castmates from WICKED sing 'For Good'Terry Brown
October 14, 2008 12:00am
A GIANT metal dragon rears above the Regent Theatre crowd. For five days a week the theatre is a place of fantasy - an escape from the world for $100-plus a seat.
At a Monday matinee that nobody hoped for, the tickets are free.
It is 11 days since Rob Guest died from a stroke that wasn't remotely in the script.
For one show only, the Regent becomes a place where reality is inescapable and hits hard enough to make grown men weep.
About 400 performers, stage crew and fans come for the memorial service.
Some look dressed for a theatre show, with their cocktail wear and sequins.
And they all bring memories of a man who owned the spotlight.
TV and theatre veteran Bert Newton is in attendance with wife Patti.
Marina Prior is there to speak, and Anthony Callea to sing.
Most faces in the audience, however, would be unfamiliar to other than keen theatre-goers.
Rows are filled with performers from the many shows Guest put his stamp on; Les Miserables, Jolson and, of course, Wicked.
Callea shared a dressing room with Guest.
He sings, almost hauntingly, the song Now That You've Gone.
"I know you had a good life. It doesn't make it any easier," he sings -- and tears well because for many there it is so true.
Slide shows mix respect and gentle ridicule.
To fond applause, Guest is shown in his New Zealand pop star days, with hippy hair, a banjo and even mingling with a Playboy bunny.
Performers who worked beside Guest in Les Miserables walk slowly on to the stage in a kind of funeral procession.
Some sob. One man weeps into his hands.
They struggle through the show's anthem, Do You Hear The People Sing? , then salute a huge picture of Guest behind them.
Speakers recall the practical joker who used a Bert and Patti Newton LP as a cheeseboard; who locked a castmate in a dressing room and then pumped theatrical smoke through the vent.
Prior remembers warming her icy feet on Guest in the backstage Green Room, and him pretending to mind.
"As his leading lady you felt cherished, gifted, supported and special," she says.
The real-life leading lady, Guest's partner Kellie Dickerson, feels more special still.
"I loved you and you knew it. You loved me and I knew it," she says to the man she lost.
"There's nothing left unsaid," she adds, then recites a litany of memories that live with her.
"Thank you for holding hands as we just walked down the street, just being happy," she says.
Guest was never happier than when he was on stage -- and took a lot of getting off.
Understudy Rodney Dobson jokes: "It seems we finally found out what it takes for Rob Guest to miss a show."
Speakers at the memorial aren't keen to vacate either.
The show must go on -- and it certainly does.
A running sheet has it pegged for an hour. After a series of actors and theatrical workers say their bit, the service nudges 2 1/2 hours.
Then the Wicked cast sing For Good.
In the show it is a duet between witches. For Guest, it is a hymn they struggle to force through tears.
"I have been changed for good," they sing.
"I do believe I have changed for the better because I knew you . . ."
It's an epitaph that fits perfectly as the stage lights dim for Rob Guest.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24491953-662,00.html
