The most successful Aussie actor you’ve never heard of! From West Footscray to West End star, Coral Browne was larger-than-life. Prospect Productions presents Coral Browne: This F***ing Lady at fortyfivedownstairs for a limited season from 11 July 2018.
Leaving Australia as a 21-year old in the 1930’s Coral Browne forged a reputation first as a popular West End performer and later a brilliant classical actor with The Old Vic and The National.
Coral also had many memorable screen performances, including Auntie Mame (as Vera Charles) The Killing of Sister George (as Mercy Croft), Dennis Potter’s Dreamchild (as Alice Hargreaves) and Alan Bennett’s An Englishman Abroad in which she famously played herself touring to Moscow with Hamlet and encountering the British spy Guy Burgess. It earned her a BAFTA award for Best Actress.
Coral was almost as well known for her bawdy wit, her glamour, her liberated attitude to sex, her string of famous lovers – including Paul Robeson and Maurice Chevalier – and her late-life marriage to horror-movie icon Vincent Price.
Written and directed by Maureen Sherlock, the Melbourne premiere of this one-woman play features Genevieve Mooy (The Dish, Frontline), who brings Coral Browne to sparkling life and puts this true Grande Dame back in the spotlight where she belongs.
Maureen Sherlock has written a number of stage shows, including the award-winning Alzheimer’s the Musical: A night to remember! produced at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, Adelaide Fringe & Gilded Balloon for the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s also been produced three times by Ghostlight Theatre in Surprise, Arizona.
Her play Ada & Elsie: Wacko-the-Diddle-oh! premiered at the 2014 Adelaide Fringe followed by a Melbourne & regional tour. Maureen is co-writer with Rob George of the play Lovers & Haters: The Turbulent Times of Don Dunstan, a 2008 Adelaide Festival of Arts production.
She has written for TV, including Blue Heelers, Chuck Finn, Wormwood, animated series Magical Tales, The Woodlies, Gasp, The Davincibles, Ketchup & The Odd Family for Timmoon France. Most recently she has been a question writer for quiz shows, Million Dollar Minute and The Chase Australia.
Genevieve Mooy has worked extensively in theatre, film and television since graduating from NIDA in 1982. She has worked for major theatre companies around Australia including Belvoir Street, Griffin, MTC and the State Theatre Company of SA.
Her numerous TV credits include Frontline, Rosehaven, Rake, All Saints, Love is a Four Letter Word, Home and Away, Brides of Christ. Her big screen appearances include The Dish (nominated for Best Supporting Actress), Thank God He Met Lizzie, Passion, Emoh Ruo (nominated for Best Supporting Actress). Genevieve received the Best Actor Award at the 2017 Fleurieu Film Festival for her role in Tell Her Everything.
“A delightful surprising show, superbly presented – a must see!” – Miriam Margolyes
Coral Browne: This F***ing Lady
fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Season: 11 – 22 July 2018
Bookings: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
For more information, visit: www.coralbrowneplay.com for details.
Image: Genevieve Mooy as Coral Browne (supplied)