TASMANIAN actor Michael Siberry is in New York rehearsing for Spamelot — a wacky musical adaption of the hilarious cult film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
A Broadway hit, Siberry will star as King Arthur in a new production, which will tour the US and Canada and then drop into London for a season.
Siberry, who grew up in Hobart, graduated from NIDA in Sydney with the likes of Judy Davis and John Howard (aka Bob Jelly).
He first starred in a Friends’ School production as Peter Pan. His wings have taken him far since then. Hailed by English critics as a great Shakespearean actor, he has been lauded in many leading roles in Royal Shakespeare Company productions in both London and Stratford.
Last year, he played Elyot to Greta Scaachi’s Amanda in Noel Coward’s Private Lives and got rave reviews in the English papers. (Strangely, The Weekend Australian Magazine of June 18, ran a cover story on Scaachi, her Australian connection and the play, but failed to mention him).
He has also had roles in many British TV series, incuding Victoria and Albert and Silent Witness, both screened on ABC TV.
Siberry is at home in the US. He has starred on Broadway in a number of roles, among them, Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music and he played Gratiano to Dustin Hoffman’s Shylock in Peter Hall’s The Merchant of Venice roles about as similar as chalk and cheese.
He has also worked in New York with Australian director Gale Edwards — who won best director at the recent Sydney Theatre Awards.
If the John Malkovitch/Nicholas Shakespeare plan to make a movie based on the life of Truganini comes off, Siberry would be a good choice to play George Augustus Robinson, Protector of the Aborigines, who may have had a sexual relationship with Truganini … and maybe win an Oscar for Best Supporting Oscar.
