Grease is again the word for leading lady
Lonely Planeteer drawn to road less travelled
North Korea was the weirdest country in the world, the founder of global travel brand Lonely Planet told a rapt audience in Queenstown yesterday.
Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler was one of the speakers at TEDx Queenstown, organised under the TED banner and held at Hilton Queenstown.
The event was limited to 100 tickets and boasted speakers such as Mr Wheeler, business innovator Oonagh Harpur and Queenstown-based adventurer Chuck Berry.
Mr Wheeler, who founded the travel brand in the early 1970s, told the crowd he was inspired to visit roads less travelled when for- mer United States president George W Bush labelled North Korea, Iran and Iraq as the ‘‘axis of evil’’.
Mr Wheeler said he wanted to go there, visit the badlands and the dark places in countries such as Libya, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. He said he always thought of Muammar Gaddafi as ‘‘the Michael Jackson of dictators,’’ forever dressing up.
In Afghanistan, Mr Wheeler visited the Takht-e-Rustam stupa and the Minaret of Jam, a Unesco world heritage site.
The minaret in the west of the wartorn country is a 62-metre-high tower surrounded by 2400m mountains, and built of baked bricks in the 1190s.
Mr Wheeler was the first person to sign the visitor book for months.
North Korea was a ‘‘fake country’’ with murals depicting the Great Leader, bountiful harvests and industrious workers, a far cry from a famine-hit country reliant on other countries for food, he said.
In Pyongyang, he witnessed a mass cultural and military display, including troupes of dancing soldiers in formation.
‘‘When you decide wars by whose army dances best my money is on North Korea,’’ Mr Wheeler said. The cast for the winter performance of Grease has been announced, and for one of the leads, slipping into tight leather pants to sing about chills going down the spine will be a familiar routine.
Amber Reed-Parkinson will play Sandy in the Invercargill Musical Theatre production from July 19 till 27, 17 years after playing the same character in the company’s 1996 production.
Steve Broad, who has been cast as Danny, remembers being mesmerised by her as he sat in the audience.
Broad, who finished third in New Zealand Idol in 2005, joked he may have been a little young then to play her leading man.
Reed-Parkinson said like most musical-mad girls, she had grown up knowing the lyrics to the production – made famous by the Grease – film starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta in 1978 – and she would have no problem recalling the script.
Broad and Reed-Parkinson agreed they were excited to start rehearsals in the next few weeks, alongside Shortland Street actor Mike Edward, who will play Vince Fontaine and Teen Angel.
Theatre president Mark Holmes said out of the cast of 30, Edward was the only non-Southlander.
‘‘Mike is a high profile who recently played the same roles in Christchurch’s Court Theatre season of Grease . . . We are very excited that he will be joining us later in the year and wowing the Grease audiences.’’
The company did not have to look far to find the right talent to play well-known characters such as Rizzo (Libby Fraser), Keneckie (James Stephenson) and Frenchy (Kate Crowther), Holmes said.
Grease will be directed and choreographed by Stephen Robertson. Musical direction will come from Richard Marrett, assisted by Michael Buick.
Holmes said a dedicated and hard-working crew were enthusiastic and keen to get Invercargill ‘‘partying like it’s 1959.’’