''The Sentimental Bloke'' is an Australian musical with music by

George Dreyfus George Dreyfus AM (born 22 July 1928) is an Australian contemporary classical, film and television composer. Early life and orchestral career Dreyfus was born to a Jewish family in Elberfeld, Wuppertal, Germany. He was the younger of two sons ...

and book and lyrics by

Graeme Blundell Graeme Blundell (born 7 August 1945) is an Australian actor, director, producer, writer, playwright, lyricist and biographer Early life Blundell was born on 7 April 1945 in Melbourne; he grew up in the suburb of Clifton Hill. He was educated a ...

. It is an adaptation of C. J. Dennis' ''

The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke ''The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke'' is a verse novel by Australian poet and journalist C. J. Dennis. Portions of the work appeared in '' The Bulletin'' between 1909 and 1915, the year the verse novel was completed and published by Angus & Robert ...

''. The musical premiered by the

Melbourne Theatre Company The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1953 as the Union Theatre Repertory Company at the Union Theatre at the University of Melbourne, it is the oldest professional theatre compa ...

at the Playhouse,

Victorian Arts Centre Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central ...

on 12 December 1985. It featured

John Jarratt John Jarratt is an Australian television film actor, producer and director and TV presenter who rose to fame through his work in the Australian New Wave. He has appeared in a number of film roles including '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (1975), ' ...

as The Sentimental Bloke, Julie Mullins as Doreen, Michael Bishop as Ginger Mick, and Faye Bendrups as Rose. It was subsequently produced in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

( Western Australian Theatre Company, 1986), Darwin (State Theatre Company of Northern Territory, 1987) and Brisbane ( Royal Queensland Theatre Company, 1988). The Dreyfus-Blundell musical is the second musical adapted from C.J. Dennis' original verse novel, with an earlier work also titled ''The Sentimental Bloke'' having its professional premiere in 1961. The Dreyfus-Blundell version also covers content from the Dennis' sequels such as Ginger Mick in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sentimental Bloke (1985 musical), The 1985 musicals Australian musicals Musicals based on novels Musicals based on poems Musicals set in Australia