God Helpmann us all
The Helpmann awards were distributed in Sydney and Melbourne on Monday evening. Viewers at home could watch on pay TV and wonder why the organisers had left so many empty seats on display. (Move 'em forward, people, no matter whether or not they paid for the good seats - and why not distribute a few handfuls to impecunious actors while you're at it?)
The full list of winners is available for you to pore over and marvel at yourself at www.helpmannawards.com./au.
Meanwhile, a few observations such as: who claqued for Rusalka as best opera? It was not. If there were a category for Most Misbegotten Design Concept or Best Torture of International Soprano - yes, it should have won. Most nominations in the opera category went to Love of the Nightingale and that makes much more sense.
Akram Khan won Best Male Dancer. Was he there to pick up the award? Nuh, he was a visitor. Bad luck, local boys - must do better.
Same goes for another visitor, Jefferson Mays, who swiped Best Male Actor from under the noses of Australian actors who turned in brilliant performances. Making awards to overseas performers is about delusions of grandeur, as in - Oh yarrr, it's the Australian version of the Tonys and the Oliviers y'know . Well, no, it isn't and Australian theatre actually does need the support of its own awards, rather than being slapped in the face by a token gesture towards o/s glamour.
On the other hand, to have a Best Touring Award category is a good thing - recognising the guts required to undertake the insanely risky business and the importance of doing it for the greater good of the wider Australian community. Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks delighted thousands of theatregoers all over the country and while it was an Ensemble Theatre production, the guts and grit to take it to the regions came from the inspired loony behind CDP - Christine Dunstan Productions.
Sydney Theatre Company got deserved guernseys for the Kosky epic Lost Echo (including one for Paul Capsis) while Honour Bound did it for Melbourne's Malthouse and the Sydney Opera House - all deserving and admirable winners.
Nevertheless, the Helpmanns are very much like the man for whom they are named: exceedingly odd and subject to moments of genius and rather more of plain twaddle.
