ONCE IN A BLUE MOON
A Celebration of Australian Musicals
Broadcast by ABC Television and Radio National
on 27 April 1994
with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Brian STACEY
Hosted by: Nancye HAYES*
Producer: Peter TAPLIN
Executive Producers: Dennis WATKINS & Greg SHEARS
GUEST STARS (in alphabetical order):
Robyn ARCHER, Valerie BADER, Simon BURKE*,
Laurence CLIFFORD, Judi CONNELLI*, Michael CORMICK*,
Genevieve DAVIS, Kathleen de LEON, Drew FORSYTHE,
Jodie GILLIES, Philip GOULD,
Philip QUAST,
Tony SHELDON* & Geraldine TURNER
* Find updates about this artist's career on our Old Friends Page
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INTRODUCTION
Once in a Blue Moon was meant as a tribute to the "talented composers and lyricists who have set Australian culture to music". 15 of Australia's finest music-theatre artists performed 19 songs from 15 Australian musicals. Three of them - The Villain of the Flowers, The Wedding Song and The Emerald Room - premiered on the evening. Philip Quast sung two numbers:
- the awesome 'The Unknown Soldier', from Manning Clark’s History of Australia - The Musical (Music by Martin ARMIGER; Lyrics by John Shaw NIELSEN, adapted by Tim ROBERTSON & Don WATSON) and
- 'Once in a Blue Moon', from Summer Rain (Music by Terence CLARKE; Lyrics by Nick ENRIGHT), with Geraldine TURNER, Tony SHELDON & Judi CONNELLI.
Complete Musical Number List
THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER Videoclip 
Wrapped in the yellow earth
What should I fear
Sour hate and shallow mirth
Never come near
Shape me no epitaph
Sugar no rhyme
I had the heart to laugh
Once on a time
Golden my summertime
Green was my spring
Fell for the oldest line
Country and king
Died in a foreign field
Far from my kin
All of my fine ideals
Cast to the wind
Wild kiss and heavy love
Lose every hold
Oh, sunlight, sunlight
How dark the cold
Carve me no statue
Keep me no shrine
I had a memory
Once on a time
We are they who went to die
Believing in the same old lie
Anzacs sent to hell
The ancient shores of the Dardanelles
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The Concert's title "Once in a Blue Moon", came from a song taken from the musical Summer Rain by Nick Enright & Terence Clarke.
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One of the refreshing things about Australian musicals is the way they appeal directly to our sense of ourselves. 
Nancye Hayes |
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Last modified: 18-May-2010