Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett tells the improbable story of one of our most outlandish and courageous performers of the eighties and nineties who kicked out against convention, and survived: almost.
Now the performers of Australia’s burgeoning pub rock scene are mostly distant memories, but amongst them all, Chrissy’s and her band Divinyls have earned legendary status, if not the fortune they also sought to attain.
Australia’s pub rock scene was unique, brought about by pubs needing to use large rooms once given over to variety entertainment. They were now filled by ever louder bands and outrageous performers and here Chrissy ruled those rooms and festivals for over 15 years.
Born in working class Geelong, the young Chrissy had to find her identity, which she could only survive by leaving. One of her many gigs was to become a backup singer playing a tambourine in the many asinine pop bands of the seventies, until she met the talented guitarist Mark McEntee and eventually forming Divinyls.
Chrissy would go onto making an indelible mark in Australia’s entertainment scene, having made a dent in world music charts and playing Judy Garland in The Boy from Oz, before relocating to New York and a loving marriage.
Here, she began thinking about her career again, before a diagnosis for MS and later breast cancer brought it all undone.
Making notes on her life, she created a character called “The Monster” to describe how one side of her personality survived the years in the music industry.
Eventually Simon Morley from Puppetry of the Penis would be entrusted with those notes, which he shared with director Sarah Goodes.
When that outcome stalled, Goodes approached writer, director, actor Sheridan Harbridge with the project, and thank god she did.
Musical director Glenn Moorhouse was brought in and the play began to take shape, eventually playing Melbourne and Brisbane before opening last week at Sydney’s Belvoir Street Theatre.
Harbridge takes on the role of Chrissy, while Moorhouse heads up a crack on-stage band consisting of Clarabell Limonta, Dave Hatch and Ben Cripps. From the moment Harbridge steps out, she is in control of her character and has the audience in her grasp.
She is here not to impersonate Chrissy, but to inhabit her spirit, which she does with increasing power as the show progresses, using Amphlett’s notes as a guideline, but also inserting herself and her experiences into the mix.
Opening with I’ll Make You Happy, a later Divinyls track, the on-stage band is also not here to replicate the band’s sound, but to give interpretation and dynamics in a way that matches Harbridge’s approach to her role.
Their rendition of Love and Addiction, slowed down to a melodic ballad is worth the entrance fee alone.
Harbridge shows throughout the shows tight 80 minutes that she has the chops for singing a variety of styles with aplomb, such as when she tales on the old blues and jazz standard St James Infirmary but can also match the memory of Chrissy with her belting version of Boys in Town.
The songs as presented here are taken out of the Divinyl’s chronological order, and are used as an entrance to a dramatic turn or to emphasise the text at the time.
Particularly poignant is when Harbridge delves into a very personal note of the singer where she reveals that she has created a crow as her spirit guide. With just a swift addition of a piece of cloth Harbidge inhabits that guardian.
The play does not hold back on the misogynistic attitudes of the times, with one of the constant question being asked throughout the play was “did Chrissy urinate on stage?”
For the answer to that you need to see it.
As director and co-writer Sarah Goodes has delivered 80 minutes of sheer artistry that is also economic in its approach.
Reviews for the previous two seasons suggests that the show has script problems, but if they were there they have certainly gone in this production.
Harbridge is a force of nature, and one well placed to take on the role of one of our great artistic forces. Often breaking the fourth wall, Harbridge shows that she posses the same bravado that filled Chrissy’s every show.
The band are skilfully nuanced in their approach to the music of the Divinyls, and while never imitating, they also show that the songs have the depth to take on interpretations that open them up in new creative ways.
Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Roll Rage of Chrissy Amphlett is an accomplished and joyous tribute to one of the Australia’s most original creators.
It was also encouraging to see so many younger people in the audience, who could have not seen Chrissy perform, but may be the grandkids as a result of a post pub rock night dalliance.
Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett
Upstairs Theatre – Belvoir St Theatre, 25 Belvoir Street, Surry Hills
Performance: Friday 30 January 2026
Season continues to 8 February 2026
Information and Bookings: www.belvoir.com.au
Images: Sheridan Harbridge in Amplified: The Exquisite Rock and Rage of Chrissy Amphlett – photos by Brett Boardman
Review: John Moyle