As Australia’s night of nights, the Helpmann Awards celebrates and recognises our live performance industry.
Honouring Australian ballet dancer/actor/theatre director/choreographer Sir Robert Helpmann CBE, the Helpmann Awards (sometimes nick-named the Bobbies) covers musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, cabaret, opera, classical music, theatre and dance. As Australia’s version of The Tony Awards, the big lights of 'Kinky Boots', 'Aladdin', 'Matilda', 'The Book of Mormon', Green Day’s 'American Idiot', 'My Fair Lady', Opera Australia and our state Symphony Orchestras and Ballet share the stage with the more genteel and independent theatre, dance, cabaret and touring companies. This is a world of cultured escapism where the white noise departs for the studied craftsmanship of performers who have dedicated their entire lives to the stage.
There were a great many lessons to learn from the 2017 Helpmann Awards, which undoubtedly have translated across the years since the Bobbies' inception in 2001. Where Australia is the pioneer of camp, the Bobbies elevate flamboyance while embracing the diverse, the new and the unusual. While the Arias studiously avoids glamour in all its superiority and the Logies verge on cringe-worthy cheese, the Helpmann Awards have no qualms about putting on a show of unaffected haute couture steeped in diversity and inclusion. Edgy and fashion forward from head to toe is a Helpmann trend where sparkles, gold, glitter, quiffs and fancy shoe tips prominently feature – and this merely begins with the men, who are worthy of their equally (if not more) plumaged female associates.
In the words of the evening’s co-hostess Dutch/Australian Musical Therapist Jan van de Stool, the Helpmanns is about "parting the red curtains to take up the arts". In 2017, the Helpmanns has traced a fascinating path that covers London, New York, Colorado, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Brisbane and Melbourne to land at Sydney’s Capitol Theatre.
No other evening in Australia will we see Disney share the limelight with 'Downton Abbey'’s Charles Edwards, dance music’s Flume and Future Classic, hipster festival St Jerome's Laneway, Oscar winner Julie Andrews, the godfather of Aussie rock Michael Gudinski, 'South Park', indie’s middlebrow monarch Nick Cave, singer/songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke, grunge’s Phil Jamieson, pub rock icon Jimmy Barnes, our very own American-Australian Marcia Hines, famed 'Neighbours’ graduate Brooke Satchwell, triple j alum Tom Ballard, proud Tasmanian Hannah Gadsby, operatic divas and pop and reality TV stars, Jan van de Stool, Dami Im and Paulini.
Out and proudly, the Helpmann Awards offers a seamless bridge between the high arts of classic music and popular culture. It makes for a beautifully accessible and artistic marriage where live performance serves as the mainstay, easily enveloping singer-songwriters, music theatre, the ballet, symphony orchestra, ethnic dance troupes, classical musicians, theatrical actors, directors, choreographers, producers, pop and rock music, reality TV, comedians, Disney, drag queens and “chubby chocolate theatre nerds” all the way from NY into a rather warm cuddle festooned with glitter. But what also comes through beyond the glitz and the glamour is the loneliness of the job. Life is exuberantly lived on the stage before an admiring audience, but once the lights are turned down, the excitement of life becomes muted also.
It is the genuine talent and dedication that forms the currency of the Helpmanns where the shifting of units have no weight here. It is a talent that finds its roots within authenticity where humility is profuse and gratitude for strong female leadership from directors to producers is openly celebrated. There is a great deal that we as a society struggling with sexism, bigotry, marriage equality and LGBTQ pride in the cultural desert of this sport-mad nation could learn from. But the Helpmanns extends beyond awards and patting each other on the back to acknowledge and revel in a diverse and inclusive community that supersedes colour, creed, religion and sexuality. There will always be the Logies and the Arias, but the discerning cultured thinkers can walk away with the final vestige of glittering Australian talent: our very own Helpmann Award.
Click here for the full list of winners.
