The Tivoli

The Tivoli Club of WA holds a unique place in the entertainment scene of Australia-being the only non-professional theatre, which has performances on a regular basis. Fortnightly shows are held on Friday nights with some Sunday Matinee’s throughout the year. The Christmas shows runs weekly on Friday nights with some Sunday Matinee’s and some Saturday nights also.

Founded originally in 1971 by Jack “Skinny" Martin to do a restricted number of shows, it was found that the real “old time vaudeville” entertainment proved popular with audiences.

The Club was mobile, giving performances in various suburban halls, mainly for aged and disabled people. As the Club developed, more and more young people came to appreciate the shows.

Soon after it was felt that the company could be greatly improved by the addition of a ballet.

Various schools of dancing were approached and the one that most fulfilled all the requirements was the Trembath School.

Dorothy Trembath had established herself as the leading teacher of acrobatics in Australia when her pupils had a succession of wins in National TV programmes, particularly in “Showcase”

Jack invited Dorothy and her husband, Bill to come along and give him some constructive advice for his show. One thing led to another and Bill Trembath became musical Director and Dorothy, Producer/Choreographer.

In 1985 Dorothy persuaded her youngest daughter Marilyn to become the Choreographer.  Marilyn Trembath had performed with many famous artists including Sonny and Cher, Dean Martin, Wayne Newton and Lisa Minelli.

Singer/ Comedian Dick Morris, who had been involved with the Tivoli for many years became Producer/ Director after Dorothy’s death in 1990.

Candy Rostron co-Produced a show with Dick Morris in 1992 and the following year became Producer. Candy continued producing the shows until 2005, with her daughters Alison and Kelly as Choreographers.

Candy then decided to try a few more modern themes as well as keeping with a lot of the old time vaudeville. The reason being was that we were getting some younger people coming to the Tivoli. This has also proved popular with our older patrons.

In 2000 Tivoli decided to try something different by providing supper with their shows and it was then that the Cabaret Style Tivoli came to fruition. This proved to be a great move with Tivoli and our increase in audiences since then has proved it.

Many artists who have had some of their earlier experiences with Tivoli have gone onto success in professional theatre. Some of them have become well known.  Names that come to mind are Patricia Stevenson, Peter McIlroy, Colin Hurley, Tammy McIntosh and Jackie Love.

Some of Tivoli’s dancers and singers have also gone into professional theatre with Max Kay, and in shows in the Eastern States.

As the Tivoli Club grew both in size and importance it was decided to find a permanent home where regular productions could be staged.  After investigating a number of halls in the metropolitan area the Club applied for and obtained the Applecross District Hall at Canning Bridge.

Much work and money went into the alteration and rigging of the stage and the first performance was staged in 1973. It has been our permanent home ever since.  Shows have been staged on a regular basis with remarkable success and a large sum of money has been raised for various non- profit organization.

The Tivoli Club is one of the few organizations of this type, which is entirely self supporting and does not receive any subsidy from the Arts council. All the cast and crew are volunteers who give their time and effort willingly.

In the 1980’s a School for juniors was started at the Tivoli.  It was originally called “The Melville school of Stagecraft” but later became know affectionately as “The Tivolettes”.