Robert Helpmann
Encyclopedia
Sir Robert Helpmann CBE (9 April 190928 September 1986) was an Australian dancer, actor, theatre director and choreographer.
, South Australia and also boarded at Prince Alfred College
in Adelaide
. From childhood, Helpman had a strong desire to be a dancer. This was an unusual ambition in provincial Australia of the 1920s. In a 1974 interview he recalled that he was taught the moves and dances of a girl because his dance teacher had no prior experience teaching boys.
In the Margot Fonteyn
biography, he is described as being dark haired, pale, and having large dark eyes. Helpman had a younger sister Sheila Helpman, and a younger brother Max, or Maxwell Helpman, and he welcomed them both into his theatrical world, both of them becoming part of it like audience members and then becoming involved into his style of work as actors themselves.
, suggested that he should change his surname to avoid his name Robert Helpman having 13 letters.
In 1927 Helpmann first appeared professionally, in Sydney, but opportunities to dance at any serious level in Australia were limited. By 1930 he was headlined in a J. C. Williamson
production of The New Moon
then as "Bobby Helpman, burlesque dancer" in Hugh D. McIntosh
revues. In 1932 he choreographed the burlesque Business a la Russe. In 1933 he went to London to study under Ninette de Valois
at the Vic-Wells Ballet Ballet School and was soon in the corps de ballet
of Coppelia
, then as an understudy to Anton Dolin
. Soon he was principal dancer with Vic-Wells Ballet (which later became Sadler's Wells and now the Royal Ballet
. Here he formed his great professional partnership with (later Dame) Margot Fonteyn
. Together they created many roles in ballets choreographed by Frederick Ashton
, including the comical "ugly stepsisters" in the pantomime
-style ballet Cinderella
.
The highpoint of Helpmann's career as a dancer was the Sadler's Wells Ballet tour of the United States in 1949, with Fonteyn and Helpmann dancing the leading roles in The Sleeping Beauty
. The production caused a sensation, which made the names of both the Royal Ballet and its two principals; public and press alike referred to them affectionately as Bobby and Margot. Although Helpmann was past his best as a dancer, the tour opened doors for him in the United States as an actor and director.
(1944), Caravan
(1946), Adam Zero
(1946) and Elektra (1963). He performed roles from Shakespeare
at the Canadian Stratford Shakespeare Festival and at the Old Vic
theatre company in London, playing the title role in Hamlet
two years after having danced the same part.
Helpmann also appeared in many films, including the two Powell and Pressburger
ballet films The Red Shoes (1948), for which he was the choreographer, and The Tales of Hoffmann
(1951). In 1942 he played the Dutch Quisling
in the Powell/Pressburger film One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
(1942) and later played the Chinese Prince Tuan in 55 Days at Peking
(1963).
After his return to Australia as co-director of The Australian Ballet, he continued to appear in films. Notable productions included one of his most recognized screen roles, the sinister Child Catcher
in the family classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
(1968). His performance in the film rating in Empire
magazine as among the 100 most frightening ever filmed. Another family film he starred in was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
(1972), in which he portrayed the Mad Hatter
. And for The Australian Ballet he co-directed with Rudolf Nureyev
the ballet-film Don Quixote
(1973), in which he also played the title role.
Australians were proud of his international fame, but not sure what to make of him personally. He did not endear himself with the comment: "I don't despair about the cultural scene in Australia because there isn't one here to despair about."
His most significant contribution to the development of dance in Australia was his time with The Australian Ballet. Here he joined Dame Peggy van Praagh
at the helm of the fledgling company, as her co-director until 1974 and sole director until 1976. He choreographed ballets including Yugen (1965), Elektra (1967, revised from the original version created for the Royal Ballet in 1963), Sun Music (1968),, Perisynthyon (1974) and produced and directed The Merry Widow
(1975). This was not his first encounter with The Merry Widow – he had directed a production of the operetta in His Majesty's Theatre in London in 1944, with Madge Elliott as "Anna" and Cyril Ritchard
as "Danilo". In the 1930s he had also danced in a production with Gladys Moncrieff
as "Anna".
The avant-garde nature and sexual overtones of much of his work unsettled many Australians.
His most controversial work was The Display (1964), with music by Malcolm Williamson
. Helpmann claimed that this was the "first one hundred per cent Australian ballet to have been choreographed",
however it was predated by several works and the true first all-Australian ballet was Edouard Borovansky
's Terra Australis which premiered in Melbourne on 25 May 1946. The Display used the courtship dance of the lyrebird
as a metaphor for Australian male attitudes.
Helpmann dedicated the ballet to his friend American actress Katharine Hepburn
, who wanted to see a male lyrebird dancing during her visit to Australia in 1955. The novelist Patrick White
wrote the scenario, but Helpmann disliked it intensely. It was rejected, causing a furious row between these two extremely opinionated artists.
Both the subject matter and the presentation of the ballet were well in advance of Australian tastes at the time.
, directing Alcina
by Handel
, a production later re-staged with Joan Sutherland
in the title role. In 1983 he celebrated his sixtieth year in theatre with involvement in productions in the three main auditoriums of the Sydney Opera House: in the Concert Hall he directed Anson Austin and Glenys Fowles
in Gounod
's Roméo et Juliette
for the Australian Opera; in the Opera Theatre he re-choreographed The Display for the Australian Ballet.
In the Drama Theatre he starred for the Sydney Theatre Company
in the world premiere of Justin Fleming
's play The Cobra. Helpmann's portrayal of the elderly Lord Alfred Douglas
, reflecting bitterly on his notorious youthful relationship with Oscar Wilde
, was unforgettable. He also played the man servant in the stageplay Stardust, with Googie Withers
and John McCallum
.
Helpmann directed the London production of the stage musical Camelot
, with designs by John Truscott.
He also did work on a short family cartoon film, Don Quixote of La Mancha, where he provided the voice of the main character Don Quixote.
, and the pair formed a relationship that was to last for 36 years until Benthall's death in 1974. The couple lived and often worked together quite openly for the time. Although devastated by the loss of his longtime companion and collaborator, "Sir Bobby" continued to act, direct and produce with his legendary theatrical flair until his death.
An obituary in The Times
in London characterised his appearance as "strange, haunting and rather frightening", and portrayed him as "a homosexual of the proselytizing kind" whose impact upon a company was "dangerous as well as stimulating", creating fresh headlines in Australia.
(CBE). In 1965 he was named "Australian of the Year
", and in 1968 he was appointed a Knight Bachelor
.
By the 1970s, Australia had grown used to Helpmann's flamboyant persona. His appointment as Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts
from 1970 to 1976 was well-received. People of Melbourne honoured him as their 1974 King of Moomba
.
in South Australia was named in his honour; it is a partnership of the major visual and performing arts education
and training institutions in South Australia offering award courses for people seeking professional careers in the arts. The Helpmann Awards were instituted 2001, and recognise distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in Australia's live performing arts sectors.
Lyrebird (Tales of Helpmann)
, a play about the life and career of Helpmann, has been performed in Australia, New Zealand and the UK
. The play premiered in the United States in 2009.
Early years
He was born Robert Murray Helpman (spelt with one "n") in Mount GambierMount Gambier, South Australia
Mount Gambier is the largest regional city in South Australia located approximately 450 kilometres south of the capital Adelaide and just 17 kilometres from the Victorian border....
, South Australia and also boarded at Prince Alfred College
Prince Alfred College
Prince Alfred College is an independent, day and boarding school for boys, located on Dequetteville Terrace, Kent Town, near the centre of Adelaide, South Australia...
in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
. From childhood, Helpman had a strong desire to be a dancer. This was an unusual ambition in provincial Australia of the 1920s. In a 1974 interview he recalled that he was taught the moves and dances of a girl because his dance teacher had no prior experience teaching boys.
In the Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...
biography, he is described as being dark haired, pale, and having large dark eyes. Helpman had a younger sister Sheila Helpman, and a younger brother Max, or Maxwell Helpman, and he welcomed them both into his theatrical world, both of them becoming part of it like audience members and then becoming involved into his style of work as actors themselves.
Early career
In 1926 he joined the touring dance company of the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. The introduction came via his father, who was on a business trip to Melbourne, where he met Pavlova who was dancing there. One of the many versions of the cause for his decision to change his surname from Helpman to Helpmann, was that Pavlova, a devotee of numerologyNumerology
Numerology is any study of the purported mystical relationship between a count or measurement and life. It has many systems and traditions and beliefs...
, suggested that he should change his surname to avoid his name Robert Helpman having 13 letters.
J. C. Williamson
James Cassius Williamson was an American actor and later Australia's foremost theatrical manager, founding J. C. Williamson Ltd....
production of The New Moon
The New Moon
The New Moon is the name of an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, and Laurence Schwab. The show was the third and last in a string of Broadway hits for Romberg written in the style of Viennese operetta...
then as "Bobby Helpman, burlesque dancer" in Hugh D. McIntosh
Hugh D. McIntosh
Hugh Donald "Huge Deal" McIntosh was an Australian show-business entrepreneur born to parents of Scottish and Irish origin and modest means in Sydney's Surry Hills, then a ramshackle suburb with a reputation for crime and vice among the largely Irish immigrant population. His policeman father Hugh...
revues. In 1932 he choreographed the burlesque Business a la Russe. In 1933 he went to London to study under Ninette de Valois
Ninette de Valois
Dame Ninette de Valois, OM, CH, DBE, FRAD, FISTD was an Irish-born British dancer, teacher, choreographer and director of classical ballet...
at the Vic-Wells Ballet Ballet School and was soon in the corps de ballet
Corps de ballet
In ballet, the corps de ballet is the group of dancers who are not soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and often work as a backdrop for the principal dancers. A corps de ballet works as one, with synchronized movements and corresponding positioning on the stage...
of Coppelia
Coppélia
Coppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
, then as an understudy to Anton Dolin
Anton Dolin
Sir Anton Dolin was an English ballet dancer and choreographer.Dolin was born in Slinfold in Sussex as Sydney Francis Patrick Chippendall Healey-Kay but was generally known as Patrick Kay. He joined Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1921, was a principal there from 1924, and was a principal...
. Soon he was principal dancer with Vic-Wells Ballet (which later became Sadler's Wells and now the Royal Ballet
Royal Ballet, London
The Royal Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the four major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois, it became the resident ballet...
. Here he formed his great professional partnership with (later Dame) Margot Fonteyn
Margot Fonteyn
Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...
. Together they created many roles in ballets choreographed by Frederick Ashton
Frederick Ashton
Sir Frederick William Mallandaine Ashton OM, CH, CBE was a leading international dancer and choreographer. He is most noted as the founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet in London, but also worked as a director and choreographer of opera, film and theatre revues.-Early life:Ashton was born at...
, including the comical "ugly stepsisters" in the pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
-style ballet Cinderella
Cinderella (comic ballet)
This version of the Cinderella ballet, using Sergei Prokofiev's "Cinderella" music, and re-choreographed by choreographer Frederick Ashton, is a comic ballet.-Ballet productions:- Plot outline :...
.
The highpoint of Helpmann's career as a dancer was the Sadler's Wells Ballet tour of the United States in 1949, with Fonteyn and Helpmann dancing the leading roles in The Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
. The production caused a sensation, which made the names of both the Royal Ballet and its two principals; public and press alike referred to them affectionately as Bobby and Margot. Although Helpmann was past his best as a dancer, the tour opened doors for him in the United States as an actor and director.
Later career
In the 1940s, as he passed his peak as a dancer, Helpmann turned to production and to acting. He produced his own ballets — Comus (1942), Hamlet (1942), The Birds (1942), Miracle in the GorbalsMiracle in the Gorbals
Miracle in the Gorbals is a one-act ballet choreographed by Robert Helpmann to a story by Michael Benthall, with music by Arthur Bliss. The setting is the 1940s slums in the Gorbals area of Glasgow...
(1944), Caravan
Caravan (1946 film)
Caravan is a 1946 British drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree. It was one of the Gainsborough Melodramas and is based on a novel Caravan by Eleanor Smith....
(1946), Adam Zero
Adam Zero
Adam Zero is a ballet with music written by the British composer Arthur Bliss, in 1946.-Background:After World War I, Bliss developed an interest in ballet, after seeing the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev in London...
(1946) and Elektra (1963). He performed roles from Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
at the Canadian Stratford Shakespeare Festival and at the Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
theatre company in London, playing the title role in Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
two years after having danced the same part.
Helpmann also appeared in many films, including the two Powell and Pressburger
Powell and Pressburger
The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers, made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1981 they were recognized for their contributions to British cinema with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the most prestigious...
ballet films The Red Shoes (1948), for which he was the choreographer, and The Tales of Hoffmann
The Tales of Hoffmann (film)
The Tales of Hoffmann is a 1951 British film adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera Les contes d'Hoffmann, written, produced and directed by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger working under the umbrella of their production company, The Archers...
(1951). In 1942 he played the Dutch Quisling
Quisling
Quisling is a term used in reference to fascist and collaborationist political parties and military and paramilitary forces in occupied Allied countries which collaborated with Axis occupiers in World War II, as well as for their members and other collaborators.- Etymology :The term was coined by...
in the Powell/Pressburger film One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
One of Our Aircraft is Missing
One of Our Aircraft is Missing is a 1942 British war film, the fourth collaboration between the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and the first film they made under the banner of The Archers...
(1942) and later played the Chinese Prince Tuan in 55 Days at Peking
55 Days at Peking
55 Days at Peking is a 1963 historical epic film starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, and David Niven, made by Samuel Bronston Productions, and released by Allied Artists. The movie was produced by Samuel Bronston and directed by Nicholas Ray, Andrew Marton , and Guy Green...
(1963).
After his return to Australia as co-director of The Australian Ballet, he continued to appear in films. Notable productions included one of his most recognized screen roles, the sinister Child Catcher
Child Catcher
The Child Catcher is the supporting antagonist of the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in the later stage musical adaptation. The character was created by the film's screenwriter, Roald Dahl, and did not appear in the original Ian Fleming book...
in the family classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (film)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a 1968 musical film with a script by Roald Dahl and Ken Hughes, and songs by the Sherman Brothers, loosely based on Ian Fleming's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car. It starred Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious. The...
(1968). His performance in the film rating in Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine as among the 100 most frightening ever filmed. Another family film he starred in was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972 film)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a 1972 British musical film based on the Lewis Carroll novel of the same name. It had an all star cast, and John Barry composed the score....
(1972), in which he portrayed the Mad Hatter
Mad Hatter
Hatta, the Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the story's sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. He is often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Carroll...
. And for The Australian Ballet he co-directed with Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
the ballet-film Don Quixote
Don Quixote (ballet)
Don Quixote is a ballet originally staged in four acts and eight scenes, based on an episode taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and was first presented by the Ballet of the...
(1973), in which he also played the title role.
The Australian Ballet
In 1965 Helpmann returned to Australia to become co-director of the Australian Ballet. Since he was gay and flamboyant, his arrival in what was at that time a very conservative country caused some consternation.Australians were proud of his international fame, but not sure what to make of him personally. He did not endear himself with the comment: "I don't despair about the cultural scene in Australia because there isn't one here to despair about."
His most significant contribution to the development of dance in Australia was his time with The Australian Ballet. Here he joined Dame Peggy van Praagh
Peggy van Praagh
Dame Margaret "Peggy" van Praagh, DBE had a long and distinguished career in ballet as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, producer, advocate and director.-Dancing:...
at the helm of the fledgling company, as her co-director until 1974 and sole director until 1976. He choreographed ballets including Yugen (1965), Elektra (1967, revised from the original version created for the Royal Ballet in 1963), Sun Music (1968),, Perisynthyon (1974) and produced and directed The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow (ballet)
The Merry Widow ballet is an adaptation of Franz Lehár's romantic operetta The Merry Widow .John Lanchbery and Alan Abbott adapted the score of the operetta for ballet and retained the style of Lehár's orchestration. The arrangement includes the well-known tunes of the operetta - Vilja's Song Ich...
(1975). This was not his first encounter with The Merry Widow – he had directed a production of the operetta in His Majesty's Theatre in London in 1944, with Madge Elliott as "Anna" and Cyril Ritchard
Cyril Ritchard
Cyril Ritchard was an Australian stage, screen and television actor, and director. He is probably best remembered today for his performance as Captain Hook in the Mary Martin musical production of Peter Pan....
as "Danilo". In the 1930s he had also danced in a production with Gladys Moncrieff
Gladys Moncrieff
Gladys Moncrieff OBE was an Australian singer who was so successful in musical theatre and recordings that she became known as 'Australia's Queen of Song' and 'Our Glad'.-Early years:...
as "Anna".
The avant-garde nature and sexual overtones of much of his work unsettled many Australians.
His most controversial work was The Display (1964), with music by Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO , CBE was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.-Biography:...
. Helpmann claimed that this was the "first one hundred per cent Australian ballet to have been choreographed",
however it was predated by several works and the true first all-Australian ballet was Edouard Borovansky
Edouard Borovansky
Edouard Borovansky was a Czech- born Australian ballet dancer, choreographer and director. After touring with Anna Pavlova's company, he and his wife settled in Australia where they established the Borovansky Ballet company...
's Terra Australis which premiered in Melbourne on 25 May 1946. The Display used the courtship dance of the lyrebird
Lyrebird
A Lyrebird is either of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds, that form the genus, Menura, and the family Menuridae. They are most notable for their superb ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment. Lyrebirds have unique plumes of neutral coloured...
as a metaphor for Australian male attitudes.
Helpmann dedicated the ballet to his friend American actress Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...
, who wanted to see a male lyrebird dancing during her visit to Australia in 1955. The novelist Patrick White
Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
wrote the scenario, but Helpmann disliked it intensely. It was rejected, causing a furious row between these two extremely opinionated artists.
Both the subject matter and the presentation of the ballet were well in advance of Australian tastes at the time.
The Australian Opera and later work
In 1981 Helpmann worked with the Australian OperaOpera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
, directing Alcina
Alcina
Alcina is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of L'isola di Alcina, an opera that was set in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he acquired the year after, during his travels in Italy...
by Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
, a production later re-staged with Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
in the title role. In 1983 he celebrated his sixtieth year in theatre with involvement in productions in the three main auditoriums of the Sydney Opera House: in the Concert Hall he directed Anson Austin and Glenys Fowles
Glenys Fowles
Glenys Rae Fowles AM is an Australian operatic soprano who sang with Opera Australia and its predecessors for many years. She also sang at Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, and for the New York City Opera, San Diego Opera, and Scottish Opera. She also appeared at the BBC Proms and with the New York...
in Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
for the Australian Opera; in the Opera Theatre he re-choreographed The Display for the Australian Ballet.
In the Drama Theatre he starred for the Sydney Theatre Company
Sydney Theatre Company
The Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
in the world premiere of Justin Fleming
Justin Fleming
Justin Fleming , born Sydney, Australia is a playwright and author. He has written for theatre, music theatre, television and cinema and his works have been produced and published in Australia, the US, Canada, the UK, Belgium, Poland and France...
's play The Cobra. Helpmann's portrayal of the elderly Lord Alfred Douglas
Lord Alfred Douglas
Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas , nicknamed Bosie, was a British author, poet and translator, better known as the intimate friend and lover of the writer Oscar Wilde...
, reflecting bitterly on his notorious youthful relationship with Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, was unforgettable. He also played the man servant in the stageplay Stardust, with Googie Withers
Googie Withers
Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...
and John McCallum
John McCallum
John McCallum, PC, MP is a Liberal Canadian politician, economist and university professor. Following the 2006 Federal Election, he became the Liberal Finance Critic in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet...
.
Helpmann directed the London production of the stage musical Camelot
Camelot (musical)
Camelot is a musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe . It is based on the King Arthur legend as adapted from the T. H. White tetralogy novel The Once and Future King....
, with designs by John Truscott.
He also did work on a short family cartoon film, Don Quixote of La Mancha, where he provided the voice of the main character Don Quixote.
Personality
According to the novel based upon the life of Margot Fonteyn, Helpmann is characterized as being a very hard man, but also a very kind one. Fonteyn said herself that out of all her partners, Helpmann was her favourite. He was also extremely confident and always pushed Fonteyn to her highest potential. The novel also says that Helpmann would stand up to anyone, and that he could look into the face of the devil himself and laugh.Personal life
In 1938, Helpmann met a young Oxford undergraduate while fulfilling an invitation to dance at the university. He was immediately drawn to the handsome and intelligent Michael BenthallMichael Benthall
Michael Pickersgill Benthall was an English theatre director.As an undergraduate at Oxford University, Michael Benthall met Robert Helpmann, who had been fulfilling an invitation to dance at there...
, and the pair formed a relationship that was to last for 36 years until Benthall's death in 1974. The couple lived and often worked together quite openly for the time. Although devastated by the loss of his longtime companion and collaborator, "Sir Bobby" continued to act, direct and produce with his legendary theatrical flair until his death.
Death
Sir Robert Helpmann died in Sydney in 1986. His obituaries in the Australian media were suitably laudatory, but also reserved. The country paid him the highest final recognition it could by honouring him with a state funeral in Sydney, the eulogy calling him "a genius, an outstanding communicator of unique inspiration and insight. He asserted his rights to pursue a path that improved the quality of life of the nation, and defeated the common herd of detractors".An obituary in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
in London characterised his appearance as "strange, haunting and rather frightening", and portrayed him as "a homosexual of the proselytizing kind" whose impact upon a company was "dangerous as well as stimulating", creating fresh headlines in Australia.
Honours
In 1964 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE). In 1965 he was named "Australian of the Year
Australian of the Year
Since 1960 the Australian of the Year Award has been part of the celebrations surrounding Australia Day , during which time the award has grown steadily in significance to become Australia’s pre-eminent award. The Australian of the Year announcement has become a very prominent part of the annual...
", and in 1968 he was appointed a Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
.
By the 1970s, Australia had grown used to Helpmann's flamboyant persona. His appointment as Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival of Arts
Adelaide Festival of Arts
The Adelaide Festival of Arts is an arts festival held biennially in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Although locally considered to be one of the world's greatest celebrations of the arts, that is internationally renowned and the pre-eminent cultural event in Australia, it is actually...
from 1970 to 1976 was well-received. People of Melbourne honoured him as their 1974 King of Moomba
Moomba
Moomba is Australia's largest free community festival and one of the longest running festivals in Australia. Held annually in the city of Melbourne, Australia, Moomba is celebrated during the Labour Day long weekend , and has been celebrated since 1955...
.
Posthumous recognition
The Helpmann AcademyHelpmann Academy
The Helpmann Academy was formed in 1994 as a partnership of the major tertiary arts training institutions in South Australia.It brings together the skills and resources of South Australia's universities and TAFE SA, with courses in music, dance, drama, directing, visual arts, technical theatre...
in South Australia was named in his honour; it is a partnership of the major visual and performing arts education
Performing arts education
Education in the performing arts is a key part of many primary and secondary education curricula and is also available as a specialisation at the tertiary level. The performing arts, broadly dance, music and theatre are key elements of culture and engage participants at a number of levels...
and training institutions in South Australia offering award courses for people seeking professional careers in the arts. The Helpmann Awards were instituted 2001, and recognise distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in Australia's live performing arts sectors.
Lyrebird (Tales of Helpmann)
Lyrebird (Tales of Helpmann)
LyreBird is a play by Tyler Coppin about the life and career of Australian dancer, actor, director and choreographer Sir Robert Helpmann. The one-man play premiered at the 1998 Adelaide Festival of Arts before touring Australia and to New Zealand...
, a play about the life and career of Helpmann, has been performed in Australia, New Zealand and the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The play premiered in the United States in 2009.
Further reading
- Kathrine Sorley Walker, Robert Helpmann, An Illustrated study of his work, 1957
- Elizabeth Salter, Helpmann : The Authorised Biography of Sir Robert Helpmann, 1978
- Frank Van Straten, OAM, "Helpmann: A Knight To Remember"
- Anna Bemrose,"A Servant of Art: Helpmann in Australia", PHD Thesis, 2003, University of Queensland.
- Tyler Coppin, "Lyrebird: Tales of Helpmann", A play
- Mary Helpmann, "The Helpmann Family Story 1796–1964", 1967
- Caryl Brahams, "Robert Helpmann (Choreographer)", 1943
- Gordon Anthony, "Studies of Robert Helpmann", 1946
External links
- The Helpmann Awards The Australian Entertainment Industry Association's annual awards are named in Helpmann's honour.
- Robert Helpmann (1909–1986) – Australia Dancing
- Helpmann files in the NLA PROMPT collection / National Library of Australia
- A Dash of Helpmann – NLA News
- Frederick Ashton's "Cinderella" ballet
- Josef Weinberger: The Creation of The Merry Widow Ballet
- "The Display" (1964) – Australia Dancing