The Boy From Oz

Many years ago, long before the ARIAs, the most coveted award for Australian recording artists was the annual crowning of the 'TV Week' King and Queen of Pop; an honour that was once seen as the music industry's equal to the Logies.

From 1967 we saw the likes of Normie Rowe, Johnny Farnham, John Paul Young and Daryl Braithwaite battle it out for the crown; and Marcia Hines and Debbie Byrne for the tiara year after year until the title was renounced in 1979. During these years also we saw a brash, flamboyant Aussie superstar take a firm grip on not only the national scene, but also soaring to much greater heights in the US.

Peter Allen made his name overseas by penning and recording a string of bona-fide classic hits of his own, as well as supplying a few lyrics for none other than Frank Sinatra, along with many other notables. Born in 1944, Peter Woolnough changed his name to the now more familiar Peter Allen after his successful time spent alongside Chris Bell in the fictitiously titled duo The Allen Brothers.

After ending a turbulent three year marriage to Liza Minnelli in 1970, Allen decided to go solo and a year later he wrote and recorded Tenterfield Saddler, and as success continued to grow with such singles as I Go To Rio and our unofficial national anthem, I Still Call Australia Home, the rest, as they say, is history.

To celebrate Allen's life, the smash hit Broadway spectacle 'The Boy From Oz', starring yet another home-grown Hollywood hero, Hugh Jackman as Allen, returns to Adelaide for a strictly limited season.

To tie our story together, who should play the role of Peter Allen's mother, Marion Woolnough, than two time Queen of Pop (1972-73), Colleen Hewett? Known for her hit singles Dreaming My Dreams With You, Wind Beneath My Wings and, Day By Day from the musical production of 'Godspell', in which she appeared, Hewett also went on to perform as Pippin in the rock opera 'Tommy', as well as sharing equal billing alongside Farnham in the TV variety show, 'It's Magic'. Nor have I forgotten her many regular acting roles in Aussie drama shows of the time, including 'Matlock Police', 'Flying Doctors' and 'Prisoner'.

These days Hewett has been enjoying a comfortable "retirement" at her homes in Melbourne, Bendigo and Fiji; that is until she received "that call". Having released an entire album of Peter Allen favourites, 'Tenterfield Dreams', Hewett could never have imagined such an opportunity would arise.

"Oh gosh, I did that back in 1997 or something like that," Hewett remembers of the album, as if I have suddenly reminded her of its existence, "and I did a lot of television appearances to promote that having been quite insular for so long. I mean, it had been quite a long time since I had brought out an album and people weren't very interested in a woman's version of Peter Allen's songs. My last two albums, including that tribute, I paid for and I was basically selling them out of my letterbox," she reveals of her self imposed estrangement from the industry. "Since I having been doing things again people's first question is 'Where have you been?' And when I tell them they say that I'm too young to retire, but good God, they're living in a time-warp.

"But I had a lot of catching up to do with me, you know? I've been singing since I was twelve years old and since that time I've had three children and a few marriages and God knows what, so I actually retired back in 2000. I'm not saying that I was totally out of retirement and this opportunity could not have come at a better time because I really felt like doing something, but it had to be something very, very special and this show certainly got my bells ringing that's for sure," she enthuses.

Inelegantly, I add that she had to consider that she's now of an age to be cast as Peter's mum, especially since she knew the man... "Well, you see it starts off with Peter as a little boy; obviously Marion wasn't always a mature woman and was once younger, so I haven't got a clue how they're going to do that transformation," she ponders. "But those sorts of things aren't my field; I'm only there to sing and to have a wonderful experience. I'm just so looking forward to working with Hugh Jackman and Angela Toohey, who's such a lovely person playing Liza Minnelli, and then of course there's Chrissie Amphlett."

Ahhh, no wonder I used to have a mad crush on this girl back in my adolescent days, a fact I finally got the chance to admit to her after all these years.

Steve Jones

'The Boy From Oz' comes to the Entertainment Centre from Thurs 24 Aug