Ever wondered what the life of a performer just starting out in the industry is like? AussieTheatre.com is thrilled to announce that 2006 WAAPA graduate Lucy Maunder has joined the team to take us on the inside journey of what life in the world of musical theatre is really like for a performer. Every Thursday, we'll be having Coffee With Lucy Maunder to hear about what she's been up over the past seven days. The column will be presented in "documentary" format. We'll be there every step of the way as we follow her journey from the 2006 WAAPA Showcase through to the strenuous audition process, general performances and future success. Join us every Thursday for this exciting new weekly feature!

Thursday, November 22
Almost a year ago to the day, AussieTheatre.com started following the career of Lucy Maunder, a 2006 WAAPA graduate. After three years in Perth, she had returned to Sydney to take on the theatre industry. It would turn out to be a year full of highs, lows and remarkable experiences, all of which we followed.

In December, we followed Lucy as she sought agents, eventually finding Mark Morrissey and Associates and settling with them. Then, almost immediately, some good news - she was cast alongside Marina Prior in a production of Harp on the Willow in Melbourne, scheduled to open in early 2007.

Christmas and New Year was spent in New York (a city Lucy would visit again by the time 2007 was over) and January, February and March was dominated by Harp on the Willow - the preparation, the rehearsal process and the show itself, which received strong reviews.

Good news came in April, with Lucy learning she would join Erin James and Kirby Burgess in New York as part of the Bound For Broadway Scholarship. And who could forget her tenure as a sea monster at a local shopping centre.

May saw Lucy's return to New York, and then it was back on the audition circuit.

In July, she appeared in Snow White And The Seven Housemates, and then The Eternity Man, a new short film for the ABC, came along. It was a project she would work on for some weeks.

For a few months, we followed her through the joys of casual employment, answering phones, driving promotional cars - whatever she could do to earn money between jobs.

And then, came the big break - her first major musical. Lucy was cast in The Rocky Horror Show, a major revival that opens in Sydney early next year.

It has been an incredible journey, one that has showed people outside of the industry what it is like to be a young performer in the early stages of their career.

Lucy Maunder's journey has only just begun....

Next week, we start following the career of 2007 WAAPA graduate Gemma-Ashley Kaplan via her exclusive column, 'Coffee With Gemma-Ashley Kaplan'. Don't miss it next Thursday, before it moves to Tuesdays in 2008!


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Thursday, November 15
This week, Lucy Maunder sat down with AussieTheatre.com for the last time after a year of allowing us access to the first 12 months of her career in musical theatre. As the 2007 WAAPA graduates present their showcase in Melbourne and Sydney, there's mixed feelings for Lucy, who now feels more entrenched in the industry than ever given she is no longer 'new blood' in terms of the WAAPA juggernaut.

"This year has flown," Lucy said.

"I've done a few rehearsals since last week - Erin, Kirby and I will be performing a segment in this year's School's Spectacular, songs include 'For Good' from Wicked where we all look at each other and cry about how wonderful it was to get to know us; 'America' (a very jazzed up version, nothing like the original) and ''The Rhythm of Life'...It's very strange to be involved with the Spec again; the three of us are the only ones who aren't still in High School. But it's fabulous to be able to sing in the Entertainment Centre and to get the coverage on ABC too."

Apart from doing that, Lucy is still temping at a company in the city.

"I'm looking forward to this weekend. I'll be singing at the STC All Star Cabaret on Sunday night which will be great, and I'll get to catch up with some of the third years from WAAPA who I've missed a lot this year," she said.

"Can't wait to see Showcase next week, though I'll be rushing from Spec soundchecks and sitzprobes to get there...Then I do the Spectacular over the weekend and spend the next few days after that preparing for the Opera and Arts Support Group gig which happens the week after.

"After that I think I'm done for 2007...I'm going to relax in Sydney over December, housesit my parents' house and the cats while they're in Melbourne doing Shout... and then I'll head to Lorne with Kai's family for Christmas and enjoy my days and nights before immersing myself in darkness with Rocky for 2008.

"Thank you so much to Troy and AussieTheatre.com for this opportunity, it is greatly appreciated. I've had a fantastic, busy and very lucky year and I look forward to reading gorgeous Gemma's column from now on."

Next week, we will look back at Lucy's first year out of WAAPA. Then, from November 29, Gemma-Ashley Kaplan will commence her exclusive blog as we follow the start of her showbusiness career.


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Thursday, November 8
Lucy Maunder flew in from Hong Kong at 9am on Tuesday morning, and went straight back to temp work - starting at 10am.

"I'm working every day this week and next," she said.

"I'm still pretty tired...but it was so worth it. Hong Kong was amazing I had the best time with the girls. I am completely and utterly broke and  have turned into a big deep fried mass of MSG and fatty Chinese food. Consequently I'm on a detox for the next two weeks. The gig was great as well, though that's never the focus when I talk about the trip."

The event was called Beyond Dreams, a charity auction for the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children, and was held in the Ballroom of the Grand Hyatt.

"There were about 40 or so big tables and the room was decked out with glass and butterflies and flowers," Lucy said.

"We were all dressed in blue sequined dresses and had huge beehive wigs on for the Dreamgirls segment of the show which came before they ate...it was very 60s and included songs such as 'Dreamgirls', 'One Night Only', 'Shoop Shoop', 'Dancing In The Street' and 'Respect'.

"The second show, which we performed after dinner when everyone was considerably more drunk was a disco segment in which we were in extremely loud fluorescent sparkly dresses, afros and feather boas...we sang disco classics like 'Step Back In Time', 'Blame It On The Boogie', 'I Will Survive', 'Young Hearts' etc...it was all fun and I made a lot of Chinese business men get up and dance with me.

"Then for the rest of the time we were there which was approximately two days we did nothing but shop. It was fabulous and I want to go straight back."

Lucy is heading to the Singer, Actor, Dancer showcase at NIDA this evening.


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Saturday, November 3
It has been almost a year since Lucy Maunder graduated from WAAPA, and it's already been a huge year, with a role in Harp On The Willow and the recent news that she has been cast in The Rocky Horror Show.

Lucy is currently in Hong Kong, preparing to do a show at the Grand Hyatt.

"I'm so happy I'm here with Monique and Alexis," she said.

"The flight was long because we were three hours delayed due to engine failure...but we managed to pass the time pretty easily chatting away. Poor Lex had just stepped off a plane from the Middle East so by the time we arrived in Hong Kong she'd been travelling for about 48 hours. We're spending the day today rehearsing and trying to dance in the outrageously high platformed shoes we have been given. And the heavy afros for the disco section. The costumes are mad and we won't be on stage until about 11pm tonight, so I'm sure the corporate crowd who have been sitting and drinking since 6 won't really care what we do. But it will still be fun."

Lucy adds: "My room is small; very clean and on the 21st floor. When we arrived we asked the taxi driver to take us to the Harbourview hotel and he dropped us off at the Renaissance Harbourview - we were counting our lucky stars only to be told at reception that we weren't at this Harbourview, we were at the Harbourview International YMCA down the road...devastated. But this place is actually fine. However the bed is like a slab of concrete... Going to Shenzhen tomorrow for SHOPPING, and we have to organise our visas because it's a two hour train ride into China but worth it for the fantastically illegal merchandise. Then to Lan Kwai Fong for dinner which is the big concentrated restaurant/bar area in Hong Kong. Monique's hard though because she's allergic to MSG ie 10mg and she'll go in to anaphylactic shock and has to be rushed to hospital...so Chinese food is pretty much a no no for us which is a shame. She had to brief us on how to use her Epipen yesterday if she ever accidently ate MSG and couldn't breathe...she said she'd know within 5 minutes at which point we would have to STAB her in the leg with adrenalin... she told us it was fine and not to worry...freaking out."

Lucy will be back in Sydney early next week.


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Thursday, October 25
Pain is the best word to describe Lucy Maunder's week.

"I'm in the wars this week - have had injections left right and centre and am cursing that driver who nearly ran me over last week," she said.

"That little graze from my fall has turned into a terrible wound, I've had to have tetanus and diphtheria shots and am on a hectic course of antibiotics. My foot has swollen to double the size of the other one and I can't walk. And all because I had my birthday party on Saturday and aggravated it by wearing boots. So $300 later thanks to lengthy doctors appointments and medication I'm at home with my foot up, unable to work.

"The highlight of my week has been seeing iOTA in Berlin for SDC, which I thought was absolutely incredible. His performance was mesmerising, though the whole piece was fascinating and it's such a shame it's closing tonight otherwise I would be going again."

Lucy had a costume fitting for Hong Kong this morning and leaves next week.

"Next week will consist of lots of recapping of everything and we'll try to re-do a lot of the choreography in our dresses which don't allow for as much movement as we had planned," she said.


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Thursday, October 18
"SO.......I'm in an immense amount of pain as I just fell over in the most monumental public fashion - I was coming home from a riveting day doing data entry at some company in North Sydney and I was walking downhill in my heels. A maniac driver came screaming around to turn into a street and scared me, at which point I completely stacked it, broke my shoes and now have massive bruises and bleeding grazes all over my legs," says Lucy Maunder at the end of what appears to be a very interesting Thursday.

"So I cried a bit, pretended I was fine and laughed really loudly at everyone who asked me if I was ok. But I have a glass of wine now and bandages around my knee so everything is fine."

Lucy's week this week has consisted of many birthdays, including hers, yesterday.

"I had a wonderful night until I got home at 1am only to realise I had no keys and none of my housemates were anywhere to be seen. So I was stranded in Stanmore bashing on my door and ended up coming all the way back to my parents house to sleep...hundreds of dollars spent on cabs," she said.

"In terms of being creative this week I've done next to nothing apart from seeing Queenie Van De Zandt at Statement on Saturday who I absolutely adored and I implore everyone who hasn't seen it to go! She's so funny and such an incredible singer.

"I got my Rocky script in the post yesterday as well which is very exciting and I now have a rehearsal schedule so it's becoming more real to me.

"We go to Hong Kong in two weeks, Lex is away until the day before so we filmed all of the chore and will do our own work on it in the next 14 days...it's going to be a lot of fun."


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Thursday, October 11
"I can't believe it's Thursday again, or that it's mid October and nearly a year since I left Perth," says 2006 WAAPA graduate Lucy Maunder.

"This year has been the quickest of my life I think...but I don't know anyone who doesn't say that on cue each year. I just got back home from the Seymour Centre 2008 Subscription season Launch at which I sang tonight...I was lucky enough to be asked by James Millar and Pete Rutherford to sing the song for The Hatpin launch which unfortunately Melle Stewart couldn't perform tonight because she is currently in a play at Glen St Theatre. The song is stunning and I was terrified about singing it but it went well and I'm glad it's over! The show sounds so exciting. Big congrats to them that it's happening."

Other than spending lots of time on the launch, Lucy did an All Saints audition today.

"I had to play a character who had been admitted to hospital for a drug overdose/attempted suicide...such a running theme with me...anyway it was a highly depressing and emotional audition and I think they were scared to send me away because I looked so horrendous and depressed at the end of it...all pale, with mascara running and hair everywhere...attractive," Lucy joked.

"Tomorrow I'm rehearsing all day with the Dreamgirls for Hong Kong which is turning out to be very fun. We've spent a couple of days choreing the show - it should be fabulous...very camp with massive wigs and frocks. However Alexis and Monique both go away this weekend and return the day before we leave so we have to have the show finished now. We're desperately trying to extend the stay in Hong Kong by another day to fit in the outrageous, yet highly necessary amount of shopping that needs to occur.

"I've had a week off temping which has been lovely, though no doubt I'll be back on reception next week...for the days when I'm not celebrating my BIRTHDAY!!"


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Thursday, October 4
As the 2007 WAAPA graduates prepare to hit the industry, 2006 WAAPA graduate Lucy Maunder is in Melbourne, slightly cold and dealing with winds, rain and freezing temperatures.

"I came down to see Kai's show which was awesome, a political satire called The Candidate. I wish I could write in that genre (or any genre for that matter) as it's very clever and witty... and such a scary concept to me to do a comedy show - he does it so well," she said.

"Last night I saw Amelia Christo's show based on her Macedonian grandmother's life which was fascinating. And I'm trying to get along to see some more stuff in the Fringe before I leave.

"A Night of Crime and Passion was an awesome night as well - there were some fabulous song choices, a really bizarre and amusing theme to play with. The audience was very rowdy and supportive as well which made the whole experience less scary...I was so nervous before I sang, but it went well and I was happy that I was in the first act so I could relax and watch everyone else later!

"And on Saturday I saw Erin at Statement for her last performance and I'm really glad I got to be there, she was beautiful - performed a well structured, captivating show and was so warm and engaging when she sang."

Lucy will head back to Sydney on the weekend as the countdown continues to her appearance in The Rocky Horror Show.


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Thursday, September 27
Lucy Maunder isn't quite living the glamorous life of a performer this week.

"Ah temp work. Today I'm at Apollo Marketing - the phone has rung probably five times since I arrived at 9...it's such a beautiful day and I'm stuck inside," she said.

"Tomorrow I'm working at Weightwatchers...Not sure what that will entails... Other than being a boring receptionist this week I've been preparing for A Night of Crime and Passion which I'm totally freaking out about. It should be great but I'm scared. There are a lot of wonderful performers!

"I didn't manage to make it to Erin's show last week but I will be going this Saturday. We had the wrap party for The Eternity Man, which was a very last minute decision and turned out to be quite an interesting night...there were incidents of projectile vomiting all over the Rose of Erskineville of which Lara Mulcahy, James Millar and myself still cannot shake from our memories. A very modest, quiet wardrobe assistant named Catherine turned out to create a lot more havoc that we thought was possible from her."

Tomorrow night Lucy is off to see see Love and Money, which is playing at the Old Fitzroy Theatre and stars Chris Stollery who was in Harp On The Willow with her.

"I've also just found out I'm going to Hong Kong to do a corporate gig for a charity ball in November," Lucy said.

"I'm going for three days with Alexis Fishman and Monique Montez so we'll start rehearsals for that this weekend too! Wish it was longer, but I can't wait, it should be awesome. We're doing a show called Dreamgirls and it will be a 20 minute set, with crazy wigs and costumes and songs thanks to Lesley Hancock who organised it all and will probably direct it.

"Then on Wednesday I'm flying to Melbourne to see my boyfriend Kai's show which is in the Melbourne Fringe. It opens tomorrow night... www.thecandidate.com.au."


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Thursday, September 20
The Rocky Horror Show may just be around the corner for Lucy Maunder, but before preparations begin comes a period of slight uncertainty.

"I'm finished work tomorrow - no more Sony and no more car," she said.

"It should be interesting. I'd love my agent to phone me up with an amazing worldwide ad which would pay me $40,000...seems unlikely at this late stage. I've had my mornings off this week which has been great - I'm doing a lot of singing in preparation for A Night of Crime and Passion which I'm singing at next Sunday night at the Griffin. It looks like a fantastic evening, and I've just been trying to find a song which fits that theme. There's lots of passion and not so much crime. However, I think I've chosen something appropriate. My singing recently has been very much confined to my car which I've spent such an outrageous amount of time in over the last six weeks...I'm sure the technique has diminished somewhat, but I should be able to get it back up and running soon."

After that, it's back to the boards of being a young actor, before she takes up her ensemble role in Rocky Horror.

"I'm very much looking forward to seeing the gorgeous Erin James in her cabaret this weekend and hearing some of the stuff she performed beautifully in New York," Lucy said.


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Friday, September 14
Lucy finished shooting the Eternity Man last night - and what a busy week it was.

"I can't believe that project has been and gone…we rehearsed on Saturday on location and started the shoot on Monday morning," Lucy said.

"I was called at 4am for wardrobe and makeup (not a pretty sight) and we were on set at 6.30ish. Being my first experience on a feature I was totally fascinated by how it all worked. The organisation was epic for a relatively low budget film and I was surprised at how many people were actually involved and running it.

"Monday was probably the biggest day of the whole shoot because there were close to 100 people on set not including the crew. The scene was at the Royal Easter Show, from the point of view of an inebriated Arthur Stace…this meant that everything was quite surreal, most of the people on set were classified "freaks"; missing certain limbs, Siamese twins etc and it was all quite bizarre. The shoot went until 6.30pm that night so having been there for 14 hours I was wrecked. I found it very interesting learning the hierarchy of the film crew and how different it is to theatre… how the whole show is pretty much run and managed by the first assistant director - he was the one on set the whole time calling action and playback, doing the hands on work and being the go-between for the cast and Julien Temple. The next busiest job seemed to be handled by the second AD who organised taking everyone across from wardrobe to set at the right time and dealt with any issues we had. He was running around keeping everyone and especially the director, happy. We rarely saw Julien because he was behind a monitor all day, tweaking everything via a headset and relaying it to the first AD to make it all look beautiful. The day was long and we hit a massive wall by about 3pm but it was fascinating to be involved with. The costumes were great too though I looked more like a librarian than a prostitute. I'll upload some photos when I can find a USB cable! I was lucky to have such wonderful girls to work with…Lara, Katrina and Naomi…we had a ball and laughed a lot.

"Yesterday's shoot was pretty long too but it was fabulous – we did the whole brothel scene, which was shot at this stunning house in Balmain that had actually been a brothel in the 20s. My costume was amazing, loved it…black corset, suspenders, frilly undies and this incredible black full length crotchet robe…I was in my element.

"Yesterday was a very tiring day and we went a couple of hours overtime but it was great. There was a shot which we spent a long time on where I had to push one of my punters through the door and he was to fall backwards onto the bed…but I pushed him so hard that he fell and the whole bed shattered on the first take – the poor guy, I don't think he got too hurt but it was hysterically funny and should be an amusing blooper.

"In other news Citibank spit the dummy and cancelled the promotion and Sony have found someone to fill their 1-6 shift permanently so I'm now unemployed without a car."


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Friday, September 7
It's been nearly a year since Lucy Maunder graduated from WAAPA, and so far it's been an exciting 12 months.

But with excitement, often comes early starts.

"I'm preparing for The Eternity Man shoot which starts on Monday next week, at 4am," Lucy said.

"We've got a rehearsal all day tomorrow with the director which I'm really looking forward to. I still don't have a costume though and apparently they'll just find one for me and fit me at the shoot so we'll see how that goes.

"That's all of my news. Citibank threw a huge tantrum that they weren't getting enough applications per week (1) so now we don't drive any more, we stand and hand out credit card applications to angry people for five hours a day...I did that in Blacktown this morning.

"I saw Rabbit Hole at the Ensemble Theatre on Wednesday which was really interesting, though somewhat heavy and depressing. However it's definitely worth seeing. Queenie Van Der Zaant was fabulous, as was Georgie Parker.

"I'm about to go and get ready - I'm getting new headshots done this afternoon in an effort to make the cut off for the 2008 Showcast book. I didn't want to reuse my current picture in which I look 12."


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Thursday, August 30
"My week has been so screamingly untheatrical it’s scary, with much answering of the Sony phone and handing out of fliers," a tired Lucy Maunder says.

"I’m looking forward to a great weekend, my boyfriend flies up from Melbourne tonight and apart from working tomorrow and Saturday for the cars leaving my house at the UNGODLY HOUR of 6am, we’ll be doing lots of awesome things! I’m going to the opening night of The Tales of Hoffmann at Opera Australia on Saturday which I’m looking forward to."

"It’s my all time favourite opera…a love that arose when my dad first directed it when I was 8. It’s such stunning music and Emma Matthews is starring in it so I can’t wait to see her."

The Eternity Man, a film in which Lucy is starring, starts shooting on Monday.

"I still don’t have a costume, so I’m hoping that gets sorted out soon," Lucy said.

"I was talking to James Millar over a few boxes of Milk Duds this week and he was telling me that the stuff he had seen so far looked incredible. He shot his scenes this week and said the cinematography looked really beautiful. We both got very excited."


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Thursday, August 23
This week Lucy Maunder has some fantastic news: She's going to be appearing in her first touring production of a major musical.

"I signed the deal memo for The Rocky Horror Show yesterday so I’m confirmed to start that in January, which despite being a while off, is something I'm very much looking forward to sinking my teeth into," Lucy said.

"It’s overwhelming, but wonderful! It will play in Sydney for 6 months, then travel to Melbourne and continue with an Australasian tour from there. I’ll be in the ensemble, understudying Columbia with the second cover to be announced. I feel incredibly lucky for this opportunity and I’m sure I will learn so much from the whole process. The cast are all wonderful and I’ve never understudied anything before – I’ll be covering the wonderful Sharon Millerchip."

Apart from that, this week has been go go go with the little Suzuki Swifts.

"They are the brightest and most offensive lime green cars with BP and Citibank advertising on the sides …I’ve already driven around the CBD for 20 hours this week…All was going smoothly in our six car convoy until two of the cars had a crash today and are no longer road worthy…so our team is down to four," she said.


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Thursday, August 16
It's hard to believe it is creeping up towards a year since Lucy Maunder graduated from WAAPA - and what a year it's been.

To make a busy few months even more stressful, Lucy last week moved house.

"I'm sitting at my new housemate's computer and the keyboard is in Japanese and all the characters are in Japanese - so this is taking me a lot longer than usual," she said.

"But it's beautiful and we're actually having the after party for the Sydney Uni law revue here tonight, so that will be interesting!"

Lucy spent the day in a costume fitting for the upcoming film The Eternity Man.

"Apparently the 1920's are an incredibly unflattering fashion period," she said. "I spent two hours in the Surry Hills vintage costume shop trying on dress after dress that looked horrendous. I was surprisingly comfortable in the corsets and suspenders.

"Speaking of suspenders, I do have some exciting news about a major show that will keep me busy for the best part of a year. More on that next week, hopefully!"

From next week, Lucy throws herself into 55 hour weeks thanks to the joy of being a young actor and needing to keep the money rolling in.

"I'm working like a maniac from Monday doing 8-1 driving around the CBD advertising Citibank! From 1.30 until 6 I am doing reception at Sony, so it's going to be extremely busy," she said.


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Thursday, August 9
"I’ve had a great week so far – it hasn’t stopped and I’m very excited that it’s Friday tomorrow," Lucy Maunder says of her last seven days.

"I spent the weekend in Melbourne and flew back to Sydney for costume fittings for the film…they asked me how comfortable I was in underwear and bearing flesh to the camera to which I explained as long as there’s a corset it’s all good…legs, cleavage and arms are fine… just no bearing of the mid! Stupidity!"

Lucy is of course referring to the film The Eternity Man.

"They’ve finalised the shoot dates and they’ll be in a couple of weeks – at this stage we’re only required for two days," Lucy said.

Lucy performed with Erin and Kirby at the Talent Development Project Graduation yesterday.

"We each did a song and some patter, ending with the trio we sang on Kerri-Anne. We all hated it at the time and felt very unprepared but it turned out to be the song we were to perform at everything! It’s so exhilarating to sing in that venue – the space is mammoth and the sound is wonderful. There were a lot more people there than I was expecting – though still nowhere near enough to make the space feel full," Lucy said.

"I’m shooting the second part of my short film for Tropfest this weekend as well as moving house and working…I’m back temping with Sony again. Attempting to EARN SOME MONEY!!!"


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Thursday, August 2
"I am currently working on the reception desk for Sony Australia again…thankfully today’s work is a little less stressful," Lucy Maunder says of her Thursday.

"However, I’ve been in for an hour and I’ve already answered the phone 77 times and sound like a cracked record. I’ve sold my soul to the world of Temping and Promotions this week because I’m completely broke," she says, proving the life of a young performer is not always glamorous.

"I started work at 6.30am yesterday doing a promo launch for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts at Town Hall Station…how horrendous. Early and fattening!"

As for her real work: "We recorded our back up CD for the Eternity Man on Friday last week. I’d never done anything in a recording studio so it was fascinating for me. It seemed to sound wonderful with the chamber orchestra and I love some of the music. We should have a copy this week I can’t wait to hear it. It’s very contemporary and quite dissonant at times but has a lot of emotional depth. The prostitutes get to belt out some great stuff…'come and see our hanging gardens…come and see our slits of heaven!' Hooray!"

Lucy has a busy weekend ahead of her and then heads to the Helpmann Awards on Monday evening.


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Thursday, July 26
Lucy Maunder may be a talent in her own right, but there is little doubt that the connection between her and her well known and respected parents is often made. Until now, Lucy has shown little interest in following in their opera footsteps.

"It’s quite funny really – when people ask me if I wanted to be in opera because of my parents I immediately tell them I wanted nothing to do with it and now here I am in an opera film being a prostitute and having a great time singing in this style," Lucy said.

"The music for the Eternity Man is epic; we had a sitzprobe on Tuesday with the Sydney Chamber Orchestra and they sound incredible.

"After the recording tomorrow we’ve got a few weeks before we start shooting, but we met the director Julien Temple on Tuesday and he explained some of the set. It sounds fabulous. All the girls are worried about is what we’ll be wearing and how revealing it will be…it was fun to hear the boys as well, namely James Millar and Daniel Scott. They play the real estate ‘sharks’. It was good to catch up with them and listen to the opera as a whole although James is very mischievous in the rehearsal room. He ate all of my Milk Duds from America."


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Thursday, July 19
"We started rehearsals for The Eternity Man this week and managed to cover all of the material in our two music calls," says Lucy Maunder, tired but enthusiastic after an extremely busy week.

"We had learnt most of it in the three-hour audition anyway, so this week was spent tweaking. The MD is FABULOUS, a hilarious man named Stuart Stratford. He's from the UK and is extremely lively and vibrant and has managed to get some amazing sounds from the five of us. Working in the little prostitute group with me are Lara Mulcahy, Katrina Retallick and Naomi Johns (studying opera in fourth year at the Sydney Con). We also sing with the character of Myrtle, the ringleader of the prostitutes and owner of the Darlinghurst brothel where our segments of the film are set. Myrtle is Arthur Stace’s sister and the female lead. She is being played by Christa Hughes who is currently the Ring Mistress for Circus Oz and was the former lead singer for the rock band Machine Gun Fellatio…she’s very interesting, with a massive voice and spectacular red boots. Apparently the director wants a very broad Australian sound (so it will be easily recognised in the UK). Stuart’s loving hearing us play with the hideous sounds of our accents - flattening the vowels and exaggerating the diphthongs and nasality… it’s a lot of fun so far, and we’re recording in the studio next week. They want the singing to be live when it’s shot in August but the recording is there as a backup…in case we’re terrible on the day."

Apart from her work on the film, Lucy has been keeping herself busy shooting a short film for Tropfest.

"This time my character is a psychopathic drug addict but it should be good," Lucy said. "The 6-minute film spans a 9-year period so we have to undergo significant physical transformations. Difficult to achieve but makeup and the gym will do the trick."

It has now been seven months since Lucy graduated from WAAPA.


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Thursday, July 12
Lucy Maunder is in Melbourne this weekend after what has been a busy few days.

Lucy said: "I have had great fun rehearsing Snow White and The Seven Housemates for Endemol/Southern Star with gorgeous people such as Tina Bursill, Jack Webster and the next Hugh Jackman aka Rob Bertram who played prince Neville of Nar-Nar-Goon, my knight in shining armour! It was a highly 'throw it together' process, but it ended up working very well. I could absolutely see it's box office potential with a GP audience as it will include the stars of Big Brother. Greg and Tim, the winner and runner up of Big Brother 2005 came in and played the seven' housemates They were very funny."

Lucy also had some exciting news this week - she's been cast in the ABC/Channel 4 film The Eternity Man, which starts rehearsals next Monday.

"It's the story of Arthur Stace a petty criminal, bum, and metho' drinker who for 37 years wrote the word 'Eternity' on the sidewalks of Sydney - over half a million times and no one knew who he was..I'm very happy and feel honoured to be a part of the project which looks fantastic. I'm playing a role which my agent and a number of people continue to tell me I'm perfect for...a 1920s prostitute...which is fine, I'm learning to accept my calling!"


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Thursday, July 5
"I've just come back from a very hectic day at the Opera Centre," says Lucy Maunder.

"We started rehearsals today for Snow White And The Seven Housemates...we had a good day, albeit tiring. We focused on the music today and nutted out exactly which characters were in each song, the harmonies etc. We'll block it on Monday and Tuesday. There's some great tunes in it including 'Big, Blonde and Beautiful' from Hairspray; 'Home' from The Wiz, 'Where In The World Is My Prince? from Miss Spectacular; 'So Long, Farewell' from The Sound of Music and many more. It's a fun panto and we're presenting it to Southern Star and Harry M Miller next Wednesday to see if it will go further. Hopefully it will, it's a good script."

Among the cast are Rob Bertram, Tina Bursill, Garry Scales, Jack Webster and Hugo Chiarella.

"I'm trying to learn some music for an audition I have tomorrow - some very challenging music. I wish I was at Company like everyone else I know," Lucy said.

"Oh and I saw Hayden Tee's show on Sunday night; was lucky enough to catch the last performance at Will and Toby's. He was gorgeous...
and Happy Birthday Troy!"


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Thursday, June 28
It's been a busy week for Lucy, and after some time in both Melbourne and Perth she's now back in Sydney.

"I saw West Side Story last week at WAAPA - fabulous...it was definitely one of the best WAAPA shows I've seen," she said.

"Mind you it's hard to go wrong with that story and the music is so wonderful. I'm glad I got across to see it - and it was lovely to catch up with everyone again. However, the What are you doing next? and Are you working? questions got hard after a while."

Yesterday, Lucy auditioned for Andrew Doyle for the play Wrong Turn At Lungfish. "It was strange, not an audition situation at all, just seemed like a rehearsal...just him and me in a room.I was in there for about an hour and we worked the scenes - it's a great play, very funny. Fingers crossed for the decision but it was good to catch up with him at least."

Next week Lucy is playing Snow White in a workshop of a pantomime for a reality TV show.


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Thursday, June 21
2006 WAAPA graduate Lucy Maunder has had a busy year so far, but this week she's been able to take time to relax - well, most of the time.

"I've had a wonderful week relaxing in the Yarra Valley which I feel very guilty about as I should have been working," she said.

"I did do some temp work last week - my first job at HAYS recruitment...and they sent me to fill in for the receptionist at Sony Australia. I had to operate the entire switchboard - almost had a heart attack it was so stressful. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and where to put the billions of callers through to... by the end of the day I had improved somewhat but my brain hurt a lot. I've done some switch work before but with a single phone and about 6 lines. This was a massive computer database with a company of 5000+ people."

Lucy is now in Perth and is heading to West Side Story tonight, which is being presented at WAAPA.

"I'm also preparing for an audition at the Ensemble Theatre next Wednesday which I'm looking forward to. It's for a play called Wrong Turn At Lungfish and the role is a 28 year old Hispanic girl from the Bronx... I'm trying to perfect my Bronx accent at the moment and learn the lines... It's a comedy which is great and is being directed by Andrew Doyle who directed Harp On The Willow," she said.

Lucy is currently preparing material for the TDP graduation which Erin, Kirby and her are performing at in August.

"They've requested that the three of us do a 12 minute cabaret style spot with a trio to finish... I'll probably do one of the songs I sang in New York, though I'm not sure if they'll translate very well from Don't Tell Mama to the Sydney Entertainment Centre," she said. "I'm looking forward to being back in Sydney for a substantial amount of time."


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Thursday, June 14
It's been more than six months since Lucy Maunder graduated from WAAPA, and since then there's been plenty of significant milestones - two trips to New York and a season of Harp On The Willow among them. But despite the hectic schedule, now there's little time to relax.

"I thought I'd have nothing to report this week but it's actually been very busy," Lucy said. "I was given the opportunity to sing at a masterclass on Sunday run by ANATS (Australian National Association of Teachers of Singing) who brought Robert Edwin to Australia from New Jersey. He ran a weekend of workshops at the opera centre on Saturday and Sunday. He teaches a number of people currently on Broadway including the actors playing Leaf Coneybear in Spelling Bee and Mary Poppins. I sang The Light In The Piazza which is a song I have always loved... and he made some really interesting points - he is of the opinion that if you are not completely right for a role (eg. me for Clara in the Light in The Piazza) there is pretty much no point in singing the material let alone auditioning for it. Vocally we didn't discuss the song - he was wonderful and very complimentary but couldn't understand why I would choose to sing that. I'm not "child-like and cute and innocent" - this is completely fair enough (albeit quite depressing!) but it was really good to have an outside perspective on the song. I guess out of the context of the show it doesn't work as well and it was an odd choice for me at a masterclass. I still love the song though! He thinks in a casting situation they won't consider people acting cute and childlike, however well you do it, but rather someone who already is - as they walk into the room - they just 'are' the character. This makes sense..."

Lucy's relationship with Robert didn't stop there, however.

"I then booked a private session with him in Melbourne for last night in which we worked on some audition material for this weekend and a couple of songs that I was having some vocal issues with. I'll definitely contact him if I'm back in the States - he's convinced the future of Music Theatre is Pop/Rock, not classic. Musicals like Spring Awakening...and the Tony Awards seemed to prove that somewhat...He really taught me a lot and was extremely helpful in pinpointing exactly what I can do best.

"I'm in Melbourne for the next few days then I'm going over to Perth for a couple of days to see some friends and visit WAAPA...they're doing West Side Story, I have to go!"


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Thursday, June 7
After nearly a month in New York, Lucy Maunder is finally back in Sydney. She this week filed the following report:

"The trip absolutely flew by...apparently I'm in Sydney again. I don't know why it feels strange to be back here so quickly because the flight back were some of the most horrendous 30 HOURS of my life. I may be exaggerating a little bit but certainly way too long to spend in an ecomony seat. We were delayed at JFK for 4.5 hours which turned the trip to LA into a 10 hour debacle...then it was 14 hours to Sydney.
I'm pretty sure Sydney-New York is one of the worst flights around. But having Erin and Kirby there made it less painful. Each of us slept on the floor for some of the flight (covered with strategically placed blankets and pillows so as not to be seen by the big scary flight attendant). Highly illegal but necessary...I swear the seats must be getting smaller...anyway the wait was almost unbearable on the ground at JFK, we weren't allowed wine or any food except the never ending supply of pretzels that they offered. Couldn't look at a pretzel ever again. There was a woman in front of us that had a panic attack though - being stuck in a plane that was hot and not moving - she demanded alcohol and had a huge argument with the staff until they gave her a drink. We were considering doing the same thing.

"The last week in New York was very busy - I've met so many incredible people and been so inspired by the place. I managed to see most things on Broadway, including what I saw in January so I can't wait to see the Tony's this week and have some knowledge for once about the shows nominated...no doubt Spring Awakening will win - it's had such an effect on everyone that's seen it...people either absolutely love it or loathe it...I keep changing my mind (Libran...) as to which I feel. It's definitely controversial and some people were OUTRAGED that it got so many Tony nominations. So we shall see. I wanted to leave New York seeing all of the musicals nominated for Best Musical and I've done that. I've also seen most of the people nominated for Best Actor and Actress in both plays and musicals.I love that there's that much to see - I'm upset I missed 110 in the Shade as I would have loved to see Audra McDonald but there was too much to do!

"Our showcase went really well - I do wish we could do more than one performance. We had wonderful feedback from the people that were there - various writers and directors and critics. They kept saying "what is in that Australian water?? Every time we get Australians over here we're blown away by them!!". I ended up singing five songs and loved working with Chris Marlowe - he did some fabulous arrangements and is a wonderful MD to sing with. I started with Think Of Meryl Streep, then Jerome Kern's Long Ago and Far Away; It's A Good Thing He Can't Read My Mind by Christine Lavin; Temporary by John Bucchino and I Happen To Like New York by Cole Porter. The set went extremely quickly and the whole thing was over before I knew it. There were some friendly familiar faces in the audience though which was nice - Les Solomon turned up and was sitting with John Bucchino as well as Mary Lopez, of course, and Al Lewis. I also had a couple of friends from Sydney that are working over there so it wasn't too daunting. Forgot my hollywood tape though (essential) and was wearing a strapless top on stage - something I've always been told never to do!! So there was a bit of sticky tape action before I went on and I noticed when I finished singing that it was highly visible...how embarrassing. Ah well...needed to be done.

"I had a big chat with John Bucchino after the show who is lovely - flat out writing a new musical called A Catered Affair. I was very appreciative that he took time out of his day to support us...I think he knew I was singing Temporary which made me exceptionally nervous but it all went well. He kept saying how weird it is for him that people over here know his material - that he lives in a tiny studio apartment, writes these little songs and people in Australia have heard them...they're so not just little songs. he's amazing. So it all went very quickly. We also had an afternoon with Craig Carnelia which was fantastic...he is the most honest and intuitive teacher. I really enjoyed working with him - he helped me with my material a lot- asking me a heap of questions and personalising the songs on a deeper level.

"What else? Yes we sang at Birdland...hilarious...I've sung at Birdland!!! We weren't planning on singing and had no music... but walked up to the guy that runs the night on Mondays and he slotted us in to the program. They have an event every Monday called Cast Party which is essentially an open mic night but with a lot of really famous people! It was quite scary before I sang (I was first out of the three of us) seeing the people in the audience who included Michael Feinstein, the writer of The Drowsy Chaperone, numerous critics and cast members of Broadway shows. Anyway I had no idea what to sing but ended up cracking out my trusty Misty which the band obviously knew well - could I have chosen a more classic jazz classic? But I had a ball. Then celebrated with a martini while the other two were freaking out before they sang!

"Saw some fantastic theatre in the last week including A Moon For The Misbegotten starring Kevin Spacey; Talk Radio with Liev Schrieber; Curtains (not a fan...); Coram Boy (phenomenal); The Color Purple with Fantasia Barrino who was INCREDIBLE; No Child - an off-broadway one woman play which stands to be the best thing I have ever seen on stage; Melissa Errico's cabaret (the reason we were at Birdland). I think that is all...some great stuff and some not so great. But just exciting to have the chance to see so much. So many thanks go to everyone from TDP who made this all happen. And to Michael Kerker from ASCAP - without them I wouldn't have been there...I'm so grateful.
And I'll definitely be going back soon. London first though..."


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Thursday, May 24
Lucy Maunder today filed the following report from New York:

"It feels like so long ago since I last wrote. I've met so many people it's crazy! Last night I marched up to Barbara Cook and told her how much I loved her when I spotted a rare moment that she was alone. She was so lovely to me, "Lucy from Australia". Said she saw Hugh Jackman in the Boy From Oz 6 times when she was in Sydney in October or whenever it was. We were at a preview screening of a wonderful documentary for Jerry Herman, and there were so many well known faces there. We did manage to meet him and talk to him for a bit though it would have been very overwhelming for him. A huge night. Also spoke to Stephen Flaherty for a while who was very warm and friendly as well. They're all so nice over here! I'm tucked up in bed today though, the fatigue has finally got me and I've lost my voice and am pretty sick. I should probably rest though I have 12 more shows I have to see in 10 days.

We've been very busy this last week. We were lucky enough to attend a masterclass held by Craig Carnelia on Monday. He is a fantastic teacher and the standard of the performers over here is incredibly high. It's so competitive. I really learnt a lot watching him and them work and we've got a private session organised with him tomorrow so we each get an hour to work with him.

Out showcase is in 6 days and we've had one session with Chris Marlowe (our MD) already. I think I've pretty much decided my program...Need to spend today writing some patter and doing some extra work on the songs before we work with him again. He's rearranged some of the stuff beautifully so I'm very much looking forward to the performance. If the old voice holds out...why does this always happen? must be psychological...

The ASCAP workshops have been another highlight of the week which we attended on Tuesday night and will be going to again tonight. A new musical is presented each workshop followed by a panel discussion. The panel on Tues was comprised of Stephen Schwartz, David Zippel and Stephen Flaherty and they were all fascinating to watch giving such intelligent, insightful feedback to the young writers. Tonight's panel will add Craig Carnelia.

We've seen a few more shows including Altar Boyz, LoveMusik, Spelling Bee, Avenue Q and in the next week have to fit in so many more. Coram Boy is top of the list as it is closing...Moon for the Misbegotten with Kevin Spacey, Legally Blonde, Curtains, Spamalot...and many more.

So I'll write next week when we're all done with our responsibilities in New York, our show will be over and we'll be heading home! It's gone so quickly."


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Thursday, May 17
Lucy Maunder is currently in New York, working with some of the industry's biggest names as part of the Bound for Broadway Scholarship.

"I apologise for the lateness of my coffee this week but we are 14 hours behind," Lucy says. "And I am drinking coffee right now...TERRIBLE coffee at that but still coffee. I think it's my 5th today...it's been a pretty stressful 5 days so far. I'm sitting in a Starbucks on the corner of 5th Avenue and 35th St and have just flown in from Washington DC where we spent two days - after not sleeping on the flight from Sydney at all, we were delirious when we got into NYC and were met by Nadia Ackerman who is a TDP grad from 1994 I think. She wanted to take us out so we went out for dinner, couldn't string a sentence together and ended up getting a fifth wind and staying up until 1am.

"We then slept for 17 hours...big mistake. So woke up at 6pm on Sunday and had some food then tried to go to bed again to get the body clock into US time...but none of us could sleep so we sat up all of Sunday night and decided to stay awake all Monday day and go to bed nice and early on Monday evening."

Titanic star Alex Lewis is in New York was as well so Lucy along with Erin and Kirby (her follow scholarship winners) spent the night with him - but there was disaster to come.

"On the way home Kirby expressed that she wasn't feeling too well, with pains in her ribs which were fast getting worse...so we sat her down, she tried to eat something and within 20 minutes we were rushing her to the emergency room because she couldn't breathe or stand up and was screaming in pain," Lucy says. "We arrived at Beth Israel Hospital where she was admitted and we sat from 10.30pm until 5am waiting for tests...having been up for 38 or so hours this was pretty intense. Anyway she was released with multiple Kidney stones (!!) and we trudged back home to sleep for 45 minutes before we had to leave to catch an 8am flight to Washington DC."

There was drama on the way to Washington - and Vegemite was responsible.

"They nearly stole our Vegemite but I actually cried because I was so tired, explaining that vegemite was not a liquid and we weren't going to blow up the plane with it," Lucy said. "They took my Trevor Sorbie hair curl cream (amazing) which CLEARLY had less than 100mls in the tube but had the capacity to hold more. They took my toothpaste which was brand new...so angry. Anyway we finally got on the plane...a tiny little pencil plane which took us to Washington.

"By the time we got there it had been about 45 hours without any sleep...when we finally checked in to our hotel and went to get ready for the Alan and Marilyn Bergman talk we were going to we opened the suitcase to find all of our clothes saturated in Garnier Fructis shampoo which had exploded over everything and covered it in goo. Not a very happy trio to be around at this stage. Kirby was still getting over the amount of morphine that she'd been given and Erin and I were just laughing uncontrollably in between bouts of tears.

"But from that point on it got better - The Bergman talk was fascinating, they're so inspirational with wonderful lyrics. Alan Bergman sang a number of songs including The Windmills Of My Mind and The Way We Were. Great to see the lyricist perform these classics. They also had Lari White sing as a special guest who was incredible - she came on stage and sang a medley from Yentil and blew us away she was fantastic.

"Last night we were lucky enough to see the opening night of Songs For A New World which was AMAZING. We met Jason Robert Brown after the show - he was definitely the star - such a ridiculous pianist and the performances were great. Tituss Burgess and Alice Ripley were the standouts but it was also really interesting to see Laura Griffith who played the original Clara in The Light In The Piazza.

Lucy has a meeting with Michael Kerker tomorrow morning who's the head of ASCAP to talk about the workshops and showcase.

"He did tell us the other night though when we were at the Bergman talk that John Bucchino, the Bergmans, Stephen Schwartz, David Friedman would all be attending our show...so I'm kind of freaking out at the moment. He also asked us if there were any other composers we wanted him to invite! It's been a whirlwind so far but I'm so excited to be here. Hope to see lots more stuff in the next week!"


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Thursday, May 10
"I'm leaving in two days!!!" The first words from Lucy Maunder as we catch up with her just 48 hours prior to her New York departure.

"I'm so not prepared. I've spent the last few days getting all my repertoire photocopied and in a folder so I don't have to carry 20 kilos of music books over. I've been asked to take over about 10-15 songs which I, with my MD will cull down into the 6 or so I'll sing at the cabaret," she said.

Lucy also has some great news about the people she will be working with overseas.

"I found out on Friday that I will be working with Chris Marlowe as my musical director and I'm so amazed at that - I'm a massive fan of his arrangements and his piano playing through the work he did with Nancy La Mott in the 11 years before her death in 1995. She does some wonderful songs with wonderful arrangements on her albums so when I found out I was working with him I nearly fell over. He'll be playing for my showcase at the end of the trip so I'm liaising with him and trying to squeeze into his incredibly hectic schedule to work some songs out. I'm having lots of trouble finding up tempo comedic stuff that isn't overdone but I'm sure some stuff will come up when I'm there. I'm hoping we'll get some new material through the people we're working with at the ASCAP workshops," Lucy said.

"Apart from going to the workshops I don't know really what else is in store for us. I know that we're attending a documentary showing/dinner for Jerry Herman and a function in Washington for Alan and Marilyn Bergman so that is very exciting. Apart from that I'm trying to change my flight to stay an extra day in Washington to go to a production of Songs For A New World which is MD'd by Jason Robert Brown. It's only on for two nights and opens the day we leave."

Lucy has also been doing extensive publicity for the trip.

"I'm not looking forward to the flight but I've got lots I can do and lots of movies to watch...until then I'll be running around crazily doing things I should have done ages ago but of course have left until the day before I leave. This time next week I'll be in Washington DC...so bizarre!"


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Thursday, May 3
The countdown continues, with only a week until Lucy Maunder heads to New York for the ASCAP Scholarship.

"I was on Kerri-Anne this morning, something I was completely dreading watching. But it was ok - I thought it was much worse when I recorded it, and was pleasantly surprised I guess. I still don't think I look like that. But anyway, the three of us (Kirby, Erin and myself) went and did the recording on Tuesday afternoon for this morning's show. We sang I'm a Woman from Smokey Joe's Cafe and it was all very black and belty. We only found out that we were doing it on Friday, so the rush to find an up tempo trio in three part harmony and little rehearsal was interesting. Erin only returned from the Wellington season of Fiddler on Monday so the only time we could do it together was a couple of hours before we recorded," Lucy said.

"I learnt a lot - my first television experience so now I know what to expect and how it all works. The studio was so cold, and the air con made it very dry to sing in but we all had fun. Do they do that to keep people awake? I heard that once."

Tomorrow Lucy is doing a photo shoot for Club Life Magazine which is sponsored by Myer who are dressing and styling the girls while they are in New York.

"I can't wait, although they requested that we turn up tomorrow morning with no hairspray or product whatsoever in our hair. This is a major issue...But we'll see," Lucy said. "We're also supposed to have manicured finger and toe nails. I think the shoot is going to go for about 6 hours and will be in the magazines next week - it will be good to have some shots taken anyway."

Now, the rush begins to be ready in time.

"I leave in 9 days and am trying to get organised - we had a meeting with Mary Lopez on Monday and got our itinerary and were told a little bit more about it - I'm sure it will become very clear when we arrive - it sounds wonderful I'm so excited. Just looking up the apartment we're staying in which is on Madison Ave and 37th St so right in the heart of it. We were going to be living in Soho but they've moved us into an apartment right up near Times Sq. It also has a full kitchen so we don't eat New York style pizza every day."


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Thursday, April 26
It's been five months since Lucy Maunder graduated from WAAPA and already she's got one commercial show under her belt and she's about to head to New York to work with some of the city's biggest names.

"I'm just getting ready for a photo shoot/interview with the Mosman Daily today about the scholarship and they're arriving soon," Lucy said from her home this morning.

"After that I have to rush to Camperdown where I won a promotional photo shoot at Vaig Studios. They called me the other day to congratulate me on winning the free 3 hour shoot; the competition I have no recollection entering but they had all my details. So I get a free session with stylists and consultants which is very useful, but I'll probably be roped into buying a lot of shots and spending money I don't have. such a pushover."

During her "coffee" with AussieTheatre.com this week, The Mosman Daily arrives.

"So I just did the interview, had a nice chat with them - and a few shots with a suitcase beaming into the camera. Was lovely. Talking about how excited I am and what New York will entail. I'm having a meeting with Mary Lopez on Monday and we'll get our itinerary then and know exactly who we'll be working with as well," Lucy said.

"I've just come back from Melbourne where I've been for the last couple of days doing Production Company auditions for Sweet Charity. I love that show so much. The dance call was to the Rich Man's Frug which I didn't get to be in at WAAPA so I was beside myself. Very fun - but reaffirmed to me how unfit I am dancewise. Am able to go to the gym and run forever but nearly died 20 minutes into the dance call...it inspired me to go back to Sydney Dance Company and do some classes though which I've been meaning to do for about 3 years.:

Tonight, Lucy is off to the opening night of Listen To My Heart.


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Thursday, April 19
"So this week has been much the same as last, although Kotara has changed to Figtree and the shopping centre is more rural and smaller," says Lucy Maunder of the last week.

"I did get a complaint from a mother who went to centre management and requested that the sea monster "tone it down" though. I think I got a little bit carried away or had a little too much enjoyment from scaring children and her children obviously didn't appreciate it and cried. So it's been very tame since then and I've got one more day left. Looking forward to not doing the drive to Wollongong again - but because I'm in the car over four hours a day I've had ample time to listen to a lot of stuff I wouldn't have had a chance to. I've just discovered Katie Melua and I love her."

Lucy is also preparing to head to New York as part of the Bound For Broadway scholarship.

"In terms of getting ready for New York we've got our accommodation sorted and will be staying in Soho so that's exciting - lots of amazing shops and cafes and food. I'm doing some interviews for local papers and a photo shoot next week for publicity which I'm looking forward to and I'm trying to find some amazing Australian material to take over there for our cabaret which nobody has heard in the US."

Today, Lucy was at an All Saints casting. "I had to be a girl trapped in a car after a horrific accident with the dash collapsed on her chest and unable to breathe - had a lot of fun - was extremely light-headed afterwards but had fun."


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Thursday, April 12
Lucy has spent the last few days playing - believe it or not - a sea monster.

"Hectic could be the only word to describe the last few days as I arrived on Tuesday having learnt my seamonster part from the DVD and script I was given only to find out that there was an entirely different character never mentioned in anything I had that comes on at the start to set up the show and chat to the kids for 15 minutes," Lucy said.

"So with a five page monologe on a clip board sightreading, I winged my way through it, acting as Kelli who had scored a new job at the Pearly Cove Kiosk and would be taking Scooby Doo and his crew around the Island. I don't think the kids really noticed, or cared that much but after three days I think I've got it down and I've gotten my head around it. I had to sing an entire song which I didn't know and take the kids on a surfing safari teaching them dance moves etc. Never a dull moment at Kotara. But it has been fun; the seamonster is hysterical - this big green outfit with a scary mask and huge feet and hands which make it difficult to run but make me laugh. I've got tomorrow and Saturday to go then I'll head to Wollongong for next week. Very much looking forward to seeing Pippin tonight; I think it will be a really exciting night."

Lucy also recorded a CD with six songs on it over Easter to send to New York to be cast in the new musicals she'll be workshopping over there as part of the Bound for Broadway scholarship.

"We did one lengthy recording session and got home to listen to it all and were horrified to learn that the first 20 seconds of each track didn't record, so we rescheduled and did it all again the next day. Technology hates me. But the finished product was good and I had a nice big relaxing weekend after that with a lot of cooking and chocolate and entertaining."


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Thursday, April 5
Lucy Maunder is headed to New York for the second time in six months - and this time it's not for a holiday.

Lucy said: "I found out on Friday that I'm definitely going to New York with Erin and Kirby on the TDP scholarship which I'm still in shock about but am so so grateful that they could secure a third place for me. I don't know much about it yet apart from that we leave Sydney on the 12th May and arrive in New York on the 12th as well. We then head straight to Washington where we have interviews and meetings with the people we'll be working with. Then go back to New York and start the workshops - but I'm not really a wealth of knowledge about it at the moment I'm just extremely excited that I'm going back there and to be given the opportunity to perform in NY. I know one thing and that is that we'll each present a 40 minute solo cabaret at Don't Tell Mamas in New York at the end of the trip and we'll be assigned a music director to work that through with us. But we're having a meeting next week, getting flight details and finding out much more about the whole thing. I had the opportunity to have a little chat to Mary Lopez last night about it and I felt totally elated! She's the director of the TDP and the person who's made this all possible so I'm very grateful to her. Last night I performed at a TDP sponsors night with Alan Jones at the Macquarie Bank in Martin Place which was great fun. A number of graduates performed including Travis Collins who's won a billion awards in Country Music; Starmaker and has won awards in Nashville etc and Kirby Burgess who's coming to New York with me. She was fabulous. Also three current members of TDP and an amazing tenor called Lorenzo Rositano who's studying at the Con at the moment. So it was lovely to see all these people and be involved with the program again as I haven't seen anyone since I was in year 12 when I started it."

Lucy has just arrived back in Sydney for Easter. "I'm learning my Seamonster choreography for Scooby Doo off a DVD and learning the script for Tuesday."

The life of a young actor - Scooby Doo one minute, New York the next.


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Thursday, March 29
It's been a much quieter few days for Lucy Maunder, given her time with Harp on the Willow has come to an end.

"We did our final few shows for Harp which was very sad but great audiences and we left the project knowing that they'll try and do a repeat season somewhere, some time! So we'll wait to hear about that - it would be fantastic if we could take the show to Brisbane or back to Sydney and ultimately to Ireland," Lucy said.

"I flew to Sydney on Monday morning and have been doing a few auditions, the major one being the TDP Scholarship audition. I flew back to Melbourne last night to spend a week with my boy because I barely saw him at all during the entire run so I'm just relaxing down here before I head back to Sydney and start rehearsals for the Scooby Doo kids show for which I'm in in Kotara for the first week and Figtree for the second."

Tonight, Lucy is attending the opening of Miss Saigon.


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Thursday, March 22
The ride of show number one for Lucy Maunder is nearly over - Harp on the Willow closes in Melbourne on Sunday.

"The audiences are having such a great time, though I think every person over 60 in Victoria has seen the show so we've got no-one left! Only five more shows to go. I'm really enjoying the run and working with the cast and crew I'm going to miss them a lot," Lucy said.

"My family are flying down for the close of the show which will be nice. I'm already starting to get really sad counting down the shows I hope that the tour the show happens.

"I'm also preparing for my TDP audition on Tuesday - I haven't danced properly since I graduated and I'm so inflexible so we'll see how I go with the song and dance section...I'm singing If My Friends Could See Me Now from Sweet Charity which I performed at WAAPA last year and it took me two months of running that number back to back about five times to work up the stamina to do it on stage without collapsing so I have no idea what to expect, it should be interesting. I fly out of Melbourne on Monday morning and go straight to a casting at Mullinars and then will have to rehearse for Tuesday."

Lucy has also been spending some time with her fellow 2006 WAAPA graduates.

"It's been really good to see some of my class - Steve's just in previews for Saigon (he's ensemble and first cover for Chris) and he actually went on on Tuesday night for Chris which is so great - Kylie, also in my class saw him and said he was unbelievable, that he had said he was so nervous because he hadn't run it with the Kim but that he absolutely blew her away. I wish I could've seen it. I ran into another guy in my class Bryce who's just got an ad and is very happy. Ran into Dave Hooley on Chapel St as well who's loving being in Fiddler. I've seen a lot of people this week it's been really nice and awesome that they're working. I've just booked myself some suit work for a children's theatre show for April - so that should be a bit of fun...very hot but fun. I'm not sure what the characters are yet. I should go to the theatre it takes me an hour to get there and then an 8pm show. Not much other news really - can't wait to be back in Sydney and see Sunday In the Park With George."


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Thursday, March 15
Now well into the season of Harp on the Willow, Lucy Maunder is feeling a little more relaxed.

"This week has been great, I'm over my sickness which is good - there were a few nights where the sudafed wasn't doing good things to my brain and I wasn't myself," Lucy said.

"We found out on Monday that we won't be extending the season which is a shame but the way things go. So that means we close on Sunday week - I can't believe how quickly it's gone. We played to a house of under 200 on Tuesday which was a little sad because you just want to get everyone out to see it. But it was after a public holiday and I don't think a lot of people were even back in Melbourne after the weekend. But those in the audience seemed to be having a great time! I'm really just starting to get into the swing of the 8 show weeks and get to the gym and do a lot of things during the day. But I'll be coming back to Sydney in a week and a half and will have to find some more work then."

There's also talk that the show could tour, which would give Lucy more national work.

"Other than that I had a singing lesson this morning and have been preparing for my Rocky Horror audition tomorrow which I'm sure the world will be at. I haven't really sung in that style for a long time so I've had to work back into it slowly my chords are very much in harpy Irish ballad mode!"


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Thursday, March 8
"I haven't been this tired in a long time, I'm actually not very well," says Lucy Maunder, a week after the opening night performance of Harp On The Willow at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne.

"The whole cast has been sick at some point, though most leading up to opening. I caught the bug two days ago and have been quite sick though have had to to push through it and do four shows in two days. Joan Carden had been off since opening night and Tuesday was her first performance with an audience so we were called on Tuesday morning for a full run and then two shows Wednesday makes it very tiring! But it's been wonderful, we've had a really positive response with reviews and the audiences are loving it."

Lucy has also discovered the joys of mid-week matinee audiences.

"Yesterday's matinee audience were extremely vocal; especially the man who snored so loudly for the entirety of Richard's death scene. You'd think someone next to him would have thumped him but it really changed the mood of the scene as he dies in my arms. Hilarious - but I suppose it's going to happen with a Wed matinee and the audience is 90% elderly. I shouldn't get offended about boring him I guess.
The night before a lady was making a similar sound apparently, but it turned out to be a heart attack and she was rushed to hospital near the end of Act 1. The poor lady, I hope she's ok."

So, how was Lucy's first commercial opening night?

"Opening night was received very well - we had a fantastic audience and it was great to see my family, if only for five minutes. Since then I literally haven't left the theatre except for Monday. My agent is in Melbourne today and so he's seeing the show tonight, it's a shame I have little voice and I'm not very well. But I'm sure all will be fine.:

Lucy is of course looking to her future as well, given Harp on the Willow is a limited season.

"I am flying back to Sydney on Monday 26th to audition for the TDP Bound for Broadway scholarship which will be fun. It's a 4 week trip to New York workshopping new Music Theatre material for the composers over there. The wonderful Belinda Wollaston won it last year. And I have to prepare a dramatic monologue, a song and dance and a big sing for the audition."


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Thursday, March 1
Today marks a significant day in Lucy Maunder's career - it's the opening night of her first commercial play.

Lucy says: "Last week I was freaking out that I open in a week. Now it's Thursday again and I open tonight. We had the preview last night - first and only preview and first audience. I think we were desperate for an audience by last night and the show was great - it made such a difference, especially in finding lines that we didn't know to be that funny getting hysterical laughter and having to allow for that. The audience really enjoyed it, and the energy went right up from everyone I think. The Comedy Theatre is very old and beautiful inside, it feels like a theatre on the West End with dark green leather seats and ornate wood and chandeliers."

Lucy had the day off during the day heading into tonight's opening.

"There are a lot of people at the show tonight I'm pretty scared but also can't wait - my harp playing went completely out the window last night with nerves - all the strings meshed into one in my brain and I couldn't see anything but I don't know how noticable that was," she said.

"I'm very tired, and need to stay well through this weekend because it's quite hectic. We have a party after the show tonight then a group bookers lunch tomorrow with the producers and then four more shows before Sunday afternoon so I'm on the vitamins."


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Thursday, February 22
This time next week, Lucy Maunder will have made her commercial theatre debut, with previews beginning for Harp on the Willow.

"It's feeling great, all we're doing is running the show over and over and detailing it now. We're very lucky to be working with the set and costumes even though we're not in the venue - I've never been in a show which has had this many runs before we get an audience so hopefully by Tuesday next week we'll be totally ready," she said.

"Had dinner with Mary O'Hara, her husband and the whole creative team on Wednesday night which was fascinating. It was bizarre to meet her in real life, I was introduced to her as the Young Mary which I don't know if she thought was really strange; to be there and meet all of us, considering she has no idea about the play, hasn't read it, won't see it, and wants to know nothing about it! But she's very beautiful, and after a while I think she relaxed a little and was having fun. She's got so much elegance and poise and a very serene presence, I found myself just staring at her, which may have scared her but I couldn't help it."

Another run of the show will be held on Saturday before costume fittings on Sunday.

"Some of the costumes won't be ready until preview or the day before because they've had to be completely re made, as the original ones looked appalling on me, or wouldn't go anywhere near me, rather - I have a totally different body shape to the girl who played the role in 2003 so some of the existing designs didn't work and needed to be altered. But generally I'm rehearsing in most of my costumes and they're beautiful!

"So for the next few days I'll just be resting for next week which will be very tiring I assume. We have the tech on Tuesday, then a dress Tuesday night, dress Wednesday morning and then preview. How time flies!"


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Thursday, February 15
With just two weeks to go until Harp on the Willow opens at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre, things are getting pretty tense in the rehearsal room for rising star Lucy Maunder.

"I'm so tired at the moment," she said. "Now that we're running the show, it takes a lot out of me. Plus the scene where my husband dies is really pretty tough and it's going to be hard to do eight times a week!"

Lucy has also been promoting the show as well, as opening night nears.

"I had a photo shoot for The Age yesterday and there's more happening in the next few weeks," she said.

Lucy is also learning to play the harp as part of the show.

"It's a pretty difficult instrument to learn. I have to play and sing at the same time and it's quite difficult at the moment, concentrating on one makes me forget to do the other sometimes, so it's quite challenge."

With still two weeks to go until opening, Lucy admits she is getting a little anxious.

"It's quite nerve-racking. I'm at that point in the process where I want everything to be perfect and I guess it's about being patient over the next two weeks, because there is plenty of time to get everything absolutely right. I guess I am putting quite a lot of pressure on myself at the moment."


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Thursday, February 8
"I don't even know where to start, I cannot believe it's Thursday again - this week has gone so incredibly fast, but it's just been a whirlwind and a lot has been achieved," says Lucy Maunder of her first week in rehearsals for Harp on the Willow, in which she will make her commercial theatre debut next month.

"We did our first run today which is good considering we started a week ago, and scripts are pretty much down. Important today though to see the flow of the show on the floor and where we fit into it. I'm only ever on stage with Tom Wren who plays my husband so the bits we do are intense but then we're not in any of the rest of it. Except when I'm disguised as a nun in the convent and have to wear full nun attire and hysterical large old fashioned glasses. I'm told the lighting is relatively dim so I hope that's true!"

But the play is not all about acting - music calls also start this week.

"I start my harp lessons tomorrow which will be hilarious," she said. "The celtic harp has arrived and needs to be tuned but I'm excited; it looks impossible and I have to sing and play at the same time and look as professional as Mary O'Hara. The songs I to sing are really beautiful. An old Irish ballad called Blow the Wind Southerly which is the one that I play the harp to and Try to Remember from The Fantasticks which Mary sang on the Ed Sullivan Show in New York. We also sing Lord of the Dance at the end, and an unaccompanied ballad called She Moved Through The Fair which is sung by myself and Marina during the scene where my husband Richard dies. So there's a lot of gorgeous Irish music in it which is nice."

Lucy has also revealed some interesting news in relation to Mary O'Hara herself.

"It's pretty nerve racking as she arrives from London on the 20th of Feb and will be at the show every night after it finishes on stage to take questions and chat to the audience. She's never seen the show, although she came out when it was originally done in 2003. She doesn't want to see it this time either as obviously she understands that in order for the play to work theatrically certain aspects of her story are dramatised and heightened - especially the parts concerning the death of her husband and she still finds this subject incredibly difficult to talk about 40 years later. So seeing it on stage would be quite hard. His death scene is pretty harrowing so it may be a good thing. I can't wait to meet her it feels very surreal that she'll be in the dressing rooms with us every night but won't quite know what we're doing...I still feel a lot of pressure."

Apart from that, Lucy is also doing plenty of publicity - she had her first radio interview this morning and will be doing more of that next week.


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Thursday, February 1
And so a new phase in a promising career begins. This week, Lucy Maunder commenced preparations for her mainstage theatre debut in Harp on the Willow, and it's been an interesting experience thus far.

"Have finished my second day - it's pretty overwhelming. At the moment we're sitting around a table with the script just working out the fundamental aspects of the plot - what we want the audience to go away with; what we want to portray; what the spine of the play is; the characters etc," she said.

"We did a first read yesterday at two - I was pretty nervous but today has been more relaxed. Having a great time with the cast and Andrew. I feel very inexperienced though, which I am, but I'm learning a lot from everyone else. Marina Prior, Chris Stollery and Joan Carden are all wonderful - both Marina and Chris did the play when it was in Sydney so the detail they bring to the work already is hugely beneficial. Hearing what was there last time and advancing on that three years later is fantastic. At the moment there's nine of us around a table, lots of laughing and loud talking!"

With the show opening in less than a month, there's no time to lose.

"Tomorrow we finish at 3.30 as the set is being bumped in in the evening, ready for us to work on it at 10am Monday. I'm assuming it's because we only have a couple of days in the Comedy Theatre before we open and we need to be comfortable with the set as it's got lots of levels etc. As a bonus we've got the space to rehearse it in. It's really nice to be rehearsing in a big theatre and big stage - a place in Mooney Ponds. Looking forward to next week where we'll get it on the floor and block it. I can't believe it opens in three weeks!"

Obviously, Lucy will be based in Melbourne for the next few months.


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Thursday, January 25
With an extensive run in Harp on the Willow ahead of her, Lucy Maunder has spent the past week well and truly living up the Australian mentality of "work, rest and play". There's been a bit of everything, and why not, considering work will be the main thing on her mind when she arrives in Melbourne next week to commence preparations for Harp on the Willow.

"Have had a wonderful week away - though I think I've completely forgotten how to dance, act and sing - my vocal chords are lying in the barossa valley somewhere under a lovely bottle of shiraz and walking up the hill to go food shopping in North Sydney today almost killed me," she joked.

"I've been doing lots of work on my Harp on the Willow script, learning lines etc as I start rehearsals on Wednesday next week. It's a wonderfully written script and I'm starting to get quite nervous about doing it justice! But I love it and can't wait to start work.

"Had fun seeing Pirates in Adelaide, and enjoyed talking to David Campbell afterwards, who gave a stunning performance as the Pirate King. I congratulated him again as he was leaving the cast party and he said 'thank you it was lovely to see you again Michelle'. Love it."

Lucy has also been doing extensive research on Mary O'Hara, her character in the play, and working out the accent (which is very Irish).

"That's about all this week - was completely blown away by Sweeney Todd last week once again, as the rest of the audience was. Saw a lot of my class mates there as well which was lovely, they all seem to be doing great things; Stephen Mahy starting Saigon rehearsals and Sarah Croser, Paul Whiteley and a number of others performing in Short Sweet and Song in Feb as well as David Hooley doing Fiddler in Perth. People seem to be quite settled in Sydney now which is nice."


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Thursday, January 18
Over the jetlag and with New York now but a memory, Lucy Maunder is back into the day to day grind of a rising actor, but with work just around the corner in the shape of Harp on the Willow, she has an opportunity to finally have a rest after a hectic few months.

"I've actually been having a rest for the first time since June over the past week," she says. "New York wasn't really relaxing - I would have been worried if it was - so I've just been at home with my family, enjoying the weather."

Still, there's some elements of work to be done even before Harp on the Willow makes it to the rehearsal room.

"I have had a few costume fittings for Harp on the Willow and it's all coming into view now," she said. "I have met the stage manager, and worked some things out and I can't wait to start rehearsals."

Home life is also interesting. Lucy says: "We've got an opera student staying at our house at the moment, from Tasmania and she's come to see some opera and work with some people in Sydney and my parents dragged me along to the opera the other night with her to see La Traviata starring a wonderful Russian soprano. Opera isn't really my thing, and I wish there was more importance placed on the acting but her singing was flawless and the audience went wild. I love the audience reaction when I go to the opera, sometimes it's like a football match - they're so judgmental."

Lucy will be heading to the opening night of Opera Australia's Sweeney Todd on Friday night, and having seen the production before, she's very much looking forward to it: "I saw the production when it was last here and it's still on my list of top shows that I've ever seen - thought the production was brilliant. Got to love a dark morbid show."

On Saturday, it's off to Adelaide to see David Campbell in The Pirates of Penzance, and then to the Barossa Valley for a few days to explore some wineries and of course, eat!


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Thursday, January 11
After a two week trip to New York, Lucy Maunder is now back in Sydney and preparing for whatever may be around the corner. Over the next seven days, more auditions and finalising details for Harp on the Willow will take up most of her time. Lucy filed the following report just hours after returning from New York:

"My last week was busy as the first - probably more so actually because I realised that I only had a few days left and still had way too much to see. New Year was unbearable up in Times Square so I left and managed to catch Kristin Chenoweth in The Apple Tree at Studio 54. It was a cute story, in three parts; part 1 - The Diary of Adam and Eve; Part 2 - The Lady or the Tiger and Part 3 - Passionella. All very different in design and content. This was probably my least favourite show, though I am glad I saw Kristin Chenoweth, who the audience adored and whose energy and comic timing were brilliant. She was very similar to Glinda in her interpretation of the three roles, but still entertaining with an incredible vocal range.

On the Wednesday matinee I saw Hairspray because everything else was sold out; I had run around frantically trying to get into something and that was it - as I expected, it wasn't my kind of show but I could see why it had won the Tony in 2003. The You Can't Stop The Beat segment at the end of the show was really uplifting and exciting and left the audience hysterical - by far the best part of the show I think. The American Idol runner up Diana DeGarmo from 2004 was also starring in it and had a huge fan base in the audience. She played the geeky best friend role and was actually a major stand out both in her acting and voice.

On Wednesday after going in the Wicked lottery a few too many times and getting anxious that unless I bought a ticket I wouldn't see it, I decided to splurge and pay $120 for a seat on the Thursday night. Then my girlfriends went in the lottery once on Thursday to see if they could come with me for $25 and of course they won two tickets for the front row. Anyway, after years of build up about this show, and knowing it backwards and being sick of it and desperate to see it as well, I have to say it wasn't a highlight for me. I thought it looked a little tired - and I don't know, maybe I'm just too used to the original cast but didn't feel the Glinda was as strong as she needs to be. I love the music and some of the book is very clever when it ties in The Wizard of Oz and overall it's a spectacular show. So I've finally done that!

One really interesting place I did go to that week was the Apollo Theatre's amateur night up in Harlem which is the night that started many famous soul, jazz, swing singers in their careers and has been running since 1934. Singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill all performed there at the start of their careers so we wanted to check it out. About 10 singers go on stage and the audience decides whether they stay on stage and continue singing or get booed off and have stuff thrown at them which was pretty savage but funny. We were sort of tucked up the back amidst this sea of fired up passionate black people hurling abuse at whoever wasn't good enough to be on stage. There were 3 too many renditions of And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going from Dreamgirls but it was interesting all the same. We also had dinner at a traditional southern style soul kitchen in Harlem which was fun.

For my birthday my friends bought me a ticket to Avenue Q and we all went there on the Friday night - and had a great time. Such a clever show and brilliantly performed by the cast. I love the concept of puppets being so completely inappropriate and it was good to finally see that show come to life too.

What else?! Apart from eating myself into pizza oblivion I wasted a lot of time attempting to see a one woman off-broadway play called No Child which had received wonderful reviews everywhere and Time Out kept saying it was playing 8 shows a week. I went twice, to this tiny theatre downtown - the first to find it completely closed, and the second to be told at the box office that the actor was on vacation and wouldn't be back for a week, so generally learned not to trust the information that was printed everywhere. I think I may have cried the second time because I had literally run from the lower east side where I was staying across Manhattan, gotten lost, and been late to find no joy. Anyway, it was fine, I trekked up to Times Sq to try and catch something else and ended up seeing Forbidden Broadway: SVU. It was good to see this at the end of my trip because I'd just seen pretty much everything they were slamming on stage. This show is also very clever, and keeps being updated according to what's on Brodway currently so I laughed for a couple of hours seeing them destroy The Drowsy Chaperone and Wicked and Mary Poppins etc.

My final show in New York was A Chorus Line. Unfortunately I couldn't get into Jersey Boys, would have had to queue for four hours for a standing room ticket and the only show I could do that for was the Sunday matinee and John Lloyd Young, the lead and winner of the 2006 Tony apparently doesn't do matinees so I gave it a miss. Would have liked to have seen him, and everybody raves about the show, despite it being a jukebox musical. Next time I guess.

But anyway I loved A Chorus Line - it was also pretty difficult to get a ticket to that too - I waited (I spent so much time in queues in New York!) for 2 hours in the cancellation line and ended up getting the only return ticket. Paid $110 for it but worth it. It was really simple and a musical I've loved forever, having never seen it on stage so I was obviously excited about that. The cast were great actors, singers and dancers so it was fabulous to watch. Got very emotional when they all came out in the gold sparkles at the end...

So that is all! All up I saw 12 shows, and wanted to see so much more. I would've liked to see more off-broadway stuff, especially straight theatre but I'll definitely be going back; though probably not at this time of year again. Apart from the theatre, I did a whole lot of touristy things, a lot of walking and shopping and the time flew. My friends are all still there and thinking of extending their trip which I'm quite jealous about but I'll go there again soon!"


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Thursday, January 4
Lucy Maunder has spent the last two weeks in New York - a remarkable place at any time of the year but even more special around the new year's period. Lucy files the following report from the big apple:

"I'm having a great time here - had a few teething problems at first just getting used to New York and how hectic it is! I've been lost on the subway on numerous occasions and found myself at the completely opposite end of the city to where I'm supposed to be!

Generally we've been shopping a lot during the day then I would go to a show at night. Have seen Spring Awakening, Grey Gardens, Company, The Color Purple and The Drowsy Chaperone. The shows just kept getting better and better. Spring Awakening was really interesting though the only way we could see it was paying for standing room so I was a bit tired and restless. And the woman next to me had the flu and coughed all over me for the entire show but anyway - dealt with it! I had heard amazing things about this show so was expecting a lot and I did enjoy it but thought the music and lyrics didn't match the dialogue and it was very teen angsty. Set in the 1890s with punk rock music and every time they would go to sing they picked up a handheld mic and it kind of turned into a concert style...didn't think the songs really advanced the story at all.

Grey Gardens was fantastic - again my view was pretty obstructed because I was way way back in the upper mezzanine and in the back row so had to lean forward but I still enjoyed it. Thought the performances were fantastic and a really interesting book. Act one and act two were like two completely different shows set in different times. Loved it - New York is insanely busy at the moment because obviously it's the holiday week so shows are unbelievably packed and it's hard to get into quite a lot. Wicked and Jersey Boys are almost completely sold out until the end of Jan so the only way I can see them is by going in the lottery or paying $120US!

I absolutely loved Company - it's one of my favourite shows and this production was fascinating - directed by the same guy who did the revival of Sweeney Todd on Broadway recently where the entire cast played instruments and were the band as well as their characters. The same concept in Company and the performers amazed me - they all played 3-5 instruments each as well as being wonderful singers and actors. A bizarre idea but it really worked and the audience loved it.

My two highlights so far have been The Color Purple and The Drowsy Chaperone - the shows couldn't be more different from each other but they were both brilliant. I queued at 7.30am for a $25 rush ticket in the front row for The Color Purple. The box office opened at 10 so that was a whole lot of fun - I was a block of ice at the end of it but had tickets for Tyran (Parke) and myself for the 2pm matinee... anyway it was completely worth the wait - one of the most moving things I've seen on stage - probably heightened by the fact that they were so close to me. With an entirely black cast and 90 per cent black audience it was an experience. Their voices just astounded me and the story is beautiful, I absolutely loved it. Had a ball at The Drowsy Chaperone, have probably never laughed so hard at anything on stage. It was totally my humour - ridiculous, stupid, random and just generally silly. Sutton Foster was divine, and hilarious and it only went for 1hour and 45 minutes with no interval! Love it. A wonderful show I hope it comes to Australia. Still a few days left here and I can't wait to see and do more!"


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Thursday, Decembe