Trevor Ashley is an Australian musical theatre actor, cabaret, and drag artist based in Sydney. He also has appeared on television in The Very Trevor Ashley Show.
Early life and education
Ashley grew up in the south of Sydney and studied at the Shopfront a contemporary theatre. There he worked with Errol Bray, John Du Feu and playwright Hilary Bell. He appeared in Alice with Paul Capsis, and in Peter Pan with screen actor Bryan Brown.
Ashley attended Sydney Technical High School, where he studied music and drama, played in the school bands, and began writing orchestrations and arrangements. He was then chosen to be part of the Schools Spectacular, and the Talent Development Project under the direction of Mary Lopez. He graduated from high school in 1997.[1]
Career
Cabaret
Ashley made his professional debut in the Sydney Cabaret Convention 1998. His performance impressed both the critics and judges with the Cabaret Hotline calling him "A knockout performer… the clear crowd favourite and the only one to emulate a 'cabaret sensibility'". He then toured his show Trevor The Arena Mega Musical to New York City's Don't Tell Mama and The Talk of London, in England.[citation needed]
On return to Australia, he created the show Pop Princess with Phil Scott. He soon became "Mardi Gras Royalty"[2] and followed up this with Pop Princess 2, two years later in 2005.[citation needed]
For Mardi Gras 2009, Ashley teamed with drag star Courtney Act to great acclaim in Gentlemen Prefer Blokes, a bawdy revue style show that ran in Sydney twice, and also played the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and a season at His Majesty's Theatre, Perth.[7]Gentlemen Prefer Blokes had to be rewritten two weeks prior to the Sydney run after Courtney Act suffered a broken leg while skiing in Canada. Soap star Virginia Gay from Channel 7's All Saints joined the cast to play Courtney's body double.[citation needed]
I'm Every Woman, commissioned by the Sydney Opera House, paid tribute to Ashley's favourite divas living and dead.[8] The show was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Cabaret.[9]
Liza (on a E), featuring his impersonation of Liza Minnelli, had seasons in Australian and the UK.[10] In 2015, he announced a new cabaret show, entitled Liza's Back! (is broken), debuting at the Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne from 21–31 January 2016.[11]
He played Natalie Portly in his adult pantomime Fat Swan in 2012, a Black Swan parody written with longtime collaborator Phil Scott. His 2013 musical comedy Little Orphan trAshley starred Rhonda Burchmore and Gary Sweet.[12]
In 2015, Ashley directed the Australian premiere of Heathers: The Musical.[17] The production was first staged at Hayes Theatre in Sydney for a 19-day run, and then was transferred the following year for short seasons in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney (with the latter being an encore production staged at the Sydney Opera House).[18][19][20]
In 2012, Australian network SBS announced it had commissioned a pilot called The Very Trevor Ashley Show.[23] It was shown as a one-night-only program in May 2012.[24]
Ashley stars in a recurring role as drag queen Dolly Hardon in Australian medical drama RFDS
^Mattarelli, Vito (19 January 2009). "Showqueen | Trevor Ashley". Australian Stage Online. Archived from the original on 22 March 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
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