SA Regional Tour Announced For Mark Holden's New Show

Australian singer, songwriter and media personality Mark Holden has announced that his new show The Greatest Show on Earth, drawing on his family's fantastical travelling circus history and his Countdown and Australian Idol days, will tour regionally in South Australia as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival's roadshow.

The Greatest Show on Earth will have its world premiere at the 2018 Adelaide Cabaret Festival on 13 June ahead of playing: Mt Gambier 31 August; Renmark 1 September; Port Lincoln 6 September; Port Pirie 8 September; Tea Tree Gully 13 September; and Noarlunga 15 September.

The Greatest Show on Earth is Mark's personal ode to the resilience of family, music, tradition, humour and hard work inspired by tales of the Holden Brothers Travelling Circus, one of Australia's longest running family circuses, founded by his great, great uncle Adolphus Holden (a one legged trapeze artist) in 1892.

The bygone era of The Holden Brothers Travelling Circus lives on in the show through the marriage of music and stories passed down through the family into which Mark weaves his own colourful history. From Countdown to working with the Temptations and David Hasselhoff in America, to Vanessa Amorosi, Australian Idol and beyond - it has all the soaring heights and crushing falls of his forbears' high wire act. Classic family circus footage provides a mesmerising backdrop to the tales spun and songs sung.

Adolphus Holden had 10 sons and one daughter, who travelled through the bush by horse-drawn wagons, stopping to show the circus in every village and hamlet from Melbourne to Ceduna. Monkeys, music and flying trapezes - it was a nineteenth century spectacular!

Mark said, I've been researching my family circus history for more than 20 years now but little did Adolphus know that his legacy would be passed down from generation to generation, and continue to this day. Part of the reason I've created this show is to take the story out to where the Holden Circus travelled in the 1890s. One of their main runs was the Bellarine Peninsula near Geelong to Ceduna and back by covered wagon with11 kids!'

While studying Law at Adelaide University Mark Holden made his name in the mid 1970s as the good-looking carnation-carrying pop star who sang hits like 'Never Gonna Fall In Love Again' and 'I Wanna Make You My Lady'. Mark was signed by EMI Australia, for whom he went on to record three albums two of which went platinum.

Mark was the first pop star in the world to create the lead role in 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat' in the original Australian production of the Webber and Rice musical. He won three Logies and performed for HRH The Prince of Wales at the Sydney Opera House. He hosted the infamous 'Silver Jubilee Countdown' amongst many other Countdown appearances and hostings.

Mark enjoyed 5 seasons from 2003-2007 as a judge on the smash hit TV show Australian Idol and became a household name to a new generation with his famous 'Touchdown".

In 2001 he finally completed his law degree at Monash University and in 2009 he signed the Bar Roll to become a member of the Victorian Bar.

The Greatest Show on Earth plays:

31 August Mt Gambier
7.30pm Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre, 10 Watson Terrace
8723 8741 www.helpmanntheatre.com.au

1 September Renmark
7.30pm Chaffey Theatre, Eighteenth Street
8586 1800 www.chaffeytheatre.com.au

6 September Port Lincoln
7.30pm Nautilus Theatre, 66 Tasman Street
8261 2351 www.nautilusartcentre.com.au/

8 September Port Pirie
7.30pm Keith Michell Theatre - Northern Festival Centre,
106 Gertrude Street 8633 8500
www.northernfestivalcentre.com.au

13 September Tea Tree Gully
7.30pm Golden Grove Arts Centre, The Golden Way, Golden Grove
83977429 www.teatreegully.sa.gov.au

15 September Noarlunga
7.30pm Hopgood Theatre, Noarlunga Centre, Ramsay Place
7009 4400 www.hopgoodtheatre.com.au

Tickets for The Greatest Show on Earth are:
adults $46.50; friends /club members $40.00; concession $41.50 and youth under 17 $41.50.

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