On 16 April 1975, a saucy hausfrau with a feather duster and a bare bottom stepped onto the stage of the Balmain Bijou and changed Australian theatre. Betty Blokk-Buster Follies was the talk of the town. The one-man show was hailed by The National Times as “the greatest thing since Rice Bubbles” and its creator, Reg Livermore, became a star.
The Bijou is no more (converted to apartments) but Betty lives again in a brand-new show by Red Line Productions (the multi-award-winning custodians of Sydney’s Old Fitzroy Theatre), directed by Craig Ilott (Velvet, Smoke & Mirrors) and starring the multi-talented Josh Quong Tart.
Inspired by the original 1975 staging and created with Livermore’s imprimatur, this 21st century Betty Blokk-Buster invites Sydney Festival audiences into her tent show, where a live band and Betty’s coterie of reinvented has-beens, battlers, freaks and survivors are waiting to wow a new generation.
