“I knew that Australian culture celebrated and elevated Nellie’s talent as an entertainer. But when I interviewed Jimmy Somerville, with whom Nellie toured in the Port Jackson Jazz Band, he told me that she could not pick up her mail at the GPO in Brisbane, that many hotels would not allow her to stay, that people would spit at her and stare at her because they were racist,” Valentine said.
“Later I read that customs officials would not let her back into her country of birth when she came back from an ice follies tour of New Zealand. They forced her to fill out a visitors permit even though she was a third-generation Australian. So it taught me that Australian culture was ready to accept Nellie onstage, but offstage the story was often painfully different. ”
Tony Withers and Nellie Small during the recording The End Of The Affair on December 19, 1957.Credit: Archive
In 2022 the State Library of NSW featured photos of Nellie in People Magazine (1952) in their exhibition Pride (R)evolution, and Valentine curated a one-night event that resurrected the play and the idea to bring the Small story to a bigger audience.
“There is, of course, a tradition of women dressing as men in vaudeville, but Nellie dressed as a man offstage as well. When I see photos of her at the Criterion Hotel in 1954, singing to a packed public bar full of men (in hats) it just lifts the roof off my brain for sheer sass and temerity. She is an icon of Australian theatrical achievement, and I am so happy to be putting her back up into the spotlight.”
The show will also put singer Elenoa Rokobaro in the spotlight, fresh from her work as the alternate Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.
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Rokobaro, raised in Mount Druitt in western Sydney, is the youngest of seven in a Fijian/Tongan/Tahitian family, and like Small was raised in church singing gospel.
“I was raised in the Pentecostal Church, so there are elements of Nellie’s Catholic faith I can relate to,” says Rokobaro.
She also knows how it feels to be a person of colour in Australia.
“I know, like Nellie how it feels to be someone who doesn’t look Caucasian, but her lesson is there are so many shades of what an Australian looks like.
“The racism may be uncomfortable to see as Australians today, but Nellie never came across as angry or resentful toward her fellow Australians. She had so much grace,” the 34-year-old performer said.
Nellie Small entertains the crowd at the Hotel Castlereagh on August 20, 1954.Credit: Harry Martin
“As the youngest in a family of singers, no one knew I could sing until I started singing in the bathroom and my brother outed me. I never sang in front of my family because they were all so talented,” says Rokobaro, the only professional performer in her family.
Rokobaro was discovered at the age of 16 while a student at the Australian Institute for Performing Arts school, then in Harris Park. The Send for Nellie star auditioned for Respect – The Musical at 16, and found herself touring nationally with Rhonda Burchmore for the next two years. Her sister Seraia, who died recently, was her chaperone and the “rock of the family”.
“I treat this role like it is my sister’s legacy. My mum and sisters raised lionesses, so it was inevitable I’d be drawn to roles like Nellie’s that resonate with me: a strong black woman who wore suits and was unapologetic about who she was.”
Rokobaro has starred in the musical Rent at Sydney Opera House, Caroline, or Change at the Hayes Theatre, and featured as a speakeasy dancer in Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film The Great Gatsby.
Elenoa Rokobaro stars as Nellie with Eleanor Stankiewicz in the Sydney Festival show Send for Nellie.Credit: Janie Barrett
Under the direction of Liesel Badorrek, the work is pure cabaret, featuring songs from Small’s era including Stormy Weather, At Last, Darktown Strutters’ Ball, Lydia the Tattooed Lady, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, St Louis Blues, Dinah, On the Sunny Side of the Street and Sing, Sing, Sing.
Performing with Rokobaro is Eleanor Stankiewicz, who plays many roles at the STC’s Wharf Theatre, which will be set up with tables like a cabaret venue.
The show is co-produced by Sue Donnelly, who ran the Belvoir Theatre until recently, and Stuart Davis who runs Sydney’s SingUp choirs.
Donnelly says the message of the life of the Sydneysider they called “Miss Show Business” until her death in 1968 should resonate with 2024 audiences.
‘Nellie should be a Sydney legend – there should be a theatre named after her.’
Stuart Davis
“Nellie suffered terrible discrimination during her life, but she also received many accolades. Audiences embraced her and this was at a time when it was unusual for a person of colour in Australia to become famous, particularly a woman. She loved performing – she lived for it – and she wasn’t going to let bigots stop her.
“Given so many American musicals dominate our stages in Sydney it’s refreshing to be able to stage a show that’s about a great unforgotten Australian. It’s the right time to tell Nellie’s story,” she said.
Davis agreed: “Nellie should be a Sydney legend – there should be a theatre named after her. But, sadly, virtually no one has heard of her. This show will change all that.”
Send for Nellie is at the Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf Theatre from January 10-14 as part of the 2024 Sydney Festival.
