New Hotel Rocks!

David & Lisa Campbell with Michelle Burke & Richard Wilkins

The copious flutes of Pol Roger, the delicious canapes have not affected this report in any way : we have discovered a new hotel and it's a beauty.

The Harbour Rocks Hotel opened on Wednesday night with a small party for a select 100 (Shuttle included)-various TV stars and travel bigwigs and a handful of those keen young men who are involved in finance.

song legends Helen Reddy & Barry Crocker

Funny gal Julia Morris and hubby Dan

And what a fantastic addition to Sydney's inns of quality.

 Tucked away in The Rocks and just a short walk from all manner of tourists spots, the Opera House and so on, the HRH has about 50 beautifully decorated rooms with sensational luxury bathrooms and a wonderful penthouse suite with views of the harbour.

Apparently the hotel has been there since 1887 as our pic shows but over the past few years it has been going under extensive renovations with millions of dollars spent on the makeover. And it was worth it.

And it was a swell opening party with champagne in the cosy book-lined foyer, drinks on the terrace with a harpist paying Mexican music (unusual but entertaining) and then finally drinks in the penthouse with crooner David Campbell.

stylish rooms

The Harbour Rocks Hotel in the early 1900s and today
                                     Below: the balcony/courtyard

I Am Woman

photo by Rob Rich

One guest at Monday's Tony Awards in New York was the Australian singer Helen Reddy who can be seen in this pic from New York Social Diary on the arm of actor David Hyde Pierce.

Toni Lamond

Reddy is probably best remembered for the massive hit she co-authored, I Am Woman that rocketed her to stardom in the US after a few hard years of living in cheap hotels. The hit changed Helen's fortunes and she had 15 hit songs in the Billboard Top 40 with 3 number one hits.

Helen was at the Tonys to see if her nephew, Tony Sheldon would pick up an award for best actor in a musical.
Sheldon appears as Bernadette in the Broadway box office hit Priscilla Queen of The Desert but he lost out to Norbert Leo Butz  for his role as an FBI agent in the play Catch Me If You Can. Reddy is the sister of Sheldon's mother, the Australian stage star Toni Lamond.

Helen also had an illustrious career on Broadway appearing in Blood Brothers, Call Me Madam as well as a successful one woman show  Shirley Valentine. She nows lives in a Darling Point apartment courtesy of a long time fan.

Go to David Patrick Columbia's excellent New York Social Diary for more terrific pics from the Tony Awards and below is Reddy's famous song : I Am Woman.

Tony Sheldon Conquers Broadway

Tony Sheldon comes from Australian theatre royalty-the son of actress Toni Lamond and the nephew of Helen Reddy.

He's been wowing audiences from Christchurch to Toronto, London and  New York in the lead role of transsexual Bernadette in Stephan Elliott's Priscilla Queen of The Dessert. Tony won the Sydney Theatre Critics Award in 2007 and the Olivier Award for Leading Performance in a Musical  in England in 2009.

Now he's been nominated for the prestigious US Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the odds are he will scoop the award. It's the same gong Hugh Jackman won for The Boy From Oz in 2004 which catapulted him into international stardom

Priscilla is the second Australia musical to crack Broadway and although critics were lukewarm about the gaudy colorful romp through the Outback, it's been a runaway  box office success.

Liz Gardiner and Tim Chappel who won Oscars for the costumes in 1998 for the original film are also nominated.
A clip from the London production of Priscilla :