Blood and Tinsel: A Memoir

(Paperback)

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Blood & Tinsel is a remarkable story about Australia. It is also a moving tribute to a family legendary in the entertainment stakes. 'Jim Sharman is one of Australia's visionary greats- low-brow, high-brow, pop yet classical, fearless and fun.'Baz Luhrmann 'The Sharman/Shaman/Showman firmament twinkles with galaxies as diverse as Rocky Horror, Hair, discovering Kubrick, Lou Reed, Weimar cabaret. He made Australian creativity hip and original and international when it really mattered.'Geoffrey Rush In Blood & Tinsel, Jim Sharman takes us on an epic personal journey from his colourful childhood in his father's boxing troupe to Tokyo, London, Berlin and Sydney via the international successes of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. Whether recounting conversations with Lou Reed, giving us the inside story about Rocky Horror or describing a fateful meeting with Patrick White, Jim Sharman casts a brilliant story of the people and events that have shaped the times. Blood & Tinsel ranges from the rough and ready world of outback Australia in the fifties, where boxers and panto dames shared the stage, to the cultural explosions in which Sharman played a part. Blood & Tinsel is a remarkable story about Australia. It is also a moving tribute to a family legendary in the entertainment stakes.

Reviews

"In Blood and Tinsel Sharman wonderfully evokes this world of the sideshow alley, the smell of linseed oil and farm animal shit at agricultural shows, the bluff, blokey universe of boxing with its blood, sweat and brutal urgency, all choreographed to the beating of a bass drum. --Australian Literary Review

Author Bio

Jim Sharman is an international director of film, musicals and theatre. His credits include the stage production of The Rocky Horror Show, which he later directed for 20th Century Fox. He has worked in Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, and his other credits include the musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar. His stage work has encompassed more than seventy productions, including opera (Don Giovanni, Voss, Death in Venice), classics (Shakespeare, Strindberg, Wedekind, Brecht) and much of the stage and screen work of Nobel Laureate Patrick White. He lives in Sydney.