New Zealand entertainment industry stalwarts Stewart and Tricia Macpherson will celebrate 50 golden years in the game with a showstopping journey through their greatest musical triumphs.
The country’s longest-serving promoter duo will tour eight cities across Aotearoa in April 2023.
Featuring “superb” singers and musicians, 50 Golden Years of Musicals will allow audiences to relive the Macphersons’ musical journey and mark their milestones.
Stewart told the Herald: “We’re really excited we’re going to do this.
“We’ve been nudged for a long time to tell our story … we finally thought it was time,” Steward added.
The show will feature songs from their past productions including Blood Brothers, The Rocky Horror Show and Phantom of the Opera.
There will also be video tributes from some of the entertainment sector’s most influential people, including English lyricist Sir Tim Rice, in celebration of the couple for the joy they’ve brought to New Zealand and abroad.
Tricia with English comedian and musician Dudley Moore.
50 Golden Years of Musicals will be a rare treat for audiences in Paraparaumu, Napier, Rotorua, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Wellington, Blenheim and Christchurch.
It will feature a setlist from a catalogue of their own personal favourite songs such as Time Warp from Rocky Horror, Chicago, and the high-energy What A Feeling as well as Memory from Cats.
Tricia said it’s “exciting” considering all the cast have been in shows with them before.
“It’s a little bit of a family gathering,” she commented.
“The team that we’ve put together for this tour will have a lot of fun.”
Stewart Macpherson.
Without the Macphersons, New Zealand’s entertainment sector would have looked a whole lot different.
Having had a successful career in radio, Stewart and Tricia joined forces to create The Stetson Group, a company that is held in the highest regard among promoters, performers and audiences for 50 years.
Their very first musical was The Rocky Horror Show, which was repeated in 1978 with the infamous Gary Glitter as Frank-N-Furter.
In, 1973, they toured global phenomenon Kenny Rogers, and news soon spread among artists that they were great to work with. Some of the biggest names in world would follow, including Def Leppard, Dolly Parton and Talking Heads.
In 1992 they put on the musical Chess, when Stewart confidently proclaimed to New Zealand’s one and only TV channel that “failure wasn’t an option”, as the couple has blazed their way from one box office success to another.
Tricia with American singer Donny Osmond.
As the power couple reflect on the past five decades, they said it’s been diverse and a great ride. The pair said, looking back, they don’t have a favourite musical, commenting “that’s a bit like asking if you have a favourite child”. And when asked if this 2023 celebration signifies an end, they responded sternly: “Hell no, absolutely not. After April 2023 it’s a big open canvas,” Stewart said.
Tricia added: “We’ve had a family, now we’ve got grandchildren and they all live in the UK so we go over there every year, spend time with them but also go to an awful lot of shows.
“We’ve seen some we’re planning for 2024 and 2025.”
50 Golden Years of Musicals will open on April 11 in Paraparaumu and tickets go on sale on Thursday, November 10, on Ticketmaster & Ticketek.
