{"id":405,"date":"2017-05-06T07:27:29","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T07:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/2017\/05\/06\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewsgeorgy-girl-the-seekers-musical-theatre-review\/"},"modified":"2017-05-06T07:27:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T07:27:29","slug":"httptheblurb-com-aureviewsgeorgy-girl-the-seekers-musical-theatre-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewsgeorgy-girl-the-seekers-musical-theatre-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgy Girl: The Seekers Musical &#8211; theatre review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Seekers were Australia\u2019s first international supergroup (they have sold tens of millions of records), so it is only fitting that their story makes it onto the stage as a musical in <em>Georgy Girl: The Seekers Musical<\/em>. With Judith Durham as their centrepiece, their arrangements and pure sound saw them score hit after hit in the \u201860s. The came together in 1962 and their rise to stardom is well captured in this world premiere production.<\/p>\n<p>Durham, a Balwyn girl whose mother oriented her towards opera, started her career as a jazz singer. Then, a quartet which had lost its male vocalist introduced Durham (their first gig was at a South Yarra cafe called Treble Clef) and they went from folk singers to bona fide pop stars. A 10-week voyage to England aboard a cruise liner really ignited their stellar career in the mother country. In their day they had periods when they outsold both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9728\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Georgy-Girl-01.jpg?resize=560%2C283\" alt=\"Georgy-Girl-01\" width=\"560\" height=\"283\" \/>The show deals with Durham\u2019s heartbreak at the hands of her boyfriend and the group\u2019s tour manager before she found love with another man, who was to meet an untimely death. Further trauma follows, with Durham having a shocking car accident and then suffering a brain haemorrhage. Notwithstanding that, The Seekers\u2019 melodic sound excited audiences the world over and that remains the primary focus of attention in the show.<\/p>\n<p>Pippa Grandison (<i>The Graduate, Mary Poppins, Wicked<\/i>) has a superb voice and is well cast as Durham, bringing good old-fashioned values and decency to her portrayal. Glaston Toft (<i>Shout!, My Fair Lady, Jersey Boys<\/i>) is Athol Guy, Mike McLeish (<i>Keating! The Musical, Shane Warne: The Musical<\/i>) is Bruce Woodley and Phillip Lowe (<i>Crazy For You, Show Boat, Cabaret<\/i>) is Keith Potger. As a group, they most certainly gel and do justice to the succession of hits The Seekers had. They included <i>I\u2019ll Never Find Another You, A World of Our Own, The Carnival is Over, Georgy Girl<\/i> and <i>Morningtown Ride<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Adam Murphy (<i>Dirty Dancing, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum<\/i>) is a scene-stealer as narrator with his well-delivered lines and great sense of comic timing. In fact. beyond Murphy, much of the musical\u2019s spoken components are easy on the ear and generate howls of laughter.<\/p>\n<p>Written by Patrick Edgeworth (Durham\u2019s brother in law) with script consultant Graham Simpson, direction is from Gary Young. Music supervision, arrangement and orchestration is by Stephen Amos, musical direction by Stephen Gray and choreography from Michael Ralph. Shaun Gurton is set designer and Isaac Lummis responsible for the costumes, which are undoubtedly a feature.<\/p>\n<p>Some of what appears in the production has been introduced for effect (you are told as much by the narrator), but it is so much fun that doesn\u2019t matter. Mind you, I, for one, would really like to know how much dramatic licence they have taken with the material. I felt the first half narrative was easier to follow than the second (the show unfolds chronologically), which deals with a significantly longer time frame.<\/p>\n<p>Ian Stenlake plays Durham\u2019s first love and <i>The Seekers\u2019<\/i> tour manager, while Sophie Carter has the role of Durham\u2019s sympathetic and empathetic sister. She and Grandison share a delightful scene after interval in which she consoles Durham following an unwanted discovery. The resultant song involves the use of spoons and a bottle. Among the leading cast members, Stephen Wheat is cast as the group\u2019s agent.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9727\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Georgy-Girl-02.jpg?resize=560%2C373\" alt=\"Georgy-Girl-02\" width=\"560\" height=\"373\" \/>A minimalist two-tiered set allows simple props, representing everything from domesticity to a recording studio, to appear and disappear at will in a matter of seconds. A series of conjoined video screens displays appropriate shots of the period depicted. At one point, we are even privy to archival footage of appreciative fans. Upwards of 200,000 turned out to see <i>The Seekers<\/i> performing at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in 1967.<\/p>\n<p>The show finishes with a rousing rendition of <i>I Am Australian<\/i> (surely it, rather than <i>Advance Australia Fair<\/i>, should be our national anthem), before we hear a second rendition of <i>Georgy Girl<\/i> as an encore. The finest moment came when the original Seekers appeared hand in hand with the four cast members who played them to take a bow. Very special!<\/p>\n<p>Enjoyable and good humoured, <i>Georgy Girl: The Seekers Musical<\/i> is an uplifting tribute to four Australians who have brought countless hours of pleasure to so many people the world over.<br \/>\nIt is playing at Her Majesty\u2019s Theatre in Melbourne until March 20th, before opening at the State Theatre in Sydney for a nine-week season from April 2nd.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Alex First<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Seekers were Australia\u2019s first international supergroup (they have sold tens of millions of records), so it is only fitting that their story makes it onto the stage as a musical in Georgy Girl: The Seekers Musical. With Judith Durham as their centrepiece, their arrangements and pure sound saw them score hit after hit in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[37,2,347],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-melbourne","tag-post_tag","tag-the-seekers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Georgy Girl: The Seekers Musical - theatre review -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/httptheblurb-com-aureviewsgeorgy-girl-the-seekers-musical-theatre-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Georgy Girl: The Seekers Musical - theatre review -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Seekers were Australia\u2019s first international supergroup (they have sold tens of millions of records), so it is only fitting that their story makes it onto the stage as a musical in Georgy Girl: The Seekers Musical. 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The staging is colourful, the set changes frequent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Theatre&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Theatre","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/theatre\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Beautiful-03.jpg?fit=1024%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Beautiful-03.jpg?fit=1024%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Beautiful-03.jpg?fit=1024%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Beautiful-03.jpg?fit=1024%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":167750,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/the-lucky-country-southbank-theatre-musical-theatre-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":2},"title":"The Lucky Country (Southbank Theatre) &#8211; musical theatre review","author":"Alex First","date":"October 15, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Author Donald Horne coined the expression \u201cthe lucky country\u201d in his 1964 book titled \u201cThe Lucky Country: Australia in the Sixties\u201d. But whether you see us as a lucky country now (or in the past) depends upon your experiences and perceptions. And now to a musical of the same name,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rsz_3_company.jpg?fit=800%2C571&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rsz_3_company.jpg?fit=800%2C571&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rsz_3_company.jpg?fit=800%2C571&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/rsz_3_company.jpg?fit=800%2C571&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":156899,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/billy-elliot-the-musical-cloc-musical-theatre-musical-theatre-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":3},"title":"Billy Elliot The Musical (CLOC Musical Theatre) &#8211; musical theatre review","author":"Alex First","date":"May 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Billy Elliot The Musical remains as moving and evocative as when I first saw it at Her Majesty\u2019s Theatre on 1stJanuary, 2009 \u2026 and what a magnificent show it is. For me, this is up there with the best musicals brought to the stage. It is based on the successful\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/rsz_a-1225-enhanced-nr.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/rsz_a-1225-enhanced-nr.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/rsz_a-1225-enhanced-nr.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/rsz_a-1225-enhanced-nr.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":162162,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/my-brilliant-career-mtc-musical-theatre-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":4},"title":"My Brilliant Career (MTC) &#8211; musical theatre review","author":"Alex First","date":"November 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Quite some undertaking \u2026 to turn the iconic novel My Brilliant Career, about a young girl\/woman who doesn\u2019t fit in, who charts her own path in life, into a musical. She is a strong-willed feminist, ahead of her time. She is someone with a vivid imagination who doesn\u2019t know exactly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/rsz_8_kala_gare_in_mtc_my_brilliantcareer_photo_by_pia_johnson_394.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/rsz_8_kala_gare_in_mtc_my_brilliantcareer_photo_by_pia_johnson_394.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/rsz_8_kala_gare_in_mtc_my_brilliantcareer_photo_by_pia_johnson_394.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/rsz_8_kala_gare_in_mtc_my_brilliantcareer_photo_by_pia_johnson_394.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":166243,"url":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/166243-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":5},"title":"The Selkie Project (Theatre Works&#8217; Explosives Factory) &#8211; theatre review","author":"Alex First","date":"June 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"First up, a confession. I am not sure I really understood The Selkie Project. The whole thing felt experimental and somewhat repetitive, even though it only ran for one hour and 10 minutes. It is based around an ancient myth, whereby a seal-like creature removes her skin to take on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/rsz_selkie_birth_9146.jpg?fit=800%2C573&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/rsz_selkie_birth_9146.jpg?fit=800%2C573&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/rsz_selkie_birth_9146.jpg?fit=800%2C573&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/rsz_selkie_birth_9146.jpg?fit=800%2C573&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblurb.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}