Pet Shop Boys Community

Since 12 January this year, Australian actor Daniel Scott has been portraying "Neil Tennant" in the new musical "Dusty: The Original Pop Diva". The show premiered in Melbourne and is now in Sydney, with future performances in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.

The audience at last night's performance was mainly middle aged women and their husbands, who I'm sure were there more for Dusty's 60s hits then her '80s comeback. In fact, my expectations were that Dusty's collaborations with the PSB might be totally overlooked by the production.

But no, the score contained both What Have I Done To Deserve This and Nothing Has Been Proved. The performance of NHBP actually came first, in the 60s section of the story - staged with reporters circling Dusty asking her to confirm rumours about her private life - to which she reponded by singing the chorus - "It may be false, it may be true..." etc (The verse wasn't sung).

Then in the Act 2, there was a full re-creation of the video for What have I done to deserve this?, with "Neil" and "Chris" in tuxedos, Dusty appearing from behind a curtain, and Neil reclining on a set of stairs, singing the "I bought you drinks, I gave you flowers..." etc.

The musical arrangements for both songs sounded great, although the actor playing Neil seemed to be imitating Neil's voice but it didn't sound right at all.

Dusty: The Original Pop Diva is a big budget production - costing over $6 million and looks like it will be a big success. It's a big, fun, musical, and it's nice to see the PSB represented in this - maybe it will help bring them back to the public consciousness here in Oz in time for the release of Fundamental.

Thanks for this Docoboy. I haven't yet seen the musical but I've been wondering how the collaboration with PSB was going to be portrayed. Sounds very positive. Hopefully getting tickets for the show this week.

Rusty wrote:Thanks for this Docoboy. I haven't yet seen the musical but I've been wondering how the collaboration with PSB was going to be portrayed. Sounds very positive. Hopefully getting tickets for the show this week.

No worries. The PSB appearance is very small in the context of the overall show. However, I did find myself enjoying Dusty's other music as well. I can see why Neil & Chris rate Dusty so highly.

is <a href="http://www.gethappy.com.au/gethappy/bio ... 0">this</a> him?

jasonjohn wrote:is <a href="http://www.gethappy.com.au/gethappy/bio ... 0">this</a> him?

Doesn´t look that much like Neil. Would like to see what he looks like with Neil-make-up. Any pics ?

psb-freak wrote:

jasonjohn wrote:is <a href="http://www.gethappy.com.au/gethappy/bio ... 0">this</a> him?

Doesn´t look that much like Neil. Would like to see what he looks like with Neil-make-up. Any pics ?

And who played Chris???

jasonjohn wrote:is <a href="http://www.gethappy.com.au/gethappy/bio ... 0">this</a> him?

Yes, it is. He didn't particularly look like Neil, but the bigger problem (for me) was that he didn't sound like Neil when he was singing What have I done to deserve this?. The actress playing Dusty had a great voice and in comparison the "Neil" voice was all wrong for me. But then I guess I'm just being an obsessive fan

There was a guy from the chorus dressed in a tuxedo with a trombone, who I assume was meant to be Chris, but he rather got swamped by all the women with the pink feather boa things on their heads.

There is a photo of the What have I done to deserve this? scene in the program, but unfortunately I don't have a scanner to scan it in. Might do so from work next week.

I was a great thrill to see that they'd gone to such an effort to recreate the video, though. The actress playing Dusty had obviously studied Dusty's hand gestures from the video and did the same ones.

Docoboy wrote:

jasonjohn wrote:is <a href="http://www.gethappy.com.au/gethappy/bio ... 0">this</a> him?

Yes, it is. He didn't particularly look like Neil, but the bigger problem (for me) was that he didn't sound like Neil when he was singing What have I done to deserve this?. The actress playing Dusty had a great voice and in comparison the "Neil" voice was all wrong for me. But then I guess I'm just being an obsessive fan

There was a guy from the chorus dressed in a tuxedo with a trombone, who I assume was meant to be Chris, but he rather got swamped by all the women with the pink feather boa things on their heads.

There is a photo of the What have I done to deserve this? scene in the program, but unfortunately I don't have a scanner to scan it in. Might do so from work next week.

I was a great thrill to see that they'd gone to such an effort to recreate the video, though. The actress playing Dusty had obviously studied Dusty's hand gestures from the video and did the same ones.

Is there a pic of the guy who played Chris in the programm ?

psb-freak wrote:Is there a pic of the gguy who played Chris in the programm ?

No, Neil and a dancing girl are completely blocking him. Poor Chris!

Docoboy wrote:

psb-freak wrote:Is there a pic of the gguy who played Chris in the programm ?

No, Neil and a dancing girl are completely blocking him. Poor Chris!

psb-freak wrote: Is there a pic of the gguy who played Chris in the programm ?

Yes... here

http://www.emusing.com/imgs/page_imgs/i ... ly_man.jpg

how bizarre.

The ABC documentary about the making of this musical and the life of Dusty, this week featured the contribution of PSB in her comeback. They played quite a bit of the What have I done to deserve this? video and Vicki Wickham said some nice things about the boys. If nothing else it was great to see PSB on prime time television.

Speaking of Dusty documentaries, I saw the Living Famously one on cable TV last night and was utterly appalled that they completely skipped her comeback years and not a single mention made of What have I done to deserve this? and the contribution of PSB. There was one miserable comment from Neil about how fabulous Dusty was, but other than that it was as if they did not exist at all in her career and had nothing to do with her comeback!

Rusty wrote:The ABC documentary about the making of this musical and the life of Dusty, this week featured the contribution of PSB in her comeback. They played quite a bit of the What have I done to deserve this? video and Vicki Wickham said some nice things about the boys. If nothing else it was great to see PSB on prime time television.

Speaking of Dusty documentaries, I saw the Living Famously one on cable TV last night and was utterly appalled that they completely skipped her comeback years and not a single mention made of What have I done to deserve this? and the contribution of PSB. There was one miserable comment from Neil about how fabulous Dusty was, but other than that it was as if they did not exist at all in her career and had nothing to do with her comeback!

Yes, I saw the ABC doco on the musical this week too and Vicki Wickham impressed me with the gracious things she said about PSB - along the lines that Dusty was really fragile and nervous about the What have I done to deserve this? collaboration but they put her at ease and really helped restore her confidence in herself.

I've also seen that Living Famously doco - and found it astounding that there was no mention of her work with PSB! They did use those shots of Neil and Chris arriving at Dusty's funeral, though, which somehow I find extremely moving.

Did you get to see the Dusty musical yet, Rusty?