Patti Newton returns to Crown Theatre Perth as Miss Lynch in Grease The Musical

Whenever Patti Newton’s grandchildren see a yellow butterfly, they say it is their poppy Bert Newton who has come to visit. So the family matriarch took it as a sign when a yellow butterfly fluttered by her windscreen while parked on the side of the road, as Australian theatre producer John Frost phoned to offer her the role of Miss Lynch in his latest production, Grease The Musical. “Bert had done Grease in 2013 and I was going to have a bit of a go at it then as Miss Lynch, but it never happened,” Newton recounts. “It’s a wonderful show and Olivia Newton-John was an old friend who Bert and I admired very much. John Farrar, who wrote You’re The One That I Want, his wife Pat was my matron of honour when Bert and I got married, so there was such a connection to it all. “I thought Bert had organised it, so there was no question, and to be honest, even though my life is filled with grandchildren and Lauren (her daughter) and family life, it’s sort of nice to have a bit of an outside purpose as well.” Newton found that purpose as Bird Woman on her return to the stage in the 2022/23 touring production of Mary Poppins, and again in Grease The Musical where she has forged strong friendships with her co-stars Marcia Hines, as Teen Angel, and Jay Laga’aia, as Vince Fontaine. Sharing a dressing room with Hines during the Sydney season led to enough shopping trips together that Newton needed to buy an extra suitcase to travel home to Melbourne, while nurturing father of eight Laga’aia assists Newton to navigate the huge bleacher-style set, especially during the prom scene while she wears a tight fishtail skirt. “Bert wouldn’t want me sitting around moping and being sad,” Newton says. “I’ll always be sad that he’s not with me, but you get to a stage where you think ‘I’d only want him back, if he was happy to be back’. Losing a leg, and possibly having to lose another, was going to be no mean feat for him, and not a happy time. I just feel that maybe this has been sent from heaven, as was Mary Poppins, just to keep me going. “Bert’s done so many shows, there’s always photographs of him in every theatre we go to. In Melbourne, there was a big photograph of him as I walked out of my dressing room, and I used to give him a kiss and say, ‘come on, here we go, we’re on’. In Sydney, as you walk in the front door, there’s a big picture of him in Wicked and he looks gorgeous. By the end of the show, all the company would say ‘hi Bert, bye Bert’ as they walked by him.” Along with relishing her role, Newton — who will turn 80 two days after the musical’s Australian tour finishes in Brisbane next February — has enjoyed Miss Lynch’s glam up in the more modernised production, while remaining true to its Rydell High 1950s era. “In the theatre shows, Miss Lynch has been known as the pretty daggy, cardigan-wearing, flat shoes character,” she explains. “This costuming is unbelievably sensational, and I get to wear high curls, a lot of eye make-up, blush and big earrings, so I’m very colourful. “But I think the best part about it is, it’s such a great show and when you come and see it, the minute you get in there, you know you’re in a show where everyone loves it, everyone’s happy. “When we do the megamix at the end, the audience claps their hands and sings louder than the company on stage.” Grease The Musical is showing at Crown Theatre Perth until July 28. Tickets at ticketmaster.com.au.