Intimate revue.
Comprising ten performers, a cast larger than was typical of the Phillip Theatre revues, Is Australia Really Necessary? concentrates its satirical energy on exploring the country's culture, politics, and personalities (notably footballers, female swimmers, politicians, and the television industry). The sketches included Miriam Karlin's opening routine 'Bonzer' (a testimonial to the Australian way of life) and her impersonation of Princess Anne at the opening of the Melbourne Cultural Centre in 1988. Red Moore played a returned traveller complacently preferring Yagoona to the rest of the world and a manic professor giving a cookery demonstration on TV. One sketch exposed Melbourne as the 'city of sin where you wait all night for the sin to begin', while Alton Harvey played out a scene in which he downed pint after pint while praising the life in Nunnawading.
John McKellar was responsible for writing the majority of the sketches, with Jim Wallett providing much of the musical component. Other contributions were by Eric Rasdell, Stuart Carmichael, John Kerr, Ruth Barratt, Ron Frazer, Sybil Graham, Barry Creyton, Peter Narroway, and Charles Zwar. Writers from the United Kingdom were Alan Melville, Myles Rudge, Ted Dicks, and Stanley Myers.
1964: Phillip Theatre, Sydney, 3 October 1964 - 13 February 1965.
1965: Tivoli Theatre, Melbourne, 1 October.
This entry has been sourced from on-going historical research into Australian-written music theatre being conducted by Dr Clay Djubal.
Details have also been derived in part from Peter Pinne's 2005 article 'It Didn't Always Have to Close on Saturday Night' (Part 3).