August 26, 2024 • 10 mins
Hairspray The Musical is coming to town and one of the stars of the show, former Better Homes & Gardens presenter Rob Palmer is in it playing Edna Turnblood and he joined Clairsy & Lisa to tell them how it all came about.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hairspray The Broadway Music Hall is on at Crown Theater
from September seven to twenty eight. Tickets are on sound
Now through ticket Master and the Star of the Show,
What are the Stars of the Show of the All
Star Show? Rob Palmer, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Guys now, Rob Palma.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We know you best as a TV presenter with shows
like Better Homes and Gardens, Room for Improvement and House
Calls to the Rescue.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Tell us about your musical theater side.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
It's a bit of a flip, isn't it. It's a
flip the builder treads the boards kind of thing. Yeah,
it's funny though, the Hairspray story. I've only just thought
about this on the way in here. It's sort of
like there's a bit of art invitating life or one
or the other.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Because Tracy Turnblad the lead in the show page for
lou she's extraordinary. She plays my daughter and I'm Edna
to her mother, which is a funny thing.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But anyway, she gets her big break out of detention.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
So the guys, the kids are in detention, and some
things happen and one thing leads to another. But my
first period on stage was out of basically the tension.
I went to the attention. The guy who gave me
the attention was the lighting director of the play, and
he said, you're not stuffing around in here, just mucking
around because the detention was that drama auditions. So we
(01:16):
had the audition. So I ended up with a role
in the year ten play.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Because I was your choice, staying you know tis.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So we did this play at school and I loved it.
I really loved it.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
So I've always had this passion for theater and performance.
I really love it, and I did it when I
was little, but my carpentry sort of took over, and
that was where I was obviously going to earn some money,
and so, you know, building and carpentry came first.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
In the background was this, you know, this.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Passion for nothing about it surprises me. I just wasn't
aware until now.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
As long as you come out to your shell mate,
you'll be okay. We've always said that you work on
the boards as attributed treating the boards.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Laid a few floors now, yeah, all over them. But
the show is just phenomenal. The team have been working
intensely for the last couple of weeks on you early
because you know this is the first run. So Wa
has been looking to get Hairspray for a long long time.
Eight Tony Awards over in Broadway. It's an epic show.
(02:21):
It's very, very funny, and not just because I'm Edna Turnblack,
a sixties housewife and she's massive too, by the way,
So yeah, there's plenty to see. But the guys have
come together and just the team. Vincent Hooper the director,
an amazing talent, and Fern Reynolds the choreographer.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
He can do anything like this guy. Will you just
watch him.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
There's nothing happening on it in a blank room, and
then all of a sudden, within an hour, there are
twenty five people, you know, cart wheeling and dancing their
way around this room and it all looks like a
picture perfect scene. It all comes out of his head.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Make it magic.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
It's really extraordinary to be a part of. I've just
I feel so lucky to be here and do this.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I really do.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
And this is one of those things that I think
is that moment that I've always looked forward to doing,
you know, a big show in a big venue. The
Crown Theater is you know, there's two thousand people getting there.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Is your Edna more divine or more John Travolta, where
are you going with it? Are you doing your own thing?
Speaker 4 (03:26):
She's honest, Okay, she's just an honest She loves her daughter,
she loves Wilbur and she is fiercely protective. Yes, so
you know, and there's some of I guess there's some
of my mom in her. But you just sort of
take everything you know about motherhood and try and put
it into this woman.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
This is one of the particularly mad funny shows that
comes around. It's no lame miss.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
No, Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I love Lobiz.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Do you find that you're at risk of sometimes just
cracking up yourself when you're doing some of these scenes,
you know, like with Paige and with Brendan, I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
A little bit of trouble.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Chelsea Plumbley is an amazing actress, yes, actor, and she
she just does things and you're not quite sure how
to react. And I'm on stage with her quite a bit,
and when she will do something that just has your
dissolve in yourself laughter, and I don't know how to
stop it at the moment.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
By myself.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You need a sad tactic something to do. Yeah, yeah,
first somehow. But you see performers all the time who
can't handle it. Jimmy Fallon's one who could never handle it,
even when he was on Saturday Night Live. So it
is it is an art it itself to be able
to control.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I don't think it's funny to see me laugh at
something I'm supposed to be drying.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah, yeah, try little tricks every now and then.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Something I'll just pinch myself. I'll have it.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
I'll get a little weapon, I'll hide it inside of
bra and then when I'm supposed to cry.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I can just pat my chest off and I will
cry grimace.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Are there other shows you've done or are there any
shows you aspire to do that?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Well, I've done. I've done a few shows. I did
a musical All Moon once when I was younger. I
was about twenty.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Six years old.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I'm not surprised, and it.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Was there was a pianist on the side of myself,
and I had to do this show in front of
my rugby club because they, you know, we were trying
to fill the place.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
You seated about sixty people, well not even lot.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
It was upstairs in the cafe, so you have your
dinner downstairs and then come up for the show, and
then go down for dessert, come up for act too.
And yeah, it was It's called When It Happens. It
was written by a guy who was at my school originally,
and so we did this show and the whole Rugby
club was there one night, and it was it buckled
me because you've got these guys who you've packed.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Down his scrums with.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
It's a very different relationship, a rugby relationship to a
theater relationship. And anyway, they were pouring wine over themselves laughing.
They couldn't, you know, they just couldn't contain themselves.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Very supportive club. Yeah, yeah, to come out on Saturday
night and watch musical.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Theater, your own friend show. It kind of was great.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Ye off Broadway we call it, yeah, Cleveland Street off
Broadway in Sydney.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
But it was in your blood, you could tell anyway.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
At that point I knew that there was some day
I would like to do something bigger. But you just
never know when this stuff is going to turn up.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
You do not.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
I guess my My motto is just to say yes
to everything. You gotta be careful that a good idea,
that's right. Saying yes too much can get you in trouble.
But remember that movie Yesterday, Yeah, Yes, where the mum
and dad just have to say yes to it. I
mean all sorts of but you know, I think that's
I guess kind of how I feel.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Absolutely, Rob, You are a huge supporter of Telethon. One
of the many reasons why we love you. You tell us
about the work build now dot org has been doing
for the Telethon kids.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Thank you for asking about that. It's it's quite amazing.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Really, the guys I work with Home Group and I
have done for a long time, and a few a
couple of the guys within that organization have since Home
Group donated the Telethon house. In the last couple of years,
they stepped out and said, we'd like to do something
a little bit different and maybe a little bit more
specific for kids. And so they will find a child
(07:28):
or a family that has a real problem, you know,
and you know there are many, and it's really I
guess it's very difficult to work out who you're going
to do this for. But what they do is sort
of it's like make a wish. I suppose is to
try and build something for them or and make that
to make their lives better, make their lives easier. And
(07:52):
it's a beautiful thing. And a lot of the trades
that they work with donate their time and donate their product,
and so they come together. Recently, we just did a kitchen.
Young girl as a brain tumor and has had it
since she was you know, you know, tiny, and you
know some days for her must be you think you've
had a hard day. Some days, right you go home,
you think, oh wow, I do that was tough today work.
(08:14):
But this girl's tough days make your tough days look
like a walk in the park anyway. So it gets me,
it gets me thinking about it. So when she saw
this kitchen that was built for her, she's in a wheelchair.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
She came up.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
It was all accessible, everything was reachable, she could go
in there.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
She dreams of cooking. That's all she wants to do
is cook and cook and cook and cook.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
So Manu turned up, you know, to show her a kitchen.
And she's come up and she's seen this thing and
her eyes lit up and you just saw the most
incredible happiness on her face, and you just think wow,
and this poor girl doesn't know any different than for
the pain that she lives with day and day out.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So to see that was really really nice. And these
guys that build or.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Build, build build now.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Sorry, oh yeah, I've got all upset about that emotional Yeah,
So build now dot org are providing life changing, life
changing things for.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Kids, actually life changing because these people have enough to
worry about every day without you know, they don't even
get the chance to think about, you know, decking out
the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
They're not curing they're not curing kids.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
They're just making your lives that they they are forced
to live with better.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
And then it makes you feel guilty about the things
we winge about. It makes you walk only really.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
And that is where telethon comes in, you know, and
you just think, what what a state to be able
to put that much energy into something so.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Powerful breaking the record.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
It is that it's the people of w A that
force big corporations to donate the money that they do,
because if you don't donate a big corpse, the people
will walk away from you.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And that is powerful and your story is where it
ends up. So that is amazing, and it's coming around
quicker than We're real well Hasproy. The Broadway musical is
on a Crown Theater from September seven to twenty eight.
Getting quick at Ticketmaster to get your tickets, Rob, thank
you for coming in.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Great to see you guys, giving you, giving you the
STANDI I mention right ready to get to rehearsals for
you now.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Thanks chalk Is mate Chuki
Hairspray The Broadway Music Hall is on at Crown Theater
from September seven to twenty eight. Tickets are on sound
Now through ticket Master and the Star of the Show,
What are the Stars of the Show of the All
Star Show? Rob Palmer, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Guys now, Rob Palma.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We know you best as a TV presenter with shows
like Better Homes and Gardens, Room for Improvement and House
Calls to the Rescue.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Tell us about your musical theater side.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
It's a bit of a flip, isn't it. It's a
flip the builder treads the boards kind of thing. Yeah,
it's funny though, the Hairspray story. I've only just thought
about this on the way in here. It's sort of
like there's a bit of art invitating life or one
or the other.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Because Tracy Turnblad the lead in the show page for
lou she's extraordinary. She plays my daughter and I'm Edna
to her mother, which is a funny thing.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But anyway, she gets her big break out of detention.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
So the guys, the kids are in detention, and some
things happen and one thing leads to another. But my
first period on stage was out of basically the tension.
I went to the attention. The guy who gave me
the attention was the lighting director of the play, and
he said, you're not stuffing around in here, just mucking
around because the detention was that drama auditions. So we
(01:16):
had the audition. So I ended up with a role
in the year ten play.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Because I was your choice, staying you know tis.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So we did this play at school and I loved it.
I really loved it.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
So I've always had this passion for theater and performance.
I really love it, and I did it when I
was little, but my carpentry sort of took over, and
that was where I was obviously going to earn some money,
and so, you know, building and carpentry came first.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
In the background was this, you know, this.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Passion for nothing about it surprises me. I just wasn't
aware until now.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
As long as you come out to your shell mate,
you'll be okay. We've always said that you work on
the boards as attributed treating the boards.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
That's true.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
Laid a few floors now, yeah, all over them. But
the show is just phenomenal. The team have been working
intensely for the last couple of weeks on you early
because you know this is the first run. So Wa
has been looking to get Hairspray for a long long time.
Eight Tony Awards over in Broadway. It's an epic show.
(02:21):
It's very, very funny, and not just because I'm Edna Turnblack,
a sixties housewife and she's massive too, by the way,
So yeah, there's plenty to see. But the guys have
come together and just the team. Vincent Hooper the director,
an amazing talent, and Fern Reynolds the choreographer.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
He can do anything like this guy. Will you just
watch him.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
There's nothing happening on it in a blank room, and
then all of a sudden, within an hour, there are
twenty five people, you know, cart wheeling and dancing their
way around this room and it all looks like a
picture perfect scene. It all comes out of his head.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Make it magic.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
It's really extraordinary to be a part of. I've just
I feel so lucky to be here and do this.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I really do.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
And this is one of those things that I think
is that moment that I've always looked forward to doing,
you know, a big show in a big venue. The
Crown Theater is you know, there's two thousand people getting there.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Is your Edna more divine or more John Travolta, where
are you going with it? Are you doing your own thing?
Speaker 4 (03:26):
She's honest, Okay, she's just an honest She loves her daughter,
she loves Wilbur and she is fiercely protective. Yes, so
you know, and there's some of I guess there's some
of my mom in her. But you just sort of
take everything you know about motherhood and try and put
it into this woman.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
This is one of the particularly mad funny shows that
comes around. It's no lame miss.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
No, Don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
I love Lobiz.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Do you find that you're at risk of sometimes just
cracking up yourself when you're doing some of these scenes,
you know, like with Paige and with Brendan, I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
A little bit of trouble.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Chelsea Plumbley is an amazing actress, yes, actor, and she
she just does things and you're not quite sure how
to react. And I'm on stage with her quite a bit,
and when she will do something that just has your
dissolve in yourself laughter, and I don't know how to
stop it at the moment.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
By myself.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You need a sad tactic something to do. Yeah, yeah,
first somehow. But you see performers all the time who
can't handle it. Jimmy Fallon's one who could never handle it,
even when he was on Saturday Night Live. So it
is it is an art it itself to be able
to control.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I don't think it's funny to see me laugh at
something I'm supposed to be drying.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah, yeah, try little tricks every now and then.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Something I'll just pinch myself. I'll have it.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
I'll get a little weapon, I'll hide it inside of
bra and then when I'm supposed to cry.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
I can just pat my chest off and I will
cry grimace.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Are there other shows you've done or are there any
shows you aspire to do that?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Well, I've done. I've done a few shows. I did
a musical All Moon once when I was younger. I
was about twenty.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Six years old.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I'm not surprised, and it.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Was there was a pianist on the side of myself,
and I had to do this show in front of
my rugby club because they, you know, we were trying
to fill the place.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
You seated about sixty people, well not even lot.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
It was upstairs in the cafe, so you have your
dinner downstairs and then come up for the show, and
then go down for dessert, come up for act too.
And yeah, it was It's called When It Happens. It
was written by a guy who was at my school originally,
and so we did this show and the whole Rugby
club was there one night, and it was it buckled
me because you've got these guys who you've packed.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Down his scrums with.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
It's a very different relationship, a rugby relationship to a
theater relationship. And anyway, they were pouring wine over themselves laughing.
They couldn't, you know, they just couldn't contain themselves.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Very supportive club. Yeah, yeah, to come out on Saturday
night and watch musical.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Theater, your own friend show. It kind of was great.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Ye off Broadway we call it, yeah, Cleveland Street off
Broadway in Sydney.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
But it was in your blood, you could tell anyway.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
At that point I knew that there was some day
I would like to do something bigger. But you just
never know when this stuff is going to turn up.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
You do not.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
I guess my My motto is just to say yes
to everything. You gotta be careful that a good idea,
that's right. Saying yes too much can get you in trouble.
But remember that movie Yesterday, Yeah, Yes, where the mum
and dad just have to say yes to it. I
mean all sorts of but you know, I think that's
I guess kind of how I feel.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Absolutely, Rob, You are a huge supporter of Telethon. One
of the many reasons why we love you. You tell us
about the work build now dot org has been doing
for the Telethon kids.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Thank you for asking about that. It's it's quite amazing.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Really, the guys I work with Home Group and I
have done for a long time, and a few a
couple of the guys within that organization have since Home
Group donated the Telethon house. In the last couple of years,
they stepped out and said, we'd like to do something
a little bit different and maybe a little bit more
specific for kids. And so they will find a child
(07:28):
or a family that has a real problem, you know,
and you know there are many, and it's really I
guess it's very difficult to work out who you're going
to do this for. But what they do is sort
of it's like make a wish. I suppose is to
try and build something for them or and make that
to make their lives better, make their lives easier. And
(07:52):
it's a beautiful thing. And a lot of the trades
that they work with donate their time and donate their product,
and so they come together. Recently, we just did a kitchen.
Young girl as a brain tumor and has had it
since she was you know, you know, tiny, and you
know some days for her must be you think you've
had a hard day. Some days, right you go home,
you think, oh wow, I do that was tough today work.
(08:14):
But this girl's tough days make your tough days look
like a walk in the park anyway. So it gets me,
it gets me thinking about it. So when she saw
this kitchen that was built for her, she's in a wheelchair.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
She came up.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
It was all accessible, everything was reachable, she could go
in there.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
She dreams of cooking. That's all she wants to do
is cook and cook and cook and cook.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
So Manu turned up, you know, to show her a kitchen.
And she's come up and she's seen this thing and
her eyes lit up and you just saw the most
incredible happiness on her face, and you just think wow,
and this poor girl doesn't know any different than for
the pain that she lives with day and day out.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So to see that was really really nice. And these
guys that build or.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Build, build build now.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Sorry, oh yeah, I've got all upset about that emotional Yeah,
So build now dot org are providing life changing, life
changing things for.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Kids, actually life changing because these people have enough to
worry about every day without you know, they don't even
get the chance to think about, you know, decking out
the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
They're not curing they're not curing kids.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
They're just making your lives that they they are forced
to live with better.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
And then it makes you feel guilty about the things
we winge about. It makes you walk only really.
Speaker 4 (09:39):
And that is where telethon comes in, you know, and
you just think, what what a state to be able
to put that much energy into something so.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Powerful breaking the record.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
It is that it's the people of w A that
force big corporations to donate the money that they do,
because if you don't donate a big corpse, the people
will walk away from you.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
And that is powerful and your story is where it
ends up. So that is amazing, and it's coming around
quicker than We're real well Hasproy. The Broadway musical is
on a Crown Theater from September seven to twenty eight.
Getting quick at Ticketmaster to get your tickets, Rob, thank
you for coming in.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Great to see you guys, giving you, giving you the
STANDI I mention right ready to get to rehearsals for
you now.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Thanks chalk Is mate Chuki
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