HELPMANN AWARD NOMINATIONS 2010
Grim night in Sydney, this Monday 2 August and not only because the weather is totally sh*thouse: the Helpmanns are announced. I don’t want to drag you through the seemingly endless list of categories (best usher, best actress in an amateur production of Emerald City, best assistant electrician in an international rocker’s tour and so on). And I’m also mindful of being part of the Sydney Theatre Reviewers and therefore perhaps seen as biased, although my bias – freely admitted – is towards actors. But I’d like to make just a few observations.
The first ,and the one that will obviously exercise old media for the next day or so, is the “snub” to Cate Blanchett, the Sydney Theatre Company and its production of A Streetcar Named Desire. The Helpmanns have given it one (1) nod: best sound design. Ignored is Blanchett’s extraordinary performance as Blanche Dubois(she was the Sydney Theatre Awards choice for 2009) and other elements of this towering production. The other Helpmann nominees in the category are Kathryn Hunter – Kafka's Monkey, Julie Forsyth – Happy Days, Jane Menelaus and Robyn Nevin, both – August: Osage County.
Sadly, Sydney didn’t get to see the MTC’s now fabled production of August: Osage County, we get Steppenwolf instead. Personally I’d like to have seen Nevin and Menelaus, but call me parochial, I’m sure someone will. We did see Julie Forsyth’s Happy Days: a performance that struggled and eventually succeeded in overcoming a set and production that were hostile to an actor, especially one where the actor is buried to the neck for most of the show. We also had the visiting Kathryn Hunter.
Will Kathryn Hunter give a fig for her nomination, or even an award from the Helpmanns? I think not. Can you see George Michael, AC/DC, Beyonce or Pink jetting in to the Sydney Opera House on the off chance of picking up the doorstop for Best International Contemporary Concert? And even if they did, what does it mean to the advancement of Australian culture, performers or the national entertainment industry? Absolutely sod all.
How do these international nominations and awards help or make anything in Australia better ? They don’t: they are a joke and widely seen as such. But don’t expect anyone who is even remotely likely to score a nomination to say so. Why should they? The rewards in Australia are so meagre, anything will do; even awards whose credibility is as hilarious as its categories are catch-all and meaningless. Let’s just go back to Streetcar for a minute.
The nominees for best sound design are, Paul Charlier for Streetcar; he is to be judged against Steve Canyon Kennedy for the pop musical Jersey Boys, Bob Scott for Opera Australia’s Bliss and BalletLab and David Chisholm/Myles Mumford for the dance work Miracle. Okay, to figure this out, let’s re-imagine the contenders: let’s place on the starting grid Mark Webber’s Red Bull racer, a tuk-tuk, a Rolls Royce and an Audi coupe and start them in the same race. Which one will win? Which is best? How would you judge them? Does this make sense to you? If it does, then you must be on the Helpmann selection panel, or should be.
Every year many, many good people in the Australian entertainment industry get the giggles, or worse – in private – when the Helpmann nominations and awards are announced. But, of course, they are compelled to be grateful or respectful – in public. To me, the way these nominations are arrived at is risible – with the best will in the world it is not possible to compare productions right across Australia. There is a clear bias towards Melbourne in these, for instance, but that’s not to denigrate Melbourne productions – it simply indicates where the majority of nominators are domiciled.
Yet again (yawn) I say: national awards are not possible, credible or desirable in Australia. No other nation tries it, because it’s stupid and these nominations prove it. I’ll be very happy for the winners, but I would wish your award could be one you’d be genuinely proud to have. Australian entertainment workers – throughout the industry – deserve our respect and appreciation. I don’t believe the Helpmanns are worthy of either.
The full list of nominations for the 2010 Helpmann awards can be ploughed through at www.helpmannawards.com.au. Happy reading.
