2007 Helpmanns launched in style

July 9: The 2007 Helpmann Award nominations were announced in Sydney and Melbourne today. AussieTheatre.com's JOANNA ERSKINE was at Star City for the eagerly awaited event...

It was brief but it was big, and this morning at 11am the 2007 Helpmann Award nominations were announced. Overlooking the wet and windy harbour at Star City’s Lyric Theatre foyer, the names of the great achievers in Australian live performance for 2007 certainly outshone the drizzle.

Before the nominations announcements there were some significant reveals. Notably, the Helpmann Awards (Australia’s answer to the Tony’s and the Olivier’s) appear to be gaining more attention, with the governing board receiving a record 621 nominations this year. Also increasing was the number of nominees in the ‘New Australian Work’ category, from four to six, each production equally demanding their place in the spotlight. These changes, although small, highlight the burgeoning talent of our live theatre practitioners, and the quality of work they are producing. For the first time, voting for nominees will take place online.

The 2007 Helpmann’s will take place at the new venue of the grand Capitol Theatre, Sydney, on August 6 at 6.30pm. This year the ceremony will be hosted by the effervescent and hugely popular Jonathon Biggins, aired live on the Foxtel Bio Channel and will include in its list of presenters, the renowned British actor, Sir Ian McKellen. The stellar production team includes Wayne Harrison as Director, Max Lambert as Musical Director and Andrew Hallsworth as Choreographer for the event.

Among the scheduled live performances by cast members of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Miss Saigon, Billy Elliott, Company, Dead Man Walking, Eurobeat and the cult-hit Hedwig and the Angry Inch, there will be some significant honorary awards. Dame Margaret Scott AC DBE and Barry Tuckwell AC OBE are joint recipients of the JC Williamson Award which recognises outstanding contributions to Australian live performance. 22-year-old Dane Lam is the winner of the prestigious Brian Stacey Memorial Award for Emerging Australian Conductors.

The nominations were a mix of expected smash hits, inspired underdogs and quiet achievers. It was no surprise, given the apt location of this morning’s announcements, that the Australian smash-hit jukebox musical, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, picked up a swag of nominations, nine in total. It will be difficult to beat in the Best Costume Design category, with the film’s designer Lizzie Gardiner stepping into a joint designing role with Tim Chappel. In the Best Musical category, the four nominations seem to dictate the field – Priscilla joins big-budget long-time hit, Miss Saigon, and the two runaway hits Company B’s Keating and Showtune Productions’ Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

It’s a well-deserved and admirable nod to these two sellout, unstoppable shows. Keating with its musical satire of Australian politics and Hedwig’s transgender dark spectacular have achieved cult status, yet whether they can outshine the commercial powerhouses that is their competition is something to watch. In the Best Play category, Tommy Murphy’s Holding the Man takes on its contenders in a similar contention. This brilliant, poignant and immensely successful production from Griffin Theatre Company takes on such works at STC’s Season at Sasparilla and Company B’s Parramatta Girls.

Although Sydney Theatre Company has received quite a few nominations, the most exciting is definitely in the recognition of Barrie Kosky’s epic production, The Lost Echo. Starring the STC Actor’s Company and second year NIDA students, the play ran in two parts totalling 8-hours of theatre. Chronicling selections of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the production was heroic in performance, magnitude, theatrical skill and thoroughly deserves the nominations it received. Hopefully the nod will encourage such a relatively mainstream company as STC, to take on more challenging, risky productions.

It was refreshing to note the recognition of outstanding French-Canadian physical theatre troupe, The Seven Fingers, whose show delighted and astonished audiences in its Australian tour. Dublin’s magnificent Gate Theatre Season of Beckett plays in the Sydney Festival is a worthy nominee in the Best Special Event category. Two notable nominees hot on the heels of the more well-known productions are the West Australian Opera’s production of The Love of the Nightingale and Lucy Guerin’s dance production, Structure and Sadness, receiving seven and five nominations respectively.

The 2007 Helpmann Award nominees are an exciting array of productions, creative teams and excelling individuals. It will be a classic struggle between the Davids and the Goliaths of the live performance industry, and those nominated are worthy contenders.