Peter Allen AM 1944-1992

Allen was more comfortable with a stint at Radio City for Easter 1986 and a tour of Australia for Kevin Jacobsen. He returned in 1988 to participate with Frank Sinatra and Whitney Houston in The Ultimate Event, the nationally televised gala that marked the opening of the glamorous Sanctuary Cove resort on the Gold Coast.

Allen had spent several years writing and preparing and promoting Legs Diamond, his lavish Broadway musicalisation of the colourful life of gangster Jack Diamond. After 72 previews, the show finally opened at Broadway’s Mark Hellinger Theatre on 26 December 1988. Savaged by critics, it struggled on for 64 performances, and then sank ingloriously. It lost $7 million. Allen was down, but far from out. To prove it he recycled some of the Legs Diamond props for his revamped concert act. Then he embarked on a three-month national tour with Bernadette Peters. He was back in Australia for a Sydney Hilton booking in January 1990. He was honoured with Membership of the Order of Australia in June, and played three nights at Carnegie Hall later in the year.

Allen was back at the Sydney Hilton in January 192, but the sudden onset of throat cancer forced him to curtail the season. Appropriately, he gave his final performance on Australia Day. Soon it was apparent that the untreatable cancer was only part of Allen’s health breakdown. He had AIDS. The end came quickly. Peter Allen died in San Diego Mercy Hospital on 11 June 1992.

In 1995 music journalist and film writer Stephen MacLean directed The Boy from Oz, a TV documentary on Peter Allen. MacLean’s similarly titled book about Allen was published the following year. The book was the inspiration for the stage musical, which was written by Nick Enright. Produced by Ben Gannon and Robert Fox, it opened at Her Majesty’s, Sydney, and toured widely. The initial cast included Todd McKenney (Allen), Chrissy Amphlett (Garland), Angela Toohey (Minnelli) and Jill Perryman (Allen’s mother). Gale Edwards directed.

With Enright’s book adapted by Martin Sherman, and a revision of the musical content, Gannon and Fox produced the show at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway with Hugh Jackman giving a Tony-winning performance as Allen. It opened on 16 October 2003 and played for a year. A Japanese version followed in June 2005. The show was revamped yet again for an enormously successful Australian ‘arena’ production with Hugh Jackman. Chrissy Amphlett and Angela Toohey were again Garland and Minnelli, while Colleen Hewett played Allen’s mother. Kenny Ortega directed. The tour opened at Sydney Entertainment Centre on 10 August 2006 and went on to play Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.

In 2006 an extensive collection of Peter Allen’s personal memorabilia was donated by his executors to the Performing Arts Collection at the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne.

Frank Van Straten, 2007