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Canberra Today 11°/15° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Arts / Bring the tissues, warns ‘Georgy Girl’ writer

Hey there... the stage Seekers, from left, Phillip Lowe (as Keith Potger), Mike McLeish (Bruce Woodley) Pippa Grandison (Judith Durham) and Glaston Toft (Athol Guy). Photo by Jeff Busby.
Hey there… the stage Seekers, from left, Phillip Lowe (as Keith Potger), Mike McLeish (Bruce Woodley) Pippa Grandison (Judith Durham) and Glaston Toft (Athol Guy). Photo by Jeff Busby.
AWARD-winning writer Patrick Edgeworth has long called Australia home. In fact, he had a very particular reason for flying here in 1969 – to be his late brother Ron’s best man when he married Seekers superstar Judith Durham.

Now Edgeworth, famous for the Leo McKern hit “Boswell for the Defence”, but better known as a screenwriter, is back in the stage world again with “Georgy Girl – the Seekers Musical”, his take on the rise and rise of the Australian hit group made up of Durham, Athol Guy, Keith Potger and Bruce Woodley.

Squeaky clean and a bit naff they may have been, but the Seekers scored number one on the UK charts with their first three singles, outselling The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

No wonder the nostalgia factor has kicked in and Edgeworth is just the writer to tap into it.

“I’m an Australian artist, this is where I got my opportunities,” he tells “CityNews”, explaining that his early work acting in “Homicide” and “Matlock” taught him what a script looked like, so that eventually the late Hector Crawford offered him a salaried job as a screenwriter and an instant change of career.

“I resisted but I found I just loved writing… It’s such a different discipline,” Edgeworth says, but writing a musical was something new to him.

One motivating force was the current trend for “jukebox” musicals. But the real story is that Durham popped around one Sunday for sandwiches and tea and Edgeworth asked: “What do you think, ‘Seekers – the musical?’ and she said: ‘Oh, yes, so long as it’s done properly’ – she didn’t want the brand tarnished.”

He read her book, concluding, “I don’t think there’s a musical there”. The Seekers had been way too successful and unlike the Jersey Boys there were no gangsters, no drug money and no mafia.

But then he saw Durham talking about “Georgy Girl” on TV and how insecure she had been before stardom. That’s the story, he thought, “it became a Cinderella story about a girl who takes charge of her life”.

“Bring your tissues,” Edgeworth advises, although he is quick to assure me that there are lots of laughs and songs – well, of course there are, with numbers like “The Carnival is Over”, “I’ll Never Find Another You” and “A World of Our Own”, with Bruce Woodley’s famous song “I am Australian” thrown in for a sensational finale and some non-Seekers songs, too.

It’s a nostalgia trip he says, and it’s partly about the ‘60s. It’s about young people who were nobodies and who went on to become superstars. When they first hit London it was tough but then they discovered the pirate Radio Caroline and shot into the top 40.

But how to make this into stage drama?

“Well the songs have to tell the story, but then in a musical, you get to the point where people can only express themselves in song and it became a lot of fun,” says Edgeworth.

Plot wise, there was another problem.

In July, 1968, Durham announced she was leaving The Seekers and the group disbanded, so when Edgeworth first came to Australia for the wedding, the carnival was effectively over.

“I couldn’t start writing the script because brother Ron doesn’t come in until 10 minutes before the end – the audience is going to hate it… but then I had the idea of making him the narrator.”

“Georgy Girl – the Seekers Musical”, State Theatre, Sydney, until May 27, bookings to ticketmaster.com.au

Hey there...  the stage Seekers, from left, Phillip Lowe (as Keith Potger), Pippa Grandison (Judith Durham), Mike McLeish (Bruce Woodley) and Glaston Toft (Athol Guy). Photo by Jeff Busby.
Hey there…  the stage Seekers, from left, Phillip Lowe (as Keith Potger), Pippa Grandison (Judith Durham), Mike McLeish (Bruce Woodley) and Glaston Toft (Athol Guy). Photo by Jeff Busby.

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