Rietta Austin

Rotorua raised Rietta routinely making a song and dance on stages internationally

Rietta Austin was once told she was the most famous un-famous person.

That’s exactly the sort of statement that sets In Profile’s radar on high frequency alert. It beeps even louder when we uncover that the all-singing all-dancing Rietta’s a product of Rotorua’s impressive roll call of top line performers who learnt the basics of their craft on home soil.  

She may not be as well known here as elsewhere but Rotorua is the place she calls home and unquestionably where her heart is. 

Her name’s been up in lights heralding her appearance in some of theatre land’s best-known productions.

It featured too when the credits rolled on the late Freddie Mercury’s bio pic Who Wants to Live Forever?  She starred as Mercury’s last girl friend before he outed himself as gay. This led to her performing for his band Queen. 

Nationally she’s toured in Jesus Christ Superstar and Cats. She’s appeared in Jack of All Trades, Hercules and Xena Warrior Princess. To give herself more small screen cred she auditioned for a Shortland Street role playing a nurse suffering from MS.     

“It was a deeply moving part, I really wanted it but my agent broke the news they’d cast me as an insane girl who believed she’d been abducted by aliens.”

Undeterred, she embraced it – after all, a girl’s gotta eat.

There’s barely a big name New Zealand group or performer she hasn’t shared the stage with. She’s choreographed for When The Cats Away and sung with pros of the John Rowels, Jackie Clarke, Tina Cross, Suzanne Lynch era.

Ask her to classify herself and it’s as “someone not afraid to try.”  It’s an asset that’s served her well nationally and internationally. She’s regularly performed in Australia, China, the US, UK and Europe.

Crossing the globe

Her big break in the UK came performing in the all women West End hit show Respect La Diva. Reviewers lauded her “strong, charismatic vocals.”

She’s sung with Dame Shirley Bassey at the Glastonbury Festival, ahead of Bon Jovi when London’s O2 entertainment arena opened and for then UK Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street. She’s appeared with Joe Cocker in Russia, singer-songwriter Sam Smith in London and recorded with Elizabeth McGovern, (Downton Abbey’s Countess of Grantham) on her debut album.

But the biggie for Rietta has been BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Launched in 2004 as Dancing With the Stars, it’s a long time telly smash hit.

With its name now shortened to Strictly, it’s spawned a series of equally successful spin-offs, incorporating national tours and international cruises featuring celebrity dancers, judges and, frequently, Rietta Austin.

A cruise by-product has been her one woman show. “There’s song and dance with a little bit of comedy thrown in. You can’t be too serious on cruises but unfortunately international audiences don’t particularly get Kiwi humour.” 

Rietta’s become a regular Strictly singer, partnering with its longest serving judge, Clive Revel Horwood.    

 Each refers to the other as their best friend. As we speak the duo are preparing for the UK release of their Christmas single It’s Christmas, Merry Christmas written by Rietta. It’ll be followed by a Mother’s Day album, Craig  & Rietta – Duets, due to hit the market in March when the UK celebrates its mums.

The single’s hype is well underway. She returns to London on November 8 to prepare for its launch.

She’s scheduled to return home for the March 5 Selwyn Sounds concert near Christchurch, alongside Down Under showbiz royalty; Jimmy Barnes, Jon Stevens, Stellar, Greg Johnson and Ardijah.“All my favourite people.”

Rietta’s collection of favourite people is XXXL-sized.

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Her passage home courtesy Covid

Performing on cruise ships on this side of the globe presented her with a golden opportunity to spend Christmas 2019 in Rotorua with her mother, Marlene Austin, and whangai dad Vernon Douglas, her uncle.

“I arrived with two suitcases, one packed with my sequins, the other trackies and gumboots.”

She was alternating sequin weeks with gumboot ones when Covid scuppered cruises. Since then the sequins have been on hold while the trackies and gumboots have had a major workout. 

Rietta’s spent much of her enforced Rotorua return tending to her mother’s Tikitere menagerie. “A horse, 17 ducks, countless pukeko, dogs and two cats. I’m an animal nut.” 

Singing’s in her genes 

 Her mother is one of those to whom she gives thanks for her singing voice and the five octaves it spans across the soul, rock, jazz and opera genres.  

Marlene (then Edwards) was already a singer of note when her daughter was born. Rietta’s Te Arawa grandmother Anne (Rangiwaihoroa)  Edwards, her great aunt, Margaret (Mareti) Burton and aunt Judith Anne Edwards all sang.

“Aunty Judith was an opera singer who assisted  Dame Sister Mary Leo tutor students, a young Kiri Te Kanawa was one. In 1955 Aunty Judith won the John Court Aria [later rebranded the Mobil Song Quest].”

The now Dame Kiri won that a decade later. 

Rietta was six when her solo mother went to Los Angles to make a jazz recording. She stayed until her daughter was 13.

Cue Rotorua becoming Rietta’s home and the discovery of her Te Arawa whakapapa. 

She regularly visited her mum in LA. “It was awfully exciting going to Disneyland and seeing all these amazing places and things. My mother is my absolute favourite singer of all time, she plays the piano and cello too, not that she’s an over achiever at all!” 

Home town foundation for future success 

Rietta’s vocal debut was as leader of for the Glenholme Primary kapa haka group led by Sheree James and singing in the Rotorua Intermediate and Girls’ High choirs.

Well before then she’d started dancing classes with Sandra du Plat, the Rotorua ballet mistress who lived to 105. 

When Rietta reached pointe stage she traded ballet for American Jazz, taking classes with Mary Evers. “She was my absolute mentor.” 

While at Girls’ High the late Robert Young selected her to play Roxy Hart in the Rotorua Musical Theatre’s Chicago.

The experience was nerve wracking. “I’d always suffered with nerves, I’d be downing Rescue Remedy by the bottle when I had to sing at school assemblies.”

Girls’ High wasn’t thrilled she was spending so much time immersed in the show.

“My mother marched in and told them I was learning more on stage for my chosen profession than I was at school, reluctantly they let me continue.” It proved to be a wise decision, she’s performed virtually non-stop since. 

In her early teens she sang at Tudor Towers, filling in when resident band Cairo were touring.

“I was under age, I know that’s naughty but I’m sure they wouldn’t have let me into the bar.”

Moving on 

At 18 she headed to Auckland opening her own Takapuna-based dance school, The Dance Connexion with the help of her Rotorua grandfather, Richard John Edwards. It mushroomed to 350 students and 8 teachers. The Los Angels Dance Academy enticed her away to become a teaching assistant, but the professional need to sit her final dance exam returned her to Auckland.

“I’m actually really really qualified in dance which is odd because at this point I’d done a lot more singing.”

That said, she made the decision to become a ‘triple threat’

Helpfully swapping to layman’s terms she explains that’s adding acting to her repertoire.  

Lessons were with opera and stage pro Raymond Hawthorne, “a phenomenal man.”.

She hadn’t sung for quite some time when she fell into hosting karaoke shows. “I was still teaching dance, juggling that with radio and tv jingles and working as a receptionist at the Walt Disney Company. I felt I had to do everything to make a living.”

It all changed when her friend put her name down to audition for Jesus Christ Superstar. “I learnt the audition song in the car on the way there.”

She was signed on to understudy Margaret Urlich in the key role of Mary Magdalene. ‘Margaret and I became friends, she let me go on as Mary once. I just love that woman.” 

She was also dance captain, a Herod girl and Soul Sister. The show toured on both sides of the Tasman. Her next home country tour was Cats. 

By the time the final curtain rang down Rietta had made the decision to, in her words, “get out of Dodge.”

She headed for Beijing joining Kiwi contemporaries already performing at the Hard Rock Cafe.

When her grandmother became ill she returned to Rotorua. “She passed in 1996, I still miss her every day.”

Preparing for the big time 

Shuttling between Rotorua and Auckland she became involved in corporate events with Grant Ryan “my music mentor” before performing with high profile entertainer  Mika. 

“One of my dreams had come true, I was dancing and singing alongside my dance idol Tai Royal. Until then I had no idea he came from Rotorua too. We are still very close friends.”

When Mika took his show to the 2000 Edinburgh Festival Rietta was among the chosen few. Scottish actor and scriptwriter Daniel McLeod suggested she give London a go. She was apprehensive but agreed.

“It was terrifying, I didn’t know anyone, I was still grieving for my grandmother.” 

Personally and professionally life was tough. She was down to her last five pounds  when she entered an East End  karaoke contest. She won her heat pocketing five pounds “grocery money”. Winning the grand final netted her more pocket money.

It was a glimmer of the breakthrough she was praying for, she began to mingle with showbiz regulars. 

She was signed to Halo Records UK, made an album.  “What we didn’t realise was the guy who had the label didn’t have the money for marketing. I think it sold to six people, mostly my Mum.”

Strictly Confidential 

The road ahead remained torturous, that was until she acquired the agent who funnelled her into Respect La Diva. “Another tick for my bucket list.”

That led to her entrée as a vocalist into Strictly Confidential, one of Strictly Come Dancing’s spin-offs.

“Clive [Revel Horwood] was directing, he said ‘you don’t happen to dance too, do you?’  I broke out an old breakdance routine springing on my neck into the splits, he said ‘yeah, that will do’. The show toured the UK before Rietta graduated to the main event – Strictly.

The duo’s pending Christmas song and subsequent album were Revel Horwood’s brainchild. Recording began in London, continuing in Melbourne “Before the world fell apart.”

When it did Rietta completed laying down her tracks at Mt Maunganui’s 11B  Recording Studio with engineer Evan Pope. “We have really great talent in this area.” 

Pope introduced her to locally-based international percussionist Michael Barker. They’ve been gigging with jazz pianist Ben Wilcock. The following they’ve generated has cemented that Rietta’s back in town and ‘doing the business’. 

She’s on a mission to secure up-and-coming Hamurana-based singer Liam Jolly a LA contract.

The Rotorua Music School’s embraced her as vocal tutor.

Meanwhile, there’s something major ticking away about which her lips are mostly sealed.

“All I can say is it’s about something to do with Rotorua and Te Arawa history.  I’ve written the film script with my rock and bestie Daniel McLeod and it’s logged with the Writers’ Guild of America. We’ve had our first table read via Zoom with people from all over the world.

I guess what you can say is ‘watch this space’ . . . ”