They were Australia’s first two pop princesses and a queen of pop. Their histories range and converge from feminist activism, an interest in genealogy and family backgrounds of science and academics as well as classical pianist training.

Now you can see their stories and songs brought to life in a musical adaptation ‘The Musical Stories of Helen Reddy, Olivia Newton- John and Judith Durham‘.

I spoke to the creator of the show, Nikki Bennett. Previously Bennett successfully brought the story of Australia’s first international pop superstar, Helen Reddy in the show ‘Invincible: The Helen Reddy Story’. This time Reddy’s story will be joined by the two other pop superstars in Judith Durham and Olivia Newton-John, both recently deceased after long careers.

Bennett explains that the show isn’t a usual tribute show where she attempts to imitate the women in appearance or voice, although Bennett says all three had a particular distinct nuance in their voices and she does attempt to emulate the individual nuances as she tells their stories in stage musical style.

The thread running through the female artists story is one of perseverance. There is a connection that joins Reddy and Newton-John: it was Helen Reddy that encouraged Olivia Newton-John to try for success in the US and it was at a dinner party at her house where Olivia would meet Alan Carr and obtain her subsequent role in Grease. Reddy would also help start Peter Allen’s career in the US by having him tour with her.

It all started with Reddy. She came from a showbusiness family, her mother an actress, singer and dancer and her father a writer/producer with familial connections to Launceston. Later she became very interested in genealogy and also qualified as a hypnotherapist. At four years of age she was a vaudeville star and after an appearance on Bandstand she won a competition for a NYC record contract, which was actually just an audition and an unsuccessful one.

Reddy would remain in the USA as a single mother with a baby, juggling to provide rent and food as she persevered with her dream. She became the first Australian to have a one-hour weekly variety show on prime TV in the US.

However, her fame was ensured with ‘I am Woman’, a song she co-wrote with Ray Burton, she the lyrics, he the music. She wrote it because there was no song that expressed her thoughts on feminism. This song heralded the second wave of feminism after the suffragettes and it reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972. The first Australian single to top the US charts, requests poured into radio stations to play it and the song subsequently won the Grammy for best female pop vocal performance.

Judith Durham was a classically-trained pianist and soprano as well as a blues, gospel and jazz singer. Like the other two female pop singers Durham would also write, her first hit being ‘Colours of my Life’. Her Tasmanian connection was that her father’s work brought him to Tasmania where the family lived in Taroona and Durham attended the Fahan School before returning to Geelong, Victoria.

The third pop princess, Olivia Newton-John, as well as making history as a singer was the product of family steeped in history and science. Her grandfather was Nobel-prize-winning physicist Max Bonn and her father had worked on the Enigma project at Bletchley Park before taking up a post as a Professor of German in Australia. Newton-John could also count genetic connections to Martin Luther and third cousinship to comedian Ben Elton. She wanted to be a vet initially but was a little concerned about the amount of science it required!

After winning a talent contest on Johnny O’Keefe’s ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’, a contract with Decca records was in the offering and singing back up at night clubs with friend Pat Carroll, as well as guesting on the Cliff Richard show. Later Newton-John like her fellow pop princesses would pen her her songs in the album ’Gaia.

Bennett tells me that her favourite songs from the women of pop begins with her all time favourite ‘Georgie Girl’ followed by Reddy’s ‘No way to treat a lady’ as well as ‘I am Woman’ and from Newton-John ‘Let me be there’, the ‘Grease’ songs, ‘Xanadu’ and ‘Have You ever been Mellow.’

Does Bennett have other Aussie superstars stories in mind to bring to the stage? She said Kylie (Minogue) would be perhaps the most remarkable pop princess and she would like to breakdown some of Minogue’s songs differently; another choice would be the iconic Chrissy Amphlett of the Divinyls.

You can see ‘The Musical Stories of Helen Reddy, Olivia Newton-John and Judith Durham’ at Wrest Point Casino Friday 3 November 2023 and at Launceston Country Club Saturday 4 November 2023.