Venue: State Theatre, Sydney, NSW
First Date: 3 January 1995
Last Date: 28 January 1995

Director: Stephen Barry
Musical Director: Max Lambert
Choreographer: Ross Coleman

Cast

Miguel Ayesa
Paul Blackwell
Lochie Daddo
Nancye Hayes
Wayne Scott Kermond
Bert Newton
Bruce Spence
Jo Beth Taylor
George Washingmachine

Good Morning Australia

On Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton to promote The Wizard of Oz, Nancye Hayes and Nikki Webster talked about their memories of Cinderella. To read the full interview transcript, click here.

Bert: What are your memories of Nancye in Cinderella?

Nikki: Just plain – ’cause she, was it the Fairy Godmother that you played? – just plain beautiful, and just um, I mean with both of you were just so great to all the kids that were there, ’cause there were so many of us, as with The Sound of Music and stuff, but I just remember… after that I was always, you know, wondering what you’re up to because I just, you were just so great to, to me.

Nancye: We used to wear very long eyelashes.

Nikki: [laughs]

Bert: That’s right.

Nancye: And every day, Nikki would come to me and there’d be a little tug on the fairy costume and she’d say, “Are they your real lashes?” and I’d say, “No Nikki, they’re not.” Because they were silver tinsel and everything. And I’d think, “Oh, that’s all right then.” And the next day she’d say it again: “Are they your real lashes Miss Hayes?” [laughs] I should have given you a pair for opening night I think!

Nancye Hayes interview

Nancye Hayes interviewed by Bill Stephens on September 27, 2011. (Source)

So I was very thrilled to be part of it and I was playing the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. Jo Beth Taylor was playing Cinderella, and Lochie Daddo was playing the Prince. And we had Bruce Spence and Paul Blackwell as the Ugly Sisters. And, and Bert as the Baron, Bert Newton as the Baron. So it was a bit of a star studded cast at the, at the State Theatre which, as you know, is not good backstage, it’s very tiny.

And I always remember these little tiny Shetland ponies being brought down from the laneway, down all the stairs to go on stage. These dear little horses. And they used… then they’d have to go all the way up the stairs again, go all the way home to the Central Coast and come back again the next day. I thought, ‘oh my goodness, this is, this is madness’.

This is madness, these poor little horses. That’s what I remember most. And I also remember that Ross Coleman again was dire-… choreographing, and he did a wonderful number for me as the Fairy Godmother with four of the boys from the… which was great fun. I think it was specially written, I can’t remember who actually wrote it. But it was great to have that number.

I love, I love, you know, ‘those are my boys’… I… it brings out the Roxie Hart in me to have a number with four boys doing wonderful things while you keep posing in the middle. But no, it was, it was good fun. And the following year I was involved with Aladdin that Edgar Metcalf directed, and I choreographed that year.

Links

» AusStage
» Jo Beth’s Cinderella story – TV Week October 1994
» Jo Beth Taylor Facebook