A tour de voice
AUSSIE Lucy Maunder is a shining star with a glittering voice and a desire to take you with her as she travels through the poignant world of ragtime tunes with Irving Berlin in her Noosa Longweekend performance In the Key of Black.
At just 26 years old, Lucy's sparkling credits include a prestigious New York musical scholarship and a run of lead musical theatre roles in plays such as The Threepenny Opera, Dr Zhivago, A Rocky Horror Show and A Little Night Music.
Indeed, Lucy's lineage makes here an "old soul" of the stage.
Her mother, Anne-Marie McDonald, a soprano opera singer, gave her child early exposure to theatre life.
"I was on the stage in my mother's tummy," she said.
"And then I was in a baby carrier in the Orchestra pit."
Lucy, with her mother and father, acclaimed Australian opera director Stuart Maunder, lived in London until she was 15 and then returned to Australia where she attended Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. At 21, she gained her overseas scholarship and her career has been running hot ever since.
But she is calling 2012 a watershed year, a time when freedom from musical theatre commitments - up to eight shows a week, has allowed her to take on what she calls a series of smaller projects focusing on acting, singing and dancing.
Already she has completed a role in Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens during the Sydney Mardi Gra.
"Everything sung or spoken is from the perspective of someone who has died of AIDS or is living with AIDS, and the people who were close to them," she said.
She has acted and taken on her current Berlin performance and will work on a Shakespearian piece near the end of the year.
It's something very special for a young Australian woman to present an American man who started churning out hit songs and musicals in the 1920s and kept on doing it for 60 years.
"This music has always spoken to me," she said.
"I was brought up listening to old-style music and watching MGM classics with the likes of Fred Astair, Gene Kelly, Rita Hayworth ...
"It's such a joy and now I want to bring it to my generation."
Lucy presents the show with just two people. She sings and Daniel Edmonds plays the piano.
She said that though her Berlin interpretation remained true to the original, she had given it a modern stamp.
KEY OF BLACK
What: Lucy Maunder stars 'In the Key of Black'
When: Friday, June 22
Time: 8.30pm
Where: Berardo's Restaurant and Bar, Hastings St
Duration: 2 hours
Price: $85 - shared seating
Info: noosalongweekend.com
