Tony Monopoly (3 December 1944 – 21 March 1995) was an Australian-born

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

singer and actor who enjoyed success in the United Kingdom. Born Antonio Rosario Monopoli in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, he was a regular on the national radio show, ''Kangaroos on Parade'' at the age of nine as a boy soprano. At the age of sixteen he became a Carmelite friar and remained in the order for five years. During the 1960s he regularly performed with Edwin Duff and Norm Erskine, as a trio of singers, on ''

In Melbourne Tonight ''In Melbourne Tonight'', also known as ''IMT'', was a highly popular nightly Logie award-winning Australian variety television show produced at GTV-9 Melbourne from 6 May 1957 to 1970. Overview Graham Kennedy was the show's main host and ...

'' and '' Tonight with Don Lane''. In 1975 he was appearing at Caesar's Palace in

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable a ...

when he auditioned for '' Opportunity Knocks'', a British television

talent show A talent show is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are performances rather ...

, for a run of six appearances. In June 1976, his self-titled album peaked at No. 25 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. In a national pre-selection to choose the song that would go to the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 9 March 1977 at the

New London Theatre The Gillian Lynne Theatre (formerly New London Theatre) is a West End theatre located on the corner of Drury Lane and Parker Street in Covent Garden, in the London Borough of Camden. The Winter Garden Theatre formerly occupied the site until 1965 ...

, Monopoly earned 66 points and placed ninth with the tune "Leave a Little Love." By the early 1980s Monopoly performed aboard cruise liners, "I lived on one yacht for a year," he said. "I went to 56 countries. I had champagne for breakfast. But I hated it". When fulfilling his increasingly rare engagements on dry land, he divided his time between Australia and the UK. Monopoly was head-hunted for a musical while appearing in ''Cinderella'' at Hanley, near Stoke-on-Trent. He starred – in drag – in ''

Moby Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whi ...

'', the inaugural production at the newly refurbished

Old Fire Station Theatre __NOTOC__ Arts at the Old Fire Station ('The OFS') is an arts centre in Oxford comprising a Theatre, Gallery and Shop. There are also studios available to hire for classes, rehearsals and meetings. The organisation focuses on three key things: ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. The show's success prompted

Cameron Mackintosh Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh (born 17 October 1946) is a British theatrical producer and theatre owner notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "th ...

to mount a 1992 West End production, which opened to scathing reviews and promptly closed, after which Monopoly portrayed

Old Deuteronomy Old Deuteronomy is a character in T. S. Eliot's 1939 '' Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' and its 1981 musical adaptation, ''Cats''. He is a wise and beloved elderly cat, further serving as the Jellicle patriarch in the musical. The role of O ...

in a UK tour of '' Cats''. Monopoly died of cancer in Brighton, England on 21 March 1995. In 2000, a character named Tony Cluedo - an obvious reference to Tony Monopoly - played By Ted Robbins, appeared in Series 2 of BBC TV comedy ''The League of Gentlemen'' as the lead singer of Crème Brulee.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Monopoly, Tony 1944 births 1995 deaths Australian male stage actors Male actors from Adelaide Musicians from Adelaide 20th-century Australian male actors 20th-century Australian male singers