Il semblerait qu’on ait trouvé un artiste de la trempe d’Yves et Gilles en Australie !! Nous étions de passage pour une après-midi d’opéra à l’Arts Centre et n’avons pas résisté à l’envie de vous faire partager cette chouette découverte…

Plus qu’une vedette, Reg Livermore est devenu une légende qui a inspiré plusieurs générations. Jusque fin février, Melbourne rend hommage à 55 ans de carrière humoristique, théâtrale et musicale sur la scène australienne et américaine au travers d’une exposition-événement.

Découvrez ses personnages au travers de costumes de scène ainsi que d’extraits vidéos de la comédie musicale qui l’a fait connaître, Hair, et de son one-man show le plus connu en Australie : Betty Blokk Buster.

Australian icon Reg Livermore’s bawdy career on the theatre stage is celebrated in a new exhibition at the Melbourne Arts Centre that just opened. Reg Livermore – Take A Bow displays the legend’s life story with costumes, scripts, and never-before-seen photographs.

Reg fell in love with the bawdy side of Australian theatre from a very young age. The rough-around-the-edges Borovansky Ballet, pantomime at Sydney’s Tivoli Theatre, imported West End musical theatre, cabaret, and Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

Reg has preserved this slapstick, knockabout style of theatre in his work. “I love it,” Reg says. “It makes me smile – the honesty of it all. It’s entertainment for the people.”

While he has always been adventurous and sometimes controversial, evolving as an artist has been paramount to Reg’s success. So, at 30 years old, he found the show that would allow him to evolve and mature like no other experience could: 1969’s countercultural ‘Love-Rock’ musical, Hair.

Reg had 15 years of onstage experience prior to joining the cast of Hair, but he’d never seen anything like it. “When Hair came along, I could see how moved audiences were, and what it could give a performer like me – freedom,” Reg recalls. “I realised that’s where I had to be.”

The musical, with its infamous nude scenes which let all that sunshine in, revealed to Reg that horizons in the theatre are limitless.

Following Hair, Reg performed in musicals and further developed his one-man shows, winning hearts in Australia and making an indelible mark on the world stage. Betty Blokk Buster is Reg’s most famous one-man show – featuring a less-than-grand parade of tawdry variety acts from the freaks and fallen stars of a circus ring.

Betty is a heartbreaking, yet hilarious, backstage pass to a sideshow alley and it brought Reg exactly the sort of success he’d always wanted.

“My desire to communicate with the audience, and have a communion with them was well and truly fulfilled,” he says. “I thank Betty, the scary hairy-legged monster I gave birth to. She was one hell of a weird baby but she was mine.”

Reg’s career hasn’t always been easy, but he believes in journeys over destinations. His career has been about challenging himself – and challenging audiences, too, even to the point of once getting booed off stage for offending London audiences. “Most of it’s been good,” he says. “I thank my lucky stars.”

The exhibition also showcases his groundbreaking solo shows that began with Betty Blokk Buster Follies. Featuring stage costumes worn by Livermore and material from his personal archive, this is a rare opportunity to experience the creative talent of an Australian theatre 55-year career-long legend.

A must see !

Reg Livermore – Take A Bow
Melbourne Arts Centre – Gallery 1
5 Nov 2011 – 26 Feb 2012
Open daily until late
FREE