How did a butcher’s daughter from Cornwall get to be one of New Zealand’s much-loved divas…? Want to find out…? Then grab the phone or boot up the computer and get a ticket to the national tour of Operatunity’s Evening Concert, Hell on Wheels …! 

Singer and actress, Helen Medlyn – with her long-time collaborator, Penny Dodd on piano – regales us with the tale of how she got into the crazy game called show business. She shares all the fun, the failures, the fumbles, the frivolity from her years of treading the boards. 

Busting with story and song, Hell on Wheels mixes opera, jazz, musical theatre and comic ditty in that delightful cocktail for which these two cabaret artistes have become well-known. Not only is it a story of Helen’s stage life from go to whoa, it’s nigh on a “best of”… full of those songs that we love to hear these women deliver time and time again, because no-one does them quite like them.

The songs run the gamut…from Richard Wagner to Roger Hall… and everyone inbetween…! Ross and Rossini; Mahler and Marriott; Loewe and Lehrer; Hart and Hammerstein II; Grieg and Gilbert; Rückert and Rice. A bag of licorice allsorts…just like Helen…!

A self-described “Jill Of All Trades”, Helen has been – at one time or another – a jazz chanteuse, a dancer, an actress, a musical theatre performer, a narrator, a classical concert singer, a voice-over artiste, an opera diva and a cabaret entertainer…and, sometimes, all in the same performance! With her innate sense of fun, her musicality and her love of language, she’s been acclaimed both here and overseas for stamping her own style on all that she does! Whether she’s standing serenely, statue-like, on the concert platform singing the major classical repertoire with a symphony orchestra or she’s slithering, bosoms akimbo, over a grand piano and steaming up a few spectacles with a torch song or two, Helen loves to be up there.

Penny Dodd is another artist with many strings to her bow. Having cut her musical teeth as musical director and pianist for many leading shows on London’s West End, she returned to New Zealand to find herself in constant demand as an orchestral arranger, conductor, vocal coach and accompanist, as well as being sought after as the music director and conductor for many top national and international entertainers. She is now known and respected as one of New Zealand’s leading music directors working in all fields of the performing arts – theatre, opera, radio, television, cabaret and concert. Not only will Penny’s accompanying skills be on show in “Hell on Wheels”, we hear she’s going to sing too…!

Tour Director John Cameron says “We are absolutely delighted to present such a talented, warm, vibrant singer on this nationwide tour; an artist of international calibre and charm who I know audiences will simply fall in love with.” 

The Evening Concert Series is presented by Operatunity, a company which presents over two hundred and fifty concerts each year in twenty-four venues throughout New Zealand. From its humble beginnings, eleven years ago, Operatunity Entertainment Ltd has gained an enviable position in the calendar of tens of thousands of concert-goers throughout New Zealand who enjoy the experience that Operatunity offers – professional quality shows with light-hearted fun and laughter mixed in. Operatunity has become the largest employer of professional singers and artists of its type in New Zealand.

The concerts presented in the Evening Concert Series are an eclectic mixture of shows ranging, this year, from Rock & Roll to Cabaret to An Evening at the Opera.

Opening performance:
Saturday 11 May, RAYE FREEDMAN ARTS CENTRE
Cnr Gillies Ave & Silver Rd Epsom, Auckland, 7.30pm

Concerts commence at 7.30pm and tickets are $45 with concessions available & discounts for group bookings. 

Please contact us for any enquiries, bookings, or to request a free brochure:
P: 0508 266 237 (toll-free)
E: concertsadmin@operatunity.co.nz

www.operatunity.co.nz
(No booking or postage fees apply)

The Evening Concert Series tour will be visiting 17 venues across NZ in April and May – View dates and locations here.

Act 1

Ride of the Valkyries
(by Wilhelm Richard Wagner)

With Cat-like Tread
(by Sir William Schwenk Gilbert/Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan)

The Lion and Albert
(by Marriott Edgar)

One Day In A Merry Mood
(by Hans Christian Andersen/Edvard Hagerup Grieg/Winifred Palmer/Cedric King Palmer)

Honey Bun
(by Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II)

Liber Scriptus
(by Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi)

Moonshine Lullaby
(by Irving Berlin)

Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
(by Friedrich Rückert/ Gustav Mahler)

Cockeyed Optimist
(by Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II)

My Funny Valentine
(by Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart)

Buenos Aires
(by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron of Sydmonton/ Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice)

Twisted
(by Annie Ross/Wardell Gray)

Interval

Act 2

Mon Coeur
(by Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns/Ferdinand Lemaire)

I don’t know how to love him
(by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron of Sydmonton/ Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice)

Irish Ballad
(by Thomas Andrew Lehrer)

Hey, Big Spender
(by Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields)

Una voce poco fa
(by Gioachino Antonio Rossini/Cesare Sterbini)

Dieci mille anni
(by Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini/Giuseppe Adami/Renato Simoni)

Show Me
(by Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe)

Bella figlia
(by Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi/Francesco Maria Piave)

Prima Donna
(by Roger Hall/John Drummond)