Senior Moments is a theatrical revue with a deliciously funny and fresh collection of comic senior moments, sketches and songs performed by a seriously funny cast who are old enough to know better. Light-hearted, fun and a little bit naughty whilst always remaining nice, Senior Moments features sketches such as ‘Senior Mastermind’ and ‘Old School’ (like Romper Room meets Play School for the neglected over-65 age group), and musical highlights like ‘I Am the Very Model of a Modern Age Retiree’. At last audiences young and old can have some Senior Moments they’ll want to remember!
Please meet our Cast
His TV career was launched in 1976, playing “Sugar Renfrey” in the ABC TV Production of Power Without Glory, for which he won his first Logie as Best Supporting Actor. In the 1980’s he went on to star in the hit drama, Rafferty’s Rules as Magistrate “Michael Rafferty” which consolidated him as the well know and admired television actor he has become.
From 1994 and for the next 12 years, he played the role of “Tom Croydon” in Blue Heelers, one of Australia’s highest ever rating TV dramas. It culminated in John winning the prestigious Gold Logie in 2006, after 10 consecutive nominations as most popular person on Australian Television.
Subsequently, John has appeared in a number of shows including True Stories, It’s A Date, Paper Giants, Miss Fischer’s Murder Mysteries, Offspring and The Cut.
His more recent television role is as “Patrick Tyneman”, the baddie everybody loves to hate, in ABC’s The Doctor Blake Mysteries.
His stage career has included everything from Shakespeare to Williamson and a few Musicals in between, winning a number of Best Actor awards along the way. Highlights have included The Twelfth Night opposite Geoffrey Rush, directed by Neil Armfield and playing Jock in The Club for almost every state theatre company over 15 years. John has just concluded a national tour of Bakersfield Mist with his Blue Heelers castmate Julie Nihill.
Over the years, Benita has worked in many movies, Sleeping Beauty, Knowing with Nicolas Cage, The Eye of the Storm and The Tree being the most recent.
Benita has made nine albums and CDʼs mainly for Play School and The West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Education Chamber Orchestra, narrating and singing. She has also been the narrator with the Sydney, Tasmanian and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, and The Sydney Youth Orchestra.
She is now a senior tutor at NIDA, teaching Presentation and Communication Skills in the corporate sector as well as TV Presenting in their Open Program.
Benita is past President of the National Speakers Association of Australia, NSW Chapter; past Chair of the Actors Benevolent Fund of NSW Inc.; a supporter and now Ambassador of Youth Insearch for 20 years, and she also trains the young leaders in presentation and communication skills. Benita has been an Australia Day Ambassador for the past nine years.
Since 1987, Max has appeared in a variety of serious and comic roles for theatre, including plays for the MTC, STC, QTC, Malthouse and Bell Shakespeare. Max has created a variety of comic impersonations, including Bob Hawke, Malcolm Fraser, John Howard, Bronwyn Bishop, Geoffrey Blainey, Graham Richardson and Jeff Kennett, which have been considered the highlights of many political party launches and special events.
Max’s television career started back in the 70’s with the hugely popular TV series Homicide for Crawford Productions. His career has spanned the decades to include appearances in Bluey, Blue Heelers, All Saints and House Husbands to name but a few. His film career has equally spanned the decades to include the Peter Weir directed feature The Cars That Ate Paris, the Australian classic’s Dimboola and The Coca Cola Kid to the award-winning film A Woman’s Tale.
We acknowledge the great loss of Mr Geoff Harvey who was Musical Director and pianist for Senior Moments from our first season in 2016 through all subsequent shows until his passing. His warmth, his sense of fun and his incredible musical talent were an integral part of our production from the very beginning and he is sorely missed by us all. Vale Geoff.
Geoff Harvey was the Music Director of Channel 9 for 38 years, composing many of the network’s theme songs and responsible for most of its live music on shows such as The Don Lane Show, the Midday Show and Bob Roger’s Tonight Show on TCN-9 which was his first job in 1961. He was then Musical Director for Dave Allen, and went on to work on most of Australia’s live entertainment shows, including Bandstand, The Sound of Music and The Don Lane Show. One of his most successful appointments was as the Musical Director of The Midday Show, a position he held for 22 years. While at Channel 9, he was also responsible for many of the networks theme songs, such as those for The Sullivans, A Current Affair, Today and Sunday. After The Midday Show he worked with orchestras across Australia and was the Musical Director of Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve in Melbourne for 19 years.
His television credits include: 1915, A Country Practice, Shout – The Story of Johnny O’Keefe, Wreck of the Stinson, G.P., Brides of Christ, Water Rats, Backberner, White Collar Blue, Home and Away and Paper Giants. Film credits include Killer Force, Breaking Loose, Airtight and Lucy, in which he starred as Bill Frawley in the Lucille Ball story.
Russell played the ongoing role of Jeff Burke in the critically acclaimed series Fireflies for the ABC. He also played the role of Max Kellerman in the hugely successful stage production of Dirty Dancing (Jacobsen Entertainment). Most recently Russell was seen as Major Bouvier in Grey Gardens (Squabbologic) at The Seymour Centre.
Emily’s TV credits include guest roles in the ABC shows It’s A Date (Season 2), The Dr Blake Mysteries and the comedy Get Krack!n. Film work includes the Live Action feature Risen, and many short films. Emily is the face of Coles – New Girl and is an established voiceover artist.
Creatives/Production
Written by: Angus FitzSimons & Kevin Brumpton
Director: Angus FitzSimons
Producers: Kevin Brumpton & Angus FitzSimons | Return Fire Productions Pty Ltd
Ticketing: Jeff Boltze
Website: Mara Milani | Marameo Design
Graphic Design: Peter Schultz | Who! Creative
Caricatures: Andrew Fyfe
Video: Swim Media
For all Media Enquiries:
Ian Phipps
[email protected]
0419 977 649
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