#john hackett

Theatre Royal Sydney: gives us archive footage of their 1985 Sydney production to hype us up for the 2025 production!

Also Theatre Royal: confuses things by leaving in the original audio.

To be clear, this is the 40th anniversary for the Australian production. 50 years ago, T. S. Eliot had been quietly decomposing for a decade. The poems were written in the middle of the 1930s and the musical opened in Australia in 1985, so that's presumably the 50-year gap referred to here and also look it's Misto on the trapeze you go you funky little tuxedo laser pointer you.

Look at all those swing cats onstage doubling features like Tumble's backflips, and the Broadway-based costumes before they evolved into the distinctive Australasian wide wigs!

Original cast for the main cats we see here are David Atkins as Mistoffelees, Anthony O'Keeffe as Munkustrap, Stewart Crowley as Tumblebrutus, Greta Thomas as Victoria, Geoffrey Jenkins as Coricopat, and John Hackett as Skimbleshanks.

Steve Hackett with his mother (the first picture)

with his younger brother John (the second picture)

Steve Hackett Metamorpheus 2005 Camino ——————————————————————— Tracks: 01. The Pool of Memory and the Pool of Forgetfulness 02. To Earth Like Rain 03. Song to Nature 04. One Real Flower 05. The Dancing Ground 06. That Vast Life 07. Eurydice Taken 08. Charon’s Call 09. Cerberus at Peace 10. Under the World ~ Orpheus Looks Back 11. The Broken Lyre 12. Severance 13. Elegy 14. Return to the Realm of Eternal Renewal 15. Lyra ———————————————————————

Colin Clague

Dick Driver

John Hackett

Steve Hackett

Richard Kennedy

Richard Stewart 

Lucy Wilkins

Sara Wilson