World Première of The Nero Show

PRESS RELEASE
The Dominion Post season of
The NERO Show
Written and Directed by PAUL JENDEN
Music by GARETH FARR
Music Direction by MICHAEL VINTEN

MUSIC, ACTION, EGO!

Those marvellous maestros of the modern musical, Paul Jenden and Gareth Farr, have done it again with another fantastic feast of extravagant entertainment.

The World Première of THE NERO SHOW opens in
CIRCA One on Saturday 15th May at 8pm.

Welcome to the world of beautiful people, fabulous frocks, soaring melodies, exciting rhythms, a live band, wicked lyrics and that inimitable mix of history, ingenuity and pizzaz that is a Jenden/Farr production!

It is 1963, and a live TV show is about to be broadcast from Nero’s mansion, hosted by Seneca, that well known philosopher, TV personality and talk-show host. Rome’s most infamous Emperor has been dropped squarely into the life and times of the glamorous 1960s and the story of his rise and fall begins to look all too familiar… JF Kennedy and Jackie? Marilyn Monroe?

Combining Roman excess with ‘60s cool THE NERO SHOW is a totally modern take on this ageless story of preening politicians, upstaging wives, inconvenient mistresses and explosive enemies.

Cue drum rolls and sweeping harp! ….. The cameras are rolling!
There’s glamour, glitz, laughter and intrigue in this latest lavish production from the creators of Troy, Monarchy and Rome.

“So full of musical and linguistic invention… it’s almost impossible to keep up with the jokes…” - NZ Listener, Rome – the musical

“A triumph” – Dominion Post, Troy – the musical

THE NERO SHOW - it has to be seen to be believed!

The NERO Show

Starring a supremely talented and versatile cast of:-

JASON CHASLAND
CHRISTINA CUSIEL
PAUL HARROP
JOANNE HODGSON
EMMA KINANE
LYNDEE-JANE RUTHERFORD
LOUIS SOLINO

Set Design by John Hodgkins Costume Design by Paul Jenden
Lighting Design by Jennifer Lal Video Design by Angela Boyd

15th May – 19th June
1 Taranaki Street, Wellington

$20 SPECIALS - Sunday 16 May - 4pm. Tuesday 18 May – 6.30pm.

Performance times: Tuesday & Wednesday - 6.30pm
Thursday, Friday, Saturday - 8pm
Sunday - 4pm

Ticket Prices: Adults - $38; Concessions - $30; Friends of Circa - $28
Under 25s - $20; Groups 6+ - $32

BOOKINGS Circa Theatre 1 Taranaki Street, Wellington
Phone 801 7992 www.circa.co.nz

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FROM THE CREATORS OF
The NERO Show

PAUL JENDEN

Nero is a figure famous for his excess and cruelty, as well as for fiddling while Rome burned. While I was researching ROME I was interested to discover that some of this might not be true. I was particularly struck by the fact that for years people would bring flowers to his tomb and that Nero’s popularity with the general population survived long after his death.

This curious tension between fact and fiction started me thinking about political figures of our own times. Wondering about how Nero would have survived in our modern world led me to other iconic figures, particularly John F Kennedy.

I am old enough to remember the death of JFK and how the shock was felt even in Wellington. I think Kirkcaldies even put up a memorial window display. And I realised that I was remembering another world, before we all became so used to tabloids, TV and political spin.

In the light of later revelations and discoveries, it is clear that things were not necessarily as innocent as we believed, and that the JFK legacy is as much a mix of myth and fact as Nero’s.

So I decided to set Nero’s story in 1963 and to give the characters some striking similarities to people that we might recognise.

As I was researching Kennedy I discovered that his election coincided with the new use of hand held movie cameras. The historical footage was not unlike modern tabloid TV and led to the idea of the show being based on a live TV broadcast, like Edward R Murrow’s famous “Person to Person” show, on which the Kennedys actually appeared.

To add a further bit of fictitious spice to the mix, I wondered what might have happened had Nero come face to face with his contemporary, Boudicca, the Celtic warrior queen. And of course, in 1963 she would have been the Queen of England...

This mixture of fact and fiction was the perfect script to send to Gareth Farr to set to music. Having three hit shows under our belts, we decided to set out into new territory and to embrace the world of 1963, but with an equal mix of historical fact and silly invention. So this is 1963 of Jenden and Farr, and anything can happen...

GARETH FARR

With our experience of having worked together on three musicals before, Paul and I had developed a fairly streamlined process for creating vocal music - and when we embarked on 'The Nero Show' we thought we would try something a little different. Instead of a chronological approach to writing the music - i.e. write each song one by one, in order of their appearance in the show - we decided to look at the whole show at once, and put down a basic rhythmic skeleton of it all in one big workshop session. It was fascinating for me - in the previous three shows, I have tended to experience it as an audience member would - a slowly developing plot as I work my way through the songs. This time I felt as if I could see it from Paul's point of view from the word go - and had an insight into rhythmic ideas that he had built into the lyrics, which I could either use verbatim, or work against to create new rhythms. After this rhythmic stage was completed, the more solitary process of putting melodies and chord structures on top felt somehow more unified and organic, and I feel the result is possibly our most tightly woven work yet.

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The NERO Show

CAST BIOGRAPHIES

PAUL JENDEN

Song Lyrics, Set Design, Costume Design, Choreography

Paul Jenden wrote and directed his first play at 8 years old: a classroom adaptation of Charlotte’s Web. In 1975 he graduated from Victoria University with a degree in French Language and Literature and began a theatrical career that has seen him established as a director, designer, choreographer and writer.

In 1980 he left New Zealand to base himself in New York City and toured in the U.S.A. and Canada as well as Europe and Asia. He returned to live in New Zealand in 1989.

Paul has many successes to his name. His first production at Circa Theatre was Fairy Stories in 1996, which began a series of highly successful Christmas shows. His Dancing the Gay Fandango at Taki Rua in 1991 became a top selling show at the 1994 Adelaide Fringe Festival and Melbourne’s Midsumma Festival. His sparkling 1989 production of Le Papillon was one the most popular NZ works ever mounted by the Royal New Zealand Ballet and with Maclary Theatre Productions he produced The Hairy Maclary Show which has toured widely in New Zealand featured in Adelaide’s Come Out Festival and at the Victorian Centre for the Arts.

At Circa he has designed sets and costumes for Dirty Weekends, Boys at the Beach, Travesties, Cinderella, Aladdin, Jack and the Beanstalk and Dick Whittington and his Cat and worked as a movement consultant on several shows including Stones in his Pockets, The Cherry Orchard, The Underpants and Dead Man’s Cell Phone. He was the lyricist for Roger Hall’s pantomimes Cinderella, Aladdin, Jack & the Beanstalk, Red Riding Hood and Dick Whittington and his Cat, and also for Who Needs Sleep Anyway. He has teamed up with Gareth Farr to write the highly successful trilogy: TROY The Musical, Monarchy – the musical and ROME The Musical.

He has twice been voted Costume Designer of the Year at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards.

GARETH FARR

Composer

Gareth Farr is a New Zealand composer and percussionist. He studied in New Zealand and New York, where he graduated Master of Music. Since 1993 his works have been commissioned and performed by the NZSO, the Auckland Philharmonia, the NZ String Quartet, and a variety of other professional musicians in NZ and overseas.

Gareth's work to celebrate the opening of Te Papa in 1998, combining symphony orchestra with soprano, tenor and karanga was hailed as “music with a powerful and moving impact that transcends idiom and individual taste”. His two subsequent works were performed by the NZSO at the Sydney Olympics in 2000; his percussion , which was performed by the internationally renowned Evelyn Glennie, and Wairua, a unique work combining a Maori kapa haka group with full symphony orchestra.

Gareth has composed music for over 30 theatre productions in New Zealand, and has been awarded three Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for the soundtracks he composed for Wit (2000), Vula (2003) and Maui (2007).

Gareth’s music is heavily influenced by his extensive study of percussion, both Western and non-Western. Rhythmic and timbral elements of his compositions can be linked to the complex and exciting rhythms of pacific island log drum ensembles and the dynamic and colourful sounds of the Indonesian gamelan.

Six CDs of his music have been released to date on the Trust Records label - chamber orchestra, chamber music, string quartets, percussion music and two orchestral CDs.

In 2006 Gareth was awarded the Order Of New Zealand Merit, for his services to music and entertainment.

MICHAEL VINTEN

Musical Direction

Michael is one New Zealand's busiest freelance musicians whose professional activities span conducting, teaching, composing and arranging.

His performing repertoire and experience is very broad covering orchestral, choral, operatic, Music Theatre and numerous collaborations with Maori performers.

He has conducted many New Zealand orchestras, both professional and amateur, including the Vector Wellington Orchestra, for whom he conducted the first three highly successful outdoor, afternoon concerts at Government House in Wellington, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the Southern Sinfonia. He regularly works with the Wellington Chamber Orchestra, most recently in 2009, and with Helen Moulder in Cynthia Fortitude’s Farewell Tour – Her First. In 2008 he was Music Director for Rome – the musical.

Michael is currently the Wellington Chorus Master and Associate Conductor for the NBR New Zealand Opera. He has conducted opera performances for the company, including their four national tours. He has also produced reduced orchestrations for these tours.

He has conducted operas for Wellington City Opera, Hamilton Operatic Society, Hawke’s Bay Opera, Wanganui Opera, and Massey University's Conservatorium of Music, where he taught for over 15 years. In 2009 he conducted the critically acclaimed production of Handel’s Semele for The New Zealand School of Music, and in March 2010 he conducted the highly successful out door performances of The Marriage of Figaro for Opera at the Bay.

JASON CHASLAND

Nero

Jason Chasland is a 2005 graduate from the Wellington Performing Arts Centre, and he was awarded the Richard Newell Stevenson scholarship for excellence.

He created the role of Tom in the Capital E opera, Kia Ora Khalid and continues to be involved, since its creation in 2008. He has been a guest artist for Montana World of Wearable Arts since 2006. He was the lead Singer/Dancer onboard the Tahitian Princess cruise-liner for 2007. A Member of the NZ young Shakespeare company, performing at the prestigious Globe theatre in London. This is his second show at Circa, the previous being Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris in 2005. Amongst his numerous credits in theatre, television and radio, highlights include being invited to perform for David Beckham and the support act for Simon O'Neil, Anna Leese and Hollie Smith in February this year. Jason’s versatility has seen him perform internationally in England, U.S.A, Hong Kong, and throughout Australia. 2002 saw him named young entertainer of the year. Jason is at present working on creating his own show, which he hopes to premiere next year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his idol and legend, Judy Garland’s famous Carnegie Hall concert on April 23rd 1961. He would like to thank his family for their unfailing love and support.

CHRISTINA CUSIEL

Agrippina

One of NZ’s finest vocalists, Christina Cusiel was classically trained from the age of 10, and has studied with several prominent vocal tutors including Malcolm McNeill. While studying at Christchurch Jazz School she started a six-piece ensemble called Midas Touch, a Manhattan Transfer influenced show band. Midas Touch became the first NZ band in over a decade to be invited to perform in Switzerland at the prestigious Montreaux Jazz Festival, where they performed alongside world-renowned artists such as Betty Carter, Bobby McFerrin and Cassandra Wilson, before opening for Dionne Warwick in Auckland and Wellington.

In 1996 Christina was named Female Vocalist of the Year in the Wellington Music Awards.

She was then contracted to perform for the Hard Rock Café in Guangzhou for 6 months, and on returning to Wellington she fronted the Roger Fox Band before forming her own group, funk/soul band Lady Marmalade and the Jazz group the Christina Cusiel Trio. She later toured NZ with her original music, joining well-known TV and Radio personality Gary McCormick on his Millennium Man tour.

When the Tommy Loungerillo Orchestra was formed for the International Laugh Festival in Wellington and Auckland and Nelson Festival of the Arts, Christina became a Loungerillo and formidable ex-wife of Tommy – Shirley Loungerillo. Meanwhile Christina was performing once again with her Jazz ensemble to sold-out concerts at Wellington and Waiheke Jazz festivals.

In 2002 Christina joined the Beat Girls – a high-energy fully choreographed and costumed show specialising in music from 60s girl groups to Mowtown to Disco and ranging to today. Christina has performed in Beat Girl shows It’s My Party, The Beat Girls Mid-Winter Christmas Show, A tribute to the Andrews Sisters and Beat Girls Birthday Bash.

Christina was last seen at Circa as Elizabeth II in Monarchy The Musical and as Cleopatra in Rome - The Musical. Since then she also performed in Spelling Bee for Auckland Theatre Company, worked with cover band, Hipnotics, the comedy duo Mrs Robinson, and writing and performing her own original music.

PAUL HARROP

Britannicus

graduated from Toi Whakaari at the end of 2009 and since then has been working in theatre and radio around Wellington. Recently his fringe show Who’s Neat? You! won Best in Theatre at the 2010 Fringe awards. The Nero Show is Paul’s second show at Circa - his first being the pantomime Dick Whittington and His Cat. He hasn’t done a full musical since his early teens and is relishing the challenges this production presents.

JOANNE HODGSON

Octavia

Usually to be found singing and dancing with preschoolers in her music business Moving 2 the Beat, Jo is certainly no stranger to the stage.

Brought up in Nelson in a very musical and theatrical family, she has a long list of choral and performance credits to her name from starring in college and local operatic shows such as Guys and Dolls and Mikado to singing with the NZ Youth Choir (where she first performed with Gareth Farr) and Voices NZ which took her travelling the world. Long hours queuing for open auditions on central London streets, training and performing at the London School of Musical Theatre were all part of the exciting journey to play Octavia in her first Circa production!

Notable highlights in Jo’s career are playing Grizabella in WMT’s production of CATS in 2008, touring company for The Stetson Group’s NZ production of EVITA in 2004, playing Ink the Cat in a schools opera tour of Custard the Dragon and being the vocal coach for Musical Stars, inspiring the next generation of musical theatre singers.

It is a thrill to be in The Nero Show performing with many people she has long admired.

EMMA KINANE

Boudicca

Emma graduated from Toi Whakaari/NZ Drama School in 1988.

Favourite roles include Gertrude in Hamlet, Gail in Turbine, Yvonne in Sisters and Maggie in Dancing at Lughnasa. Emma appeared in all three earlier Paul Jenden/Gareth Farr musicals at Circa - Troy, Monarchy and Rome but can’t decide which one is her favourite.

Recent TV credits include Reservoir Hill, Outrageous Fortune and Spies and Lies. Her favourite short film role was Sue in The Man Who Couldn’t Dance. She was nominated for Best Actress in 2009’s 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking Wellington for Call Me Al.

Emma is a published writer of short stories and poetry. She has worked with Tim Spite’s SEEyD Collective, co-writing and performing Turbine in 2006 and 2009, and Paua in 2008. Turbine won Best New New Zealand Play at the Chapman Tripp Awards in 2007. Last year Emma was selected for inclusion in the New Zealand Film Commission’s First Writers’ Initiative for her screen adaptation of Turbine.

She received the Evening Post Best Actress of 1990 Award for her work as Ruth in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit and was nominated for Best Performance in 2007’s Chapman Tripp Awards for Fat Pig.

Emma is married to Musical Director Michael Williams and they have two children Barnaby and Claire.

LYNDEE-JANE RUTHERFORD

Poppea

Lyndee-Jane Rutherford is an actor and award-winning director. She is thrilled to be starring in her fourth Paul Jenden/Gareth Farr musical at Circa. Lyndee-Jane has just returned from a hugely successful national tour of Grumpy Old Women with Geraldine Brophy and Pinky Agnew, directed by David McPhail. Grumpy Old Women is returning in September which will include one night in Wellington. She is extremely proud of winning Most Promising New Director of the Year at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 2006 in Wellington and being nominated for Actress of the Year in 2003 and Supporting Actress of the Year in 2007. Lyndee-Jane is recognised for her starring roles in Skitz, The Semisis, What Now TV and The Hothouse. She can currently be seen in the TVNZ6 pre-school sketch comedy show Giggles. She is a graduate of NZ Drama School/ Toi Whakaari and has been a professional actor and director for sixteen years.

LOUIS SOLINO

Seneca

Louis was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied alongside some of the most famous names in dance and worked with major choreographers and dance companies in New York before joining the Jose Limon Dance Company in 1968. During his 11 years as a soloist with the company he toured around the world and performed some of the enduring classics of the dance repertoire, including the works of Jose Limon, Doris Humphrey and Kurt Joos’s The Green Table.

Louis was a senior tutor at the New Zealand School of Dance for 11 years and has performed and taught throughout New Zealand.

He began working with Paul Jenden in 1980 and has created dozens of roles including those in Dancing The Gay Fandango, Dance For Dummies and, of course, Fairy Stories. Louis has appeared in all the Jenden/Farr musical trilogy of TROY, MONARCHY and ROME and in the pantomime Cinderella.

Other work includes Lord of the Rings, King Kong, TV commercials the TV series Ivanhoe.

ENDS

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