Marina Prior’s many engagements
The popular star is part of a double act that’s guaranteed to please musical theatre fans around the country.
For Marina Prior, touring Australia performing in concert alongside Michael Cormick is a double bonus.
First, it gives her the opportunity to do the thing she loves – sing some of the greatest songs from musical theatre – alongside one of her best friends. Second, she has a packed itinerary that includes venues in regional Australia.
“I love going out regionally because we get to see our stunning country,” she said on the eve of the tour, which will take the show, Centrestage, to dozens of venues in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia between September and December.
“In a lot of these places it isn’t easy for people to get to a capital city to see this kind of show.”
Prior’s no stranger to these far-flung and often beautiful regional venues, having previously toured the country in The 2 of Us with David Hobson, which enjoyed more than 200 performances over several tours.
Centrestage provides her with a chance to perform a selection of songs from her vast repertoire. Many will be from the musicals that made her famous during a career that has included roles in Phantom of the Opera (she was the original Australian Christine), Pirates of Penzance, Cats, Les Miserables, Anything Goes, West Side Story, The Secret Garden, Show Boat, The Witches of Eastwick, Guys and Dolls, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, Hello Dolly, Dream Lover, and 9 To 5 The Musical.
She has also performed 30 times at Melbourne’s nationally televised Carols By Candelight, giving rise to saying that “it’s not Christmas until Marina takes the stage”.
Cormick will draw on his equally storied Australian and international career, including starring roles in Phantom, Mamma Mia!, La Cage aux Folles, The Rocky Horror Show, Annie, Into the Woods, Cabaret, Evita, and Chess.
The duo will be accompanied by Andrew Ross, who regular theatregoers will know from his tours playing piano for the late Barry Humphries and his characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Paterson. Ross was famously the butt of a crude joke by Sir Les that inevitably brought the house down.
Prior said it’s “a privilege” to be able to do what she does, and to be kept so busy sharing these songs.
And busy really is the word. The weekend before the curtain goes up on Centrestage in Springwood, NSW, on 14 September, Prior will be in Melbourne for three concert performances of the early Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.
“It’s such a beautiful score,” she said of the 1945 musical that gave us the memorable You’ll Never Walk Alone, “but it focusses on domestic violence, really. It was far ahead of its time.”
Which prompted a discussion about the American musical tradition and the suspension of disbelief when serious stories are told by people breaking out into song, as if it were a perfectly normal thing to do.
“If you’re in my house,” Prior said, “it is a perfectly normal thing to do.”
Show dates and details are here.
For your chance to win a double pass to the show, click here.
