When only the best will do | Helpmann Awards

When only the best will do

‘Only the best will do for the Bobbies,’ said Bryce Hallett in The Sydney Morning Herald, welcoming the first Helpmann Awards, back in 2001.

He was right, of course. We designed the Helpmann Awards to recognise the very best in Australia’s performing arts. Their name honours the late Sir Robert Helpmann, the charismatic dancer-actor-director whose career in Australia and overseas epitomised all the finest that the stage can offer.

Australia’s only national awards for the performing arts, the Helpmanns celebrate and promote the industry in this country and internationally, just as the Tony Awards do for Broadway, the Oliviers for the West End, and the ARIA, AACTA and APRA Awards do for music and film in Australia.

Back in 2001 we were still the Australian Entertainment Industry Association (AEIA). Two years earlier, we’d established prestigious awards for lifetime achievement in the performing arts. These were named for the founder of J.C. Williamson’s, the firm that dominated Australian commercial theatre for a good part of the 20th century. Originally called the James Cassius Awards, they were soon rechristened the J.C. Williamson Awards. Our first honourees were Edna Edgley AM and Kenn Brodziak OBE, both sadly now passed on. Since 2001, the list of recipients of the JC Williamson Award has grown to include some of the most important contributors to the live entertainment industry in Australia.

The J.C. Williamson Awards led to the development of Live Performance Australia’s Hall of Fame, a vast web-based resource detailing the achievements of some 120 notable performers, producers, writers, composers, technicians, choreographers, directors and designers from our theatre’s pioneering days to the present.

The first Helpmann Awards ceremony took place at the Lyric Theatre at Star City on 25 March 2001. Thirteen years on, it’s interesting to recall the winners of some of those inaugural awards. Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Skin won Best New Australian Work, Opera Australia’s revival of The Eighth Wonder was Best Opera, The Boy from Oz was Best Musical, and Graeme Murphy’s Body of Work won Best Choreography. Not surprisingly, the Olympics Opening Ceremony won Best Special Event.

In subsequent years the Awards have been staged at the Star City Showroom, at the Lyric again, the Capitol and now at our new home, the Sydney Opera House..

Thanks to live television, the excitement of the Helpmann Awards is now enjoyed by many thousands of Australians across the country. Our 2004 and 2005 ceremonies were carried by the Ovation Channel. From 2006 we have been seen on Foxtel’s Fox8, the Bio Channel, the STVDIO Channel and now Arena.

We created the Helpmann Awards with three aims in mind. Firstly, we wanted to acknowledge the extraordinary depth of talent in the live performance industry in Australia. Secondly, we wanted to publicly celebrate that talent and remind Australians that as well as great sports people, we also have great actors and singers and dancers and producers and directors and designers and musicians and conductors and writers and choreographers. And thirdly, we wanted an excuse for a great big party full of interesting people.

Let the Bobbies begin!