One day, several years ago, I was shopping in a store. I think it was in Box Hill, a suburb in Melbourne, and I heard a voice: ‘Good morning Mr Stephenson Jones”. It is not often that I am recognised over a public address system in the middle of a busy store. I turned to see a familiar face promoting clothes and other items at “rock bottom prices”.
It was my friend, Maureen Andrew. Maureen, like most actors I know, was doing a non-theatre job. Actors are rarely unemployed, we prefer to say, “we are resting between engagements”.
Indeed, between shows actors often take on another job rather than sit and wait for the next dole payment, or the much-anticipated call from their agent.
It has struck me that every season there seems to be another popular job choice. Spruiking in shops is a very popular choice. For a long time, unemployed actors were doing store promotion work demonstrating the latest apple peeler, then there was massage, and today it seems to be getting gigs as civil celebrants.
Maureen is one of those special people in theatre with many strings to her bow having performed in all kinds of theatre, cabaret, and television. She is a travelling gypsy gracing the boards in several shows. She is a dancer, singer, and actress. She can also teach and I hired her several times in my school, the Actors Showcase.
I asked Maureen about some of her own teachers. Of course, I asked her about my old chum Lynn Golding:
Yes, I do remember classes with Lynn Golding although I can’t remember where. I have a feeling it was in the big old ballroom floor studios above Flinders Street Station. I remember attending classes with a very young David Atkins at May and Tuppy Downs in that old upstairs studio in the heart of Melbourne. If only I hadn’t been so skinny, I could have been a “Tivoli Girl”. Betty Pounder jazz classes and tap classes with Isabel Ryan in the old Sunroom dance studio at the back of The Maj, Antonio Rodrigues, Madame Taska and Kathy Gorham, The Kathleen Gorham Ballet Academy in the ancient downstairs studio near the corner of Little Lonsdale Street, and with Tony Bartuccio in the 70’s, Barbara Warren-Smith and Ronnie Arnold. And of course, prior to moving to Melbourne aged 19, Beverly Nevin in Brisbane where we did the lot, ballet, (RAD) jazz and tap (C.S.Th.D) contemporary. I always wanted to attend the Borovansky Academy but as a lowly paid office staff I just couldn’t afford it. But great days, discipline, development, respect, hard work and constant push for progress and achievement. The old standards were outstanding. I even learned how to do “The Swords”, the Scottish dance, when I was about 6 years old. I was very good at hopping over those crossed swords while wearing an oversized kilt.
Maureen always loved to dance. Left is one of her first gigs at sixteen years of age. Note that they sewed their own Can-Can costumes in those days.
I first met Maureen while hunting around for a movement teacher for one of my weekend workshops. Maureen was available and the students thoroughly enjoyed her classes. I have relied upon Maureen a few times over the years.
It has been a very impressive career having worked on so many shows and gigs. When work is not available she is one of those wise and talented ladies who has the skill to create her own work.
One show I remember Maureen doing was her one-woman cabaret solo. It was called A Diva and Her Toyboy. This delightful cabaret was performed in 2001 at Chapel off Chapel, Malthouse. She was accompanied by a very talented pianist Adrian Kirk.
They were perfect together. Maureen told stories, sang from the shows, and the audience loved her.
I remember getting into conversation with a few Tivoli ladies. I have always loved talking to Tivoli showgirls. My mum knew many but that is for another article.
One song Maureen sang was ‘Everything is Beautiful at the Ballet’. This was interspersed with some truly delicious stories. The cheeky rapport she had with Adrian Kirk was delightful. Adrian is now M.D. with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and working with Cameron Mackintosh. From humble country boy organ player to top M.D. gig on the planet!
Maureen has always loved musical theatre and has appeared in many shows. She has appeared with many top theatre stars too, such as Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz, as well as performing with Todd McKenny, Live at the Palms Crown Casino.
Maureen was in Scrooge at the Princess Theatre in 1994. This beautiful production starred Keith Michell. Michell was very much show-biz royalty and although the show starred Anthony Newly in the West End, Keith was soon to make the role his own. He was a perfect Scrooge who was able to bring a gentle sympathy to the nasty mean old miser. Also in the very impressive cast were Max Gillies, William Zappa and Tony Taylor. She also played in Grease the mega-musical tent tour around Australia in 2010, and with David Atkins in Saturday Night Fever. Maureen played in the original cast of Hair. This show let the sunshine in for eighteen months in New Zealand, Melbourne and Sydney.
Maureen is clearly a triple threat. She is equally at home in the worlds of dance, singing and obviously acting. Her list of musical theatre accomplishments is extremely impressive. One show she loved doing was Gypsy which she played for Nova musical theatre. One of the biggest numbers in Gypsy is ‘You’ve Gotta Have A Gimmick’. This number can easily steal the show with Tessie the stripper.
Critics from ‘Theatre People’ said:
Maureen J. Andrew (Tessie Tura), Sapphira (Electra), and Cassandra Beckett (Mazeppa) brought the house down with ‘You Gotta Have A Gimmick’. Andrew’s additional scenes were a delight, just the right combination of sass and the kind of brassiness that come from being washed up.
So many shows. Some that come to mind are Hello, Dolly!, Dear World, Phantom of the Opera, Hugh Jackman’s The Boy from Oz, and Billy Elliot. Another includes Calendar Girls for the John Frost Organisation in which she understudied eight roles.
It was fitting last year when Hugh Jackman asked the understudy for Sutton Foster in The Music Man to take a special curtain call. Understudies do not get the luxury of much rehearsal. It is one of the toughest jobs in the industry. To understudy eight roles is a great achievement. The understudy must survive the groan from the audience when it is announced that the main actor will not be performing that night. It takes talent and guts.
Often the audience does not even catch the name of these performers. I have seen some stunning understudies and standbys over the years but I could not name any of them. Without these grand people, theatre would not survive.
At 27, Maureen played with the Mulga Bill’s Bicycle, which eventually became The General Store. This was the first of many bands and singing gigs she played in.
Maureen has actively participated in the LGBTQI Chill-out Festival. So, what is Chill-out? To quote from their own web page:
From humble beginnings in 1997, the Chill-Out Festival has grown to become Australia’s largest Queer Country Pride festival. Chill-Out is recognised as a culturally important and nationally celebrated LGBTIQ pride event, supporting and representing Queer pride for all regional people.
At Chill-Out Maureen sang tributes to many gay icons such as Shirley Bassey, Bette Midler, and of course, Judy Garland, to the delight of the crowds.
Of her singing, critic Lucas Ioppolo remarked:
As for her rendition of the Academy Award winning ‘Over The Rainbow’ from The Wizard Of Oz, Andrew’s acting skills really made her commanding vocal performance ever the more convincing, taking us on the lyrical journey so magically and memorably through each note that came out of her mouth. She may have been performing to just one auditorium full of people about the land where dreams come true, but it felt like she was serenading to the whole world.
Since 1997 Maureen has had the rare distinction of playing four guest roles in the television series Neighbours. She auditioned for Jan Russ, the casting director of Neighbours, landing the role of an arts teacher, Mrs Killalee. Maureen believes that maybe her own experiences as a teacher helped her land the role. In another role she enjoyed playing Dr Danielle Marks and says it was fun playing a role in which her character had the authority to tell off Mark Rafferty for his character’s indiscretions. She hastens to add that Mark was a delight. She wished she could have stayed longer but had to fly to Sydney to start rehearsals for Cabaret.
In an interview for a web site called ‘The Perfect Blend’, Maureen was asked what she had been doing since her final stint in Neighbours?
I toured with Grease for 9 months as Miss Lynch, with Cabaret for 11 months playing Fraulein Schneider, and just finished in September 2005 an 18-month Australasian tour with Saturday Night Fever playing Flo Manero. Since I have been back in Melbourne, I have played Madame Thenardier in Les Misérables, tap danced with Todd McKenney as one of the Golden girls in his cabaret show at Crown Casino, filmed a few commercials, some short films, am co-producing a film, teaching drama, and writing a musical tribute to Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Along the way I managed to get a gig in Peter Jackson's King Kong, scored the role of Mrs Danvers in the Australian premiere of Rebecca, the Musical and performed in several Fringe Festival Productions. A little later this year I head off again on tour with Hugh Jackman in the The Boy From Oz.
Her resume states 51 years professional work in arts and entertainment. It includes working for and touring with Hugh Jackman, Elton John, Kylie Minogue, tours with 20 major musicals, including performances at the Sydney Sports and Entertainment and the Rod Laver Arena. Film and TV from Neighbours to Cadburys Favourites and hundreds more. Trained teacher in classical ballet, tap, hip hop, funk, jazz ballet, etcetera. Self-produced tribute shows include Shirley Bassey, Tina Turner, Liza Minelli, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Dolly Parton, Shania Twain. Approximately 10,000 performances!
In 2012 Maureen scored a huge triumph when she landed the demanding yet incredibly rewarding role of Norma Desmond in CLOC’s production of Sunset Boulevard.
Maureen was thrilled to be playing the larger-than-life character of Norma Desmond, portrayed so brilliantly in the original movie by real silent screen movie star Gloria Swanson, in what became her most iconic role.
“This part is every actress’s dream, playing a character who is so commanding yet pitiful at the same time,” says Maureen. “And to also have the chance to sing the glorious Andrew Lloyd Webber score is an extra bonus, as I think he wrote lush, rich and beautiful music which captures the 1950s era and the Hollywood setting perfectly. I feel very blessed to have this opportunity and to work with a company with such high artistic and technical standards, which this show requires.” (Stage Whispers, 2012)
With music by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, whose names are associated with such successful musicals as Phantom of the Opera, Cats, and CLOC’s 2011 production Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard pays loving homage not only to the movie, regarded as one of the finest ever made, but also faithfully recreates the era of Hollywood, studios and stars in the years after talking pictures had taken over silent movies, with a show which is famous for its magnificent sets and costumes, biting humour and memorable dialogue (“I am big – it’s the pictures that got small”).
This show requires stamina as well as talent and Maureen has plenty of that. It was a performance to be remembered.
Maureen is known and loved by celebrities who all praise her professionalism and she is respected by her fellow gypsies.
It is almost inevitable that Maureen would become involved in politics some time. In 2016 she stood for the Arts Party which fostered her life long fight to get better recognition and support for artists. Maureen has long been an active EQUITY member.
Of course, supporting causes such as LGBTQI but also many others which are numerous.
It has been a pleasure to learn more about this remarkable lady.