BIO

CV

PHOTO & VIDEOS

LINKS

VOICE

THEATRE

TOMFOOLERY Dir: Simon Phillips / Melbourne Theatre Co. 2006
URINETOWN
Role: Caldwell B. Cladwell Dir: Simon Phillips / Sydney Theatre Co. 2006
SUMMER RAIN
Role: Harold Slocum Dir: Robyn Nevin / Sydney Theatre Co. 2005
CYRANO DE BERGERAC
Role: Subscriber & various Dir: Simon Phillips / MTC 2005
URINETOWN
Role: Caldwell B. Cladwell Dir: Simon Phillips / Melbourne Theatre Company – Australian Premiere season 2004
AN EVENING WITH GERRY CONNOLLY Capers Cabaret, Melbourne 2004
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Role: The Major-General Essgee / Melbourne season 2003
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Role: The Major-General Essgee / Syd, Adel & Perth 2002
THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE
Role: The Major-General Essgee / Brisbane season 2001
THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI
Role: Mahoney / Pianist Dir: Simon Phillips / MTC 1999
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (adaptation by Neil Armfield & Geoffrey Rush)
Role: Bartholo Dir: Neil Armfield / QTC 1998
LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN
Role: Cecil Dir: Simon Phillips / MTC 1995

TELEVISION

THE MYSTERY OF HANSOM CAB (Telemovie)
Role: Reginald Valpy. Dir: Shawn Seet / ABC TV 2012
DEAD GORGEOUS
Role: Headmaster Griffith Dir: Stephen Johnson / Wayne Blair 2009
SPICKS & SPECKS: 100th Episode
Role: HRH Elizabeth II ABC-TV 2007
IN SIBERIA TONIGHT
Role: HRH Elizabeth II GNW / SBS TV 2006
KATH AND KIM 2
Role: Merrill Streep (guest) Dir: Ted Emery / ABC TV Comedy 2004
MOLLY MELDRUM TOASTED & ROASTED
Role: Prince Charles Nine Network 2003
AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY – 70TH ANNIVERSAY
Role: HRH Elizabeth II Live cross from London 2003
BRIAN HENDERSON – CELEBRITY ROAST
Special Appearance Nine Network 2003
THE FOOTY SHOW
Various appearances as HRH Elizabeth II Nine Network 2000-2001
DOGS HEAD BAY
Role: Tony du Clos Dir: Simon Phillips/McElroy Television / ABC TV 1999
TALL POPPIES Beyond Productions (pilot) 1999
THE GAMES
Role: ‘Gerry Connolly’ Dir: Bruce Permezel / Beyond Prods / ABCTV 1998
GOOD NEWS WEEK
Guest panellist ABC TV Comedy 1997
COMIC RELIEF
Role: HRH Elizabeth II Nine Network 1996
JOH’S JURY
Role: Sir Joh Bjelke Petersen ABC TV Mini-Series 1993

FILM

THE WOGBOY
Role: Priest Dir: Aleksi Vellis / G.O Films 1999
THE MAGIC PUDDING
Role: Dobson Dorking Energee Entertainment 1999
THE REAL MACAW
Role: Lou Dir: Mario Andrecchio / PRO Films 1997
OVER THE HILL
Role: Hank Dir: George Miller / Prod: Robert Caswell & Bernard Terry

CORPORATE

Gerry Connolly is also legendary for his numerous corporate appearances, which combine his incredible characterisations with quirky theatrical ideas and hysterical scripts. In addition to appearing as ‘Gerry Connolly’, he has performed as (to name but a few):

HRH Elizabeth II; HRH The Prince of Wales; Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen; Bob Hawke;
Paul Keating; John Howard; Pauline Hanson; Bronwyn Bishop; Tony Blair;
President Abdurrahman Wahid; Frank Thring; Barry Humphries; Bill Collins; Desi Arnaz; & Ozzy Osbourne.

TRAINING

Bachelor of Music, Queensland Conservatorium of Music

It is a long way from the sleepy, tropical backwater of Rockhampton to the great classical concert stages of Europe. Even so, Gerry Connolly could have made an effort. A disappointment to anyone who ever placed a little faith in him, Gerry is - or rather was - a gifted pianist, a graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium, who exchanged the promise of a high-toned musical career for the cheap laughs of the burlesque stage. Dressing in drag, attaching outsized foam-rubber ears to his own, and speaking in silly voices are just a few of the ignominies to which he has stooped in a vagabond life that has earned him neither wealth nor honour.

True, many have loved his impersonations of the Queen, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Prince Charles, Monica Lewinsky, Frank Thring, Paul Keating and the like, but is the appreciation of the braying hordes on the comedy and corporate entertainment circuit worth the candle? Over the years, Gerry has finessed this meagre talent for mimicry into solo shows on stage (Men and Women of Australia, I CONnolly, Gerrymader Joh and the Last Crusade, Different Things, and Pianomaniac) and in the understandably short-lived Gerry Connolly Show for ABC-TV. A legitimate acting career, we are sorry to say, has eluded him. Those who saw him speaking his lines from beneath a drapery of prosthetic jowls and wattles as the Premier of Queensland in the drama Joh's Jury have seen the so-called "highlight of his career". On stage, he has appeared in many roles for the Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland Theatre Companies that have stretched his thin gifts to the point of laddering: Tomfoolery, Summer Rain, Urinetown and The Marriage of Figaro are all low-lights.

Occasionally Gerry has performed in concert with the Melbourne, Queensland and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, but even he must see that such are the pale shadows of what might have been. To top off his so-called career, Gerry Connolly won the 2005 Mo Award for Best Comedy Performer - a statuette inscribed with the image of a sad little man with a three-day growth. Enough said.