THE BOY FROM OZ – May 2023

A DAZZLING, FUNNY AND HEARTBREAKING STORY OF THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN ENTERTAINER PETER ALLEN, FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS IN THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK THROUGH A METEORIC RISE TO FAME AND INTERNATIONAL STARDOM.

Reaching superstar status in the 1980’s, largely through songs he wrote for other artists, Peter Allen is best known for hits like ‘I Honestly Love You’ and ‘I Go to Rio’, as well as his 1981 Academy Award winning song ‘Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do)’, written with Burt Bacharach, Christopher Cross and Carol Bayer Sager, whom he collaborated with on a number of other well known titles.

The show opens in the 1950’s with Peter Allen, born Peter Richard Woolnough, in the small Australian bush town of Tenterfield, making his entertainment debut at the age of 5 and progressing quickly through his formative years. As a teenager he became a pop star on local TV as half of the singing duo ‘The Allen Brothers’, which then toured Asia, where he met Judy Garland. Judy takes Peter under her wing, hiring him as her opening act and taking him to New York where she introduces him to her daughter and future wife, Liza Minnelli.

In the US Peter enjoyed the height of success by winning an Oscar, selling out performances in Radio City Music Hall, and receiving adulation when he returned to Australia. But throughout all his fame and fortune, there were also plenty of lows … the separation from beloved wife Liza, the heart breaking death of his partner Greg, staging a ‘successful’ Broadway flop, and eventually losing his own battle with an AIDS related illness.

The Boy From Oz is a class above all other ‘jukebox’ musicals with a plot skillfully weaved around the life and complexities of Peter Allen. The songs and lyrics sit easily with the rhythm of the show as characters enter and re-enter his life, sometimes in spirit, and it is Peter’s experiences and memories that ultimately become the stories he writes and sings from the heart.

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