2001 – Nikki Webster Press Archive

Nikki’s Best Day

Dec 21, 2001Oct 21, 2022 2001, Follow Your Heart, Interviews, Music Comments Off

When Nikki Webster flew to a beautiful Aussie island to film her latest video for “The Best Days”, she invited Big Hit along for the ride …

What was the best thing about filming the video?
Basically my last two videos have been in a studio, so being on location in Stradbroke Island in Queensland was such a fantastic time! You know, having all my friends around and actually sleeping over somewhere and just having such a great big party!

Your friends are also your dancers which you’ve used in all your videos, right?
Yeah that’s right. Most of them were there, although there were all new friends too, so that was great. There was Hayley, Melissa, Simone, Rainer, David, Shannon and Mitchell.

All up, how long did it take to film the video?
We were there for three days but we could have stayed there all week! (laughs) We actually had the night times off, which is when I suppose we all started to party! (laughs) We just went into each other’s rooms and watched TV, had lolly fights, stuff like that.

Lolly fights?
Well, not lolly fights … um, let’s just say that we ate lots of lollies!

OK. Describe the video?
With “Best Days” I just thought you have to say you are having the best days. So we thought about a beach and I really wanted to go somewhere other than a normal Sydney Beach. I wanted jet skiing and you know, just things that look like we’re having fun, like sand dunes. My mum found Stradbroke and when we got there it was just fantastic

Descibe your best day?
Just spending time with friends and family and having a life, basically. You can never ever not have fun if you’re having a life.

What’s your favourite line in the song?
Um … I probably remember all the good and bad times we had. There’s always going to be good and bad times in your life no matter what, you have just got to make sure the good ones come out really strong, and you remember them forever!

In the video, your brother Scott drives you around on the jet ski. Was he safe?
He was fine. There were a couple of my friends who got bogged down on a sand dune. We were riding around warning everyone, “Hey there is a sand dune there” and what did they do? Run straight into it! (laughs)

Were there any other scary moments during the filming?
When we were on top of the boat. It was a beautiful day, but on top of the boat it was quite windy, so everyone was being blown everywhere! Their hair is in the wrong place, but it was lots of fun. When we were going down the big sand dunes – that was fun!

Finally, was there anything bad about doing this video?
I don’t think so … Oh yeah, probably getting up early for the sunrise shot. But that was OK.

INTERVIEW: SANTI PINTADO

Source: Big Hit
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Nikki Follows Yellow Brick Road

Dec 5, 2001Oct 19, 2022 2001, The Wizard of Oz Comments Off

WITH a career that’s flown over the rainbow in a little more than 12 months, teenage star Nikki Webster needs no wistful refrain like Dorothy’s to guide her future.

The 14-year-old has leapt from her centre-stage performance at last year’s Olympics to the starring role in a stage version of The Wizard of Oz, which reaches Melbourne next year.

Webster will be in good company as she follows the yellow brick road, with the likes of Bert Newton, Pamela Rabe and Philip Gould to guide her to the Land of Oz and back.

The mammoth $6 million show opens at the Regent Theatre in June, when Melbourne dog lovers can flinch at the Wicked Witch of the West’s vows to get Dorothy – and her little dog, too.

Source: Herald Sun

Small Poppy

Dec 3, 2001Oct 19, 2022 2001, Featured, The Wizard of Oz Comments Off

Nikki Webster aims to silence her critics with The Wizard of Oz

Nikki Webster is being swept off her feet. Two weeks into rehearsals of The Wizard of Oz, choreographer Kelly Aykers is nutting out a complicated dance number that sees the pocket-size Dorothy spun from partner to partner when one’s hands slip and Webster is flung into the air. She’s caught just before hitting the deck, but everyone gets a fright. “Be very careful with that young girl, please,” shouts Aykers over the piano that plays on in the rehearsal rooms at Gala studios in Sydney. “She’s very precious.” In fact, that this production is opening at all is due solely to the star power of this 14-year-old schoolgirl. “If she had said no, we wouldn’t have done it,” says Oz co-producer John Frost of the $6 million show, which opens on Nov 24 in Sydney before touring Melbourne and Brisbane early next year. “It has been done especially for her.”

Such high praise is fuel for the growing band of knockers who delight in making her the butt of public jibes – The Chaser satirical team has even included a Nikki Webster dartboard in The Chaser Annual. “Those of us who saw [the Olympic Opening Ceremony] will never forget her saccharine-sweet delivery, annoyingly precocious poise and overall utter vomituosness,” says co-editor Julian Morrow. But Webster isn’t letting it get to her. “I never thought my dream would come true so early,” marvels the polite and polished performer, who soared to fame as the “Hero Girl” of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. “If there’s pressure there, she’s not showing it,” says Frost, 49. “She’s a real pro.”

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Stars outshine the magic along the way

Dec 3, 2001Mar 22, 2018 2001 No Comments

The Wizard of Oz reviewed by Bryce Hallett

“We’re off to see the Wizard” will be a familiar catch-cry this holiday season whether it’s the Yellow Brick Road quest of Dorothy on stage or the magical adventures of Harry on film.

This latest stage incarnation of L.Frank Baum’s musical faithfully adapts the movie featuring Harold Arlen and E. Harburg’s fine score and such catchy tunes as The Wicked Witch, Merry Old Land of Oz and, of course, Over the Rainbow the show starter and stopper.

The colourful production designed by Roger Kirk could do with a few more marvels to propel it more spectacularly along, especially in the second act, but the energetic cast make the most of the big musical moments they are given.

Nikki Webster, who shot to fame in the Olympic Games opening ceremony, travels down the immortal Yellow Brick Road and takes her own distinctive, confident and irrepressible route. She receives top billing, her profile and drawing power among young people good reason to present the much-loved work, especially for a new generation.
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Friends of Dorothy

Dec 1, 2001Oct 19, 2022 2001, The Wizard of Oz Comments Off

A brain, courage, heart: it has taken the lot to stage The Wizard of Oz, as John Shand discovered during the rehearsals.

Week one
“We’re not in Kansas anymore, Portia, I mean, Toto…”

The real Wizard of Oz is not the mighty necromancer who bestows courage on gutless lions or gives brains to straw-headed scarecrows. It’s not even the vaguely Bert Newton-like chap who can transport a little girl lost back to Kansas. No, the real Wizard of Oz is Nancye Hayes. It is Hayes, the show’s director, who establishes the mood on day one of the five-week rehearsal period. Always softly spoken, she introduces a calming resolve, good humour and clarity of intent to go with her non dictatorial style.

It’s a late October morning and, inside a spartan Glebe rehearsal studio, a slightly nervous Hayes gives a welcoming speech that charms the company and – like the Good Witch she played in a Melbourne production of The Wizard of Oz a decade ago – casts a spell of contagious optimism.

By contrast, straight-talking choreographer Kelly Aykers lays down the law about fitness. “It’s professional theatre,” she tells me later. “These guys should all be trained in singing, acting and dancing. They know that if they’re going to be dancing, their fitness level has to be up.”

Finally, dog-trainer Lindy Coote decrees that only Nikki Webster (Dorothy) – around whom the production was conceived – is allowed contact with Spirit and Portia, the two cairn terriers that will share the role of Toto. Coote says it is vital that the dogs be able to pick Webster out on a stage crowded with Munchkins or monkeys. “If everyone else ignores them, they don’t ever think, ‘Hey, you gave me a piece of your ham sandwich the other day. You might do it again.’”

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Olympic singer Nikki Webster

Nov 29, 2001Feb 9, 2013 2001 No Comments

R. Atkin of Wellesley, Mass., asks ‘Whatever happened to…?’

Olympic singer Nikki Webster

The spritely 13-year-old who floated 80 feet above Sydney’s Olympic Stadium in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics a year ago is now an Australian superstar.

Winsome Nikki Webster thrilled crowds with her poise and charm. An estimated 3.5 billion viewers worldwide watched her sing and soar. Not since Olivia Newton-John and Kylie Minogue has an Australian girl garnered so much attention.

Since the Olympics, Webster has been generating a buzz. She has her own website, a part in a movie (“Vanilla Gorilla”) that will be shot in South Africa, and, most recently, the lead role of Dorothy in a traveling theatrical production of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Her single “Strawberry Kisses” (released in June) hit No. 2 on the Australian music charts. Her new album “Depend on Me” was released in September.

While fame is nothing new to her (she has appeared in TV commercials and theater productions for 10 years), fame of this magnitude is.

Webster’s mother, who works at a child-care center, and her father, an electrician, make sure Nikki keeps a proper perspective.

“She’s never wanted money,” her mother, Tina, told the Sydney Morning Herald. “Whatever she needs comes out of Mum’s purse…. We don’t even take one cent out of her account….”

Do you suddenly wonder, hey – ‘Whatever happened to… ?’

Wonder no more! Write and tell us who or what you’d like to catch up with. Send ideas to: One Norway St., Boston, MA 02115 or e-mail: whatever@csmonitor.com

By Lane Hartill

Source: The Christian Science Monitor (www.CSMonitor.com).

Shopping with Nikki W

Nov 18, 2001Mar 22, 2018 2001 No Comments

Australia’s teen queen Nikki Webster is a young woman on the move yet still finds time to make Christmas special, Danielle Teutsch reports.

NIKKI Webster is one of the few people who could be forgiven for doing their Christmas shopping at the last minute.

The young star of last year’s Olympic Opening Ceremony has released a top-selling album, toured shopping centres, won awards and become the face of a cosmetics range.

She is also filming a movie, Vanilla Gorilla, and starring in The Wizard Of Oz at the Lyric Theatre. Somewhere in this highly packed schedule, the 14-year-old has to squeeze in some school work.

But Nikki makes sure she can find the time to choose gifts for family and friends carefully – even if she does blow the budget occasionally.

“I always try to find some time to do it every year,” she said. “I choose with my heart. I like catching up with people at Christmas and giving presents to them.”
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Nikki’s A 10

Nov 16, 2001Aug 17, 2011 2001 Comments Off

From The Eye’s ROSS BRUNDRETT and PETA HELLARD

WE may not have heard of Nikki Webster 14 months ago, but the singer, who became famous after the Olympics opening ceremony, has been ranked in the top 10 of the most powerful people in Australian entertainment.

The teenager was ranked above such luminaries as The Wiggles, Russell Crowe, Baz Luhrmann, Eddie McGuire, Heath Ledger, Bryce Courtenay, Cate Blanchett and Ray Martin in the annual Power List in Who Weekly. So who were the movers and shakers that beat the pint-sized pop star from top spot?

Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue, Network Ten exec John McAlpine, Southern Star head honcho Neil Balnaves, ABC television boss Sandra Levy, Village bosses John Kirby and Graham Burke, Seven drama big man John Holmes, Festival Mushroom Records boss Michael Parisi and Nine drama supremo Kris Noble.

And if you’re wondering how Webster got such a high ranking, we’re told it had a lot to do with the fact that The Wizard of Oz production would not have been staged if the teen had rejected the offer to play the lead role.

Source: The Sunday Times

Webster Inc: The Olympics Were Child’s Play

Sep 8, 2001Oct 19, 2022 2001, Olympics, The Wizard of Oz No Comments

By Deborah Cameron

A year after the best Games ever, the Herald tallies the final scorecard for the Olympics and assesses the lasting legacy. Today, Deborah Cameron reports on the big business that is the tiny star who who enchanted the world at the Opening Ceremony.

Ric Birch, the director of Olympic ceremonies, picked her to be the elfin child who would fly over the stadium. He thought she had enough grit to stand alone in the middle of the field at the start of the opening ceremony and enchant the world-wide audience.

That luminous moment nearly 12 months ago transformed the life of Nikki Webster, 14.

It is now a micro-managed timetable with the balance struck by parents who, when need be, quote the Department of Community Services child labour laws.

After almost 10 years as a child star (her first role was in a Twisties commercial when she was five), Nikki Webster has more money in her bank account than her parents. Around her a tight group has assembled to manage her professional schedule, business interests, schooling and book her time, including time off.

“Honestly I have never known anyone, and I mean anyone, who is as busy,” said Judith Johnson, publicist for Webster’s latest vehicle, The Wizard of Oz.

Continue reading Webster Inc: The Olympics Were Child’s Play

Olympic ‘hero Girl’ Nikki ‘kisses’ The Charts

Sep 1, 2001Mar 3, 2022 2001, Music Comments Off

By CHRISTIE ELIEZER

It’s no surprise that an Australian label’s first marketing foray into the under-10s music market was with Nikki Webster. The elfin 14-year-old flew 98 feet into the air while playing the role of Hero Girl last September at the spectacular opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics.

Her lead-off single, “Strawberry Kisses,” debuted on the Australian Record Industry Assn. charts at No. 2 in the week ending June 23. It remained at No. 6 in the week ending Aug. 18 and has so far sold 115,000 copies, according to BMG Australia (platinum here is 70,000), setting up the Aug. 20 release of an album, Follow Your Heart.

“Doing the Olympics was fantastic, but I was just playing a character,” Webster says. Since the age of 7, she has been in such musicals as The Sound of Music and Les Miserables, and she also sang onstage with Michael Jackson on his HIStory tour. “But I’d always wanted to do a pop record,” she tells Billboard. “My heroes are Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton-John. The best thing about the Olympics to me was that Olivia came backstage and told me she thought I had a great voice.”
Continue reading Olympic ‘hero Girl’ Nikki ‘kisses’ The Charts