John Frost (producer)
His father, Albert Edward was an Adelaide waterside worker and his mother, Louie Dorcas (née Oldfield) was a housewife and an officer cleaner.
Frost grew-up in Adelaide where he regularly staged backyard entertainments with his doting Aunt, Mary, who despite her serious speech stutter played Eliza to his Henry Higgins, miming to the My Fair Lady cast album.
A short stint in his teens with amateur theatre (he was in the ensemble of a local production of Show Boat) revealed, to his disappointment, that he was more suited to working backstage than performing.
[citation needed] His father, Albert, died while John was travelling with the Mame company on the Transcontinental Train across the Nullarbor Plain to Perth.
[citation needed] Offered the job of Wardrobe Master on the Aztec Services’ production of the stage musical Canterbury Tales at the old Theatre Royal, Castlereagh Street, he went, with his mother's blessing, to live and work in Sydney.
Ashley Gordon died, 1989, aged 28, from AIDS related HIV, only months after the opening of Big River at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney.
Known affectionately as Frosty the Showman, Frost has been a major producer of musical theatre in Australia since 1989 when GFO moved into large scale productions.
In the wake of the successes of Big River and The King and I, GFO staged a series of major musicals in Australia: South Pacific, Hello, Dolly!
with Jill Perryman and Warren Mitchell; The Secret Garden with Anthony Warlow, Philip Quast, Marina Prior and June Salter; Smokey Joe's Cafe, and Crazy For You.
Australian productions include: Annie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, ONCE, We Will Rock You, Dream Lover: The Bobby Darin Musical, The Wizard of Oz, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Shrek, Secret Garden, The Rocky Horror Show, Grease, Dirty Dancing, Doctor Zhivago, Hairspray, Wicked, Cabaret, and The Producers starring Reg Livermore and Tom Burlinson.
He co-produced the London West End productions of The Bodyguard; and Blithe Spirit starring Dame Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati.
Jointly with Opera Australia, he co-produced South Pacific, The King and I with Lisa McCune, Anything Goes, and My Fair Lady, directed by Dame Julie Andrews with designs by Sir Cecil Beaton, and starring Alex Jennings/Charles Edwards, Anna O’Byrne, Reg Livermore, and Robyn Nevin; and Evita starring Tina Arena; Charlie and The Chocolate Factory; Shrek, and The Book of Mormon.
John has presented a number of plays, including the Tony Award-winning Art starring Tom Conti; the National Theatre of Great Britain’s celebrated production of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls.
At the Theatre Royal Haymarket London, he presented Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan starring Vanessa Redgrave and Joely Richardson.
This production, directed by Sir Peter Hall, marked the end of the glittering stage careers of Googie Withers and John McCallum.
He produced a revival (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) of the National Theatre of Great Britain's celebrated production of J.B. Priestley's, An Inspector Calls; and the Australian tours of Mandy Patinkin, together with fellow theatre icon, Patti LuPone, and Met Opera and Broadway star, Nathan Gunn; and Hollywood movie star and cabaret legend, Debbie Reynolds.
He presented An Evening With Julie Andrews and Nicholas Hammond (Frederick in the film of The Sound of Music); Driving Miss Daisy starring Dame Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones, and Boyd Gaines; both of which toured Australia.
On London's West End the hit shows The Bodyguard; and Noël Coward's stage play, Blithe Spirit, again with Dame Angela Lansbury, and Charles Edwards and Janie Dee.
John's resume didn't necessarily warrant him being handed the rights to one of Rodgers & Hammerstein's best shows, but he was enthusiastic and spirited – characteristics I am happy to say he still possesses today – and persuasive.
The 2014 production, a remount of the 1991 version, starring Lisa McCune as Anna Leonowens, and Teddy Tahu Rhodes/Jason Lee Scott/Lou Diamond Phillips as The King, was equally successful.
