popular, much to the disappointment of fans, they never appeared in the feature film version Umbrella Entertainment , released several DVDs of the series, showcasing several of the more iconic storyarc's, in which Blacklock, alongside creator and screenwriter David Sale and co-stars Sheila Kennelly and Elaine Lee recorded

736-422: The last time) and the revue proved to be a major hit, playing eight shows a week for 14 months. During this period Humphries was living near Bondi and while out walking one day he had a chance meeting with an elderly man who had a high, scratchy voice and a pedantic manner of speech; this encounter inspired the creation of another of Humphries' best-known and most enduring characters, pensioner Sandy Stone . When

768-444: The late 1970s, post-Number 96 her career has been exclusively related to theatre, including a tour of stage version of British TV series George and Mildred , she has performed as an actress and theatre company entrepreneur until retiring in 201!. Blacklock, is also a theatrical entrepreneur who founded the "Australian Content Department" in 1982 association the renowned Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust , and subsequently in 1990

800-497: The latter 50s, and working on screen until the late 1970s, she remained active in stage roles, her preferred genre for seven decades until the mid-2010s. She founded the theatre company production firm Performing Lines for the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust and was instrumental in establishing Aboriginal Australian theatre internationally However she became famous for her comic role in

832-495: The role of Mendoza and also cast the young Ruth Cracknell . The production was well-received but it was terminated in the middle of its run by the hall's owners, the Workers' Educational Association (WEA), who took legal action against the theatre company to regain use of the hall. Orr's next production was another satirical revue, Two to One (1955), starring veteran Australian musical star Max Oldaker, with Wendy Blacklock and

864-521: The sketch, which was in the first half of the revue, giving Chater enough time to make it back for his performance in Sorrento . Orr's next revue at the Metropolitan, Maid in Egypt was again written by McKellar, Donovan and Mulcahy, and starred Leonard Teale and Patty Martin. In 1954 Orr and his partner Eric Duckworth were given the use of the Workers' Education Hall in Phillip Street, Sydney, as

896-534: The success of Top of the Bill and its follow-up Hat Trick (1955) the board decided that the next show would be a straight production of Hamlet , which flopped. This was followed by a production of Sheridan 's comedy The Duenna , set to music by Julian Slade and directed by British director Lionel Harris, who had been brought to Australia to direct a local production that featured visiting British actors Lewis Casson , Sybil Thorndike , Ralph Richardson and (his wife) Meriel Forbes . Harris asked Chater to play

928-508: Was a one-off, he decided to revive "Olympic Hostess" for the Phillip Street revue and its success helped to launch what became a fifty-year career for the self-proclaimed "Housewife Megastar". Orr's next successful revue was Around the Loop (1956) which again teamed Oldaker, Chater, Blacklock and Humphries, plus newcomer June Salter . Humphries revived the Edna character (for what he said would be

960-572: Was a typical ditzy suburban 1970s housewife who hailed from Blacktown and had a fondness for gin, daytime soap operas and analgesics, the character became such popular and enduring comedy elements, there had been plans for a spin-off series in late 1976 based on the character's "Edie and Reg" called "Mummy and Me", the series was however not picked up by a Network, and she and Dorsey remained in Number 96, until it finished in August 1977, and she indeed spoke

992-592: Was an English Australian comedian and actor, and recipient of the Gold Logie , he appeared in revue, theatre, radio, television and film, with a career spanning almost 50 years. Chater was born in Bayswater, West London and attended Cottesmore School as a child. He attended Cambridge University to study medicine but did not finish his degree, instead taking part in many student revues. Chater having arrived in Australia post World War II came to prominence as

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1024-660: Was critical of early Australian television direction which he characterised as too often "'feet, knees and in the distance pictures'. People watching TV are interested in people and close ups in Australia were hard to come by in the early days of Australian television." Amongst work in many other shows, Chater appeared in The Rocky Horror Show in Brisbane in 1988, the Sydney Theatre Company production of The Importance of Being Earnest as both "Lane" and "Merriman" in 1990, and Lady Bracknell's Confinement at

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