Roger Hall

R E S P E C T!

Top 10 Tunes

R E S P E C T! And a bit of hush, if you please, The raffle has been drawn this week's meat tray, as always, was won by Bryan Brown of Balmain, On ya Bryan! And Toni Collette won the Limbo competition for March big hand for Toni! How LOW can you GO!

So now it's time for the rare glimpse of culture we occasionally afford you here in the Dayglo -- culcher to you Rossco -- tonight, all the way from Takapuna, New Zealand's most successful playwright, the urbane, the dry, the droll, the determinedly un-doolally, he is to NZ what Alan Ayckbourn is to England, Neil Simon to America, Chekov to Yalta. Look at him cutting the rug down there on the Dayglo floor: ballroom specialist, compulsive cyclist and ocean swimmer, with the figure to prove it - that man can shake some ass, his best known plays you've seen many times -Glide Time, Middle Aged Spread, The Share Club, After the Crash, Gliding On etc. There's masses of them -- indeed looking around the room, it's clear at least half of you have BEEN in a Roger Hall play,..he is a pillar to NZ Theatre, a brick to his friends, a menace at charades, a patron to The Starving Artists of NuZild .. we rate him and value him more than we can say,..a man who has invaluably contributed not only to the life and times we live in, he has in large part defined those times ... give it up please for the Mild Man of New Zealand Culcher ... our very own ... the wonderful ... MR ROGER HALL!

1.The Teddy Bear's Picnic

Look, think yourself lucky it's not The Laughing Policeman or Captain Beaky.

2.Joyce The Librarian - Peter Skellern (webmaster's note: linked version sung by Liz Ryan)

For the last six years (and now into the seventh) I have written a pantomime for Circa Theatre. And each year I have asked, pleased, cajoled that there be a sing a long in it. It's a traditional part of panto. But each year this gets turned down. Oh sure, there is the catchy Pantomime Whirl that is sung each year, and while the audience is certainly familiar with it, and can sing bits of it, it's not the same as stopping the show (in the old days this was done to give the stage crew time to set up the glittering finale set) and the whole audience singing with gusto.

3.Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffett

I'll get an audience singing it in one of my shows before I die. Or maybe not. Perhaps it'll have to be played at my funeral.

4.Boogie With M'Baby - John Williamson

Peter sang this for me at the concert I arranged for my 70th birthday. Some of the funniest, wittiest lyrics ever written, with a brilliant punch line. Catchy tune, too.

5.The Dixie Flyer - Randy Newman

Peter has now written a great selection of songs for our new show, You Can Always Hand them Back (Advt.)

6.We'll Sing in the Sunshine - Gale Garnett

The only concert I was ever prepared to book for knowing I wouldn't get a seat was for Jimmy Buffet., last year in Auckland. But Jimmy B fell off the stage in Sydney and never made it.

7.Jump (For My Love) - Pointer Sisters

In 1983,

8.Fields of Gold - Sting

Listen to a Jimmy Buffet concert live and you'll know why I was prepared to stand for the man.

9.Fire and Rain - James Taylor

Oh how I wish he came to NZ more often. This guy we did get to. (With a seat). What a performer. This song is soooo funny. Williamson's comic timing is brilliant. Listen to the audience beside themselves with glee.

10.Beanfields - Penguin Caf

Love all his stuff.

Roger, a pleasure as always, tasteful ,bordering on the erotic, Let's give him a BIG hand, a DJ non pareil, as well as enormous gratitude for all the years of great work, He's back on the floor, the ladies are marshalling again, there he goes, that damned sex symbol for an entire generation, shaking the Hall bootie ... goooaarrr ... go easy girls .. give it up, please for the incomparable .. MR ROGER HALL!